About
Role-aware buyer, bidding, and seller inventory for last-mile pole transformer sourcing.
What We Provide
Bid4Grid connects buyers, sellers, and evaluators through RfQ creation, bidding, scoring, and award. Sellers can
also list available equipment in the integrated Inventory catalog.
For the full sourcing process, see the Workflow page.
Evaluation and Award Decisions
Evaluators score bids against configured criteria and mandatory compliance gates. The rule-based document helper
compares technical datasheets with RfQ requirements; it flags differences but never sets the score.
Recommendations can split a lot across multiple sellers. Evaluators assign quantities and manufactured years,
then submit a rationale. The buyer receives an email, reviews the recommendation, and approves, rejects, or
overrides it. Approved sellers receive award details.
Document comparison and redaction use Bid4Grid’s rule-based OCR by default. Companies may optionally enable
AI-Assisted evaluation with their own provider key. AI supports document processing but does not replace scoring
or the buyer’s decision. See the Terms and Conditions and
Privacy Policy.
After approval, selected bids move to Awarded. The lot closes when its requested quantity is fulfilled, while
partial awards leave the remaining quantity open. The catalog labels these outcomes as Partially
Awarded when some quantities remain open and Fully Awarded when all quantities are
resolved.
Platform Modules
Each company uses one Buyer or Seller seat package. Buyer seats renew annually; Seller packages have a one-time
initiation fee and no annual renewal. Registration requests 20 seats for manual activation; online payments are unavailable and registration does not charge you. Assigned seats enable RfQs, bids, evaluation
and awards according to role once the package is active.
Buyers have annual membership; after expiry, viewing and administration remain available until manually renewed.
Sellers pay a nominal one-time initiation fee with no annual fee. Manual Seller activation grants 20-seat capacity,
automatically assigned to eligible verified members; company admins request a seat separately.
Company administration and authorized viewing remain seat-free. For access, contact
contact@bid4grid.com for manual activation or seat changes.
- Buyer — Creates RfQs, manages the bid lifecycle, and finalises awards. Each RfQ holds
one or more Lots: a Lot is a group of identical units of one Category (for example,
4 × 37.5 kVA transformers), with its own bids, accepted conditions, and minimum warranty. RfQ and Lot
catalogs sort by status priority — Accepting Bids first (soonest close date on top), then
Evaluating, Partially Awarded, Fully Awarded, Closed, Draft, and Cancelled. The Lots, Bids, and Inventory
pages share one filter bar: Search, Status, Category, a category-specific
Voltage filter (shown once a category is chosen), and a Scope filter that
narrows the list to the user’s own company records.
- Bidding — Sellers submit bids against Accepting Bids RfQs from the RfQ
detail page or the Lots catalog. The bid modal shows compliance documents on file and the
lot’s delivery address for quick reference. Bid information stays confidential throughout.
- Evaluation — Evaluators score bids across three weighted categories (Technical,
Commercial, and Risk) using platform controls designed to limit access to seller identity information during
scoring. Compliance document labels and expiry dates appear in the scoring panel for the COI pass/fail gate, but
files are not available to evaluators through the scoring view. Datasheet and warranty PDFs an evaluator can
open have any seller/manufacturer company name, and any email or website containing it, automatically blacked
out before the file is served. Site search adds two more layers of protection:
free-text fields are excluded, and queries matching seller company names are suppressed from RfQ and lot
results. The resulting Award Recommendation goes to the Buyer, who inspects compliance documents and scores
side-by-side via a built-in bid review panel before approving or rejecting.
- Inventory — Sellers list available units with specs, condition, quantity, lead time,
warranty, pricing, and optional photos. Price is optional at posting (“Price on request”). A buyer
can
still attach an unpriced listing to an RfQ by entering their own offer price, which the seller can accept or
decline; direct purchase requires a listed price. Buyers can reserve any quantity
from a multi-unit listing; it stays Available until fully claimed, showing remaining stock as
(X avail.). Cards show the seller’s company name and sort Available → Reserved
→ Sold, newest first. Any member of the seller’s company can edit or cancel a listing.
