Issuing Mass Clarifications for a Solicitation

After the Program Office signs in to Symphony, they can issue Mass Clarifications for a solicitation by following these steps:

1. Select the Desired Solicitation

In the applicable solicitation and category on the Dashboard, select the View Details button (see Figure 1). 

 Figure 1. The View Details button is located within the Solicitation section of the Dashboard. 

2. Use the Mass Clarifications button

The Mass Clarifications button on the Submissions page allows authorized users to enter a new request for clarification or view the Mass Clarifications history for all offerors within a category (Pool/Domain). (See Figure 2).

Figure 2. The Mass Clarifications button is the farthest right button on the Submissions page. 

3. Create a New Mass Clarification 

Use the green button to create a New Mass Clarification for all offerors within the solicitation and category (see Figure 3). 

Figure 3.  Mass Clarifications are for all offerors within the solicitation and category.

Use Clarificatiions for individual offerors.

Mass Clarifications are ordered from newest to oldest and the default is set to a response is not required. Symphony prevents multiple MASS Clarifications that require a response to be issued.

4. Enter the Mass Clarification Details 

 Figure 4. Creating a Mass Clarification

1. Enter the clarification details in the text box (see Figure 4). A maximum of 2500 characters is allowed.
      
2. Use the date and time fields to enter a required future deadline for the offeror's response, if the response option is selected. 
   • A deadline is not necessary unless a response is required.
   • Pay attention to the Eastern date and time conversion.
       
3. Save and continue to go to the attachments step. 
   • Attachments are optional and Symphony allows as many documents as necessary to support the Mass Clarification request. 
   • Files must be an acceptable type and cannot exceed 20 MB. 
         
4. Review the Clarification.
   Go back to edit the Mass Clarification or Send it to the Offerors. 
   • A notification is immediately sent to offerors and Symphony prevents recalling or making changes after this action. 
   • A notification email goes to the organization’s SAM POCs, Open Market Proposal Manager, and Proposal Contacts immediately after the final green button is pressed.

5. Track Clarifications

The clarification status will be Waiting on the Offeror in the Clarifications link for the solicitation once sent. Clarification status can be: 

Select a row to go to the Clarifications screen for the organization listed. A Read-Only View of the clarification communications is available until the clarification expires or the offeror responds. (See Requesting a Clarification from Industry). Note: An acceptance decision must be started before sending individual clarifications.

Track clarifications per solicitation 

The Program Official Dashboard shows the total number of Clarification requests per solicitation (see Figure 1). When users send a clarification request to an Offeror, they can see the number of Clarifications updated. 

1. Use the Clarification update notification to view a sortable and searchable table. An offeror may display more than once if they have clarifications in more than one solicitation. 
2. Select a row to go to the Clarifications screen for the organization listed. 

Track clarifications per category (Pool/Domain) 

Users can monitor how the clarification phase of the solicitation is going and the Clarification notification updates for each offeror that has an evaluation in Clarifying status.

1. Program officials can use the View Details link within the solicitation card to see the Clarifications or Mass Clarifications sent within a category (see Figure 1). 
2. The Clarification table displays the Organization Name, UEI, Solicitation/Pool, Clarification Count, and Clarification Status (see Figure 3). 

• Each column is sortable. 
• Use the search box to filter the clarification results. 
• An offeror should only display once. 

6. Review Clarifications

The clarifications tab will list the history in the order that the communications occurred. Use the scroll bars to view the Clarification Status, Type, Deadline, Program Office request, and Offeror Response if required. If the offeror includes attachments, use the download icon to retrieve the files.

The next step may be Using the Evaluator Uploads Feature.