Buyers find matching units from an RfQ with Inventory Match, reserving only the quantity the
lot needs. The listing’s Technical Specs sheet is carried into evaluation, so adding one is required
for a meaningful comparison. Awards are counted by quantity: a listing is Sold only when all its units are
awarded, and an RfQ is Fully Awarded only when every lot’s quantity is covered.
- Company & Team — Users join a registered company via a company code or
an email invitation from its company admin. In Company settings > Team members,
only the company admin can send, resend, or cancel invitations. Invitation links expire after seven days;
email verification and seat availability rules still apply. Profiles
include website, description, organisation type, address, phone, email, and an LEI field that auto-fills the
Legal Company Name from the GLEIF registry on verification (read-only, Verified badge once confirmed).
Dashboards include a searchable Team Members panel. Buyer profiles can record
organization type and regions served; seller profiles can record
capabilities, service regions, typical lead time, year established, and certifications (ISO 9001, UL, NEMA, IEEE
C57, etc.).
- Site Search — A 🔍 panel in the lower-left corner lets authenticated users
search RfQs, Lots, and Inventory by keyword, scoped to what each role can see. Evaluator search is designed to
limit identity exposure: only structural fields (title, reference number, city, state) are searched, and queries
matching registered seller company names return no RfQ or lot results. Inventory is blocked for evaluators
regardless of query.
- Preferred & Blocked Sellers — Buyers can flag a seller ★ Preferred (a
private bookmark) or Blocked; blocking hides that buyer’s RfQs, lots, and project documents from the
seller.
- Compliance & Verification — Company profiles support LEI verification against the
GLEIF registry. Sellers upload compliance documents including PLI; partner cards show each
seller’s LEI and PLI status. Buyers open compliance documents via restricted links from the bid review
panel; platform admins have access for audit and oversight.
- Equipment Sale — Buyers can also list their own surplus, used, or
failed units as entire lots, with descriptions and multiple photos. Sellers submit a purchase offer for
the entire lot at one total price. Purchase assessments cover proceeds, pickup, relevant experience, and payment terms.
Seller equipment datasheet matching and losses/efficiency scoring do not apply to buyer-owned equipment.
COI compliance remains a separate check. Earlier procurement assessments are preserved for reference but
excluded from the new offer totals and gates. Each lot is awarded to one purchaser in full, without partial awards.
Sellers can open the purchase-offer form directly from the Lots page,
with buyer instructions and a link to the parent RfQ available for context.
- Draft preparation — Both Procurement and Equipment Sale RfQs remain hidden from
sellers while in Draft. Buyers add their lots before releasing the RfQ. Procurement supply bids require a
valid manufacturing year for every offered unit at submission; missing years can be saved in a draft.
Using the Platform
- Access is by team invitation, company code, or new-company registration. Users register
as a Buyer, Seller, or Evaluator and join an existing company via an invitation or its code, or create one
at sign-up. Team invitations fix the company and role and must be accepted using the invited email. Each
role sees only what’s relevant to their part of the process.
- Sellers are subject to approval. Open RfQs are published to all approved sellers; approval
guarantees neither award nor listing visibility.
- Bid information is confidential. Pricing, lead times, and submission details are not shared
between sellers through the Platform.
- Submitting a bid does not form a binding contract on the platform. Bid4Grid facilitates
sourcing only; any resulting supply agreements are negotiated and executed directly between the parties
independently of the platform.
- Every sourcing event is recorded. Once an RfQ is awarded or closed, its sourcing record is
preserved and restricted from normal user edits.
- You’re responsible for your account. Keep credentials secure and notify us immediately
at contact@bid4grid.com of any suspected unauthorised access.
For more information about the end-to-end buyer process, see the Workflow page.
Security Operations
Bid4Grid includes login hardening controls such as request throttling and repeated-failure lockout where enabled.
Security-related checks may include API availability, controlled invalid-login probes, and review of relevant
security logs. Dependency audits are reviewed manually.
Contact Us
If you have questions about the platform, your account, or this page, please get in touch: