If you would rather not pick a practice yourself, the marketplace offers two ways to be matched. Both start under Rather be matched?, just below the search and filters.
- Post a brief describes the job once. Practices that work in your sector see it without your company's name, and answer with how they would do it.
- Shortlist three picks three practices from the list you are already looking at, and you message each one yourself.
You need to be an owner or editor of your company's workspace.
Post a brief
Press Post a brief. A panel opens with four steps, counted at the top as Step 1 of 4 and so on. Nothing leaves your workspace until the last button.
Step 1: What do you need done
Choose one: Audit and filing, A DPO on retainer, Review an assessment, Breach response cover, Answer the Commission or Something else. Each card shows how many practices claim that work. Press Continue.
Step 2: Describe it, and say when
- Under In your own words, describe the job. Keep it general; you are not named yet, and detail can wait until you are talking to one practice. The meter under the box says when there is enough for a practice to bid against.
- Under When you need it, choose This week, Within a month, Before the next filing or No fixed date. This sets how long the brief stays open.
- Under Your sector, name your sector. Separate several with a comma. This decides who sees the brief at all: a practice sees it because it claims a sector you named.
- Fill in Where you are and Which period this covers.
- Press Continue. With fewer than 25 words the button reads Continue anyway; you can go on, but a short brief gets guesses back.
Step 3: What they see, and who they are
This step lists exactly what a practice will see before you post. Your company name is withheld until you ask somebody for a price.
Under Practices matching your sectors you see how many practices your sectors reach. If none match, the brief would reach nobody and posting it is refused: go back and widen the sectors.
A brief goes to at most eight practices with an active public listing. A practice that has declared a conflict with you does not receive it. Who receives it is not paid placement.
Step 4: Check it, then post
Read the summary. Press Change beside any line to go back to it. When every field is filled in, press Post brief, unnamed. If something is still missing, the button says what: Describe it first, Name your sector first, Say where you are first or Say which period it covers.
The panel then says how many practices it was sent to. Press Watch the bids come in to open the brief, or Back to the marketplace.
Every step also shows What a bidder sees, so you can check the wording before anybody reads it.
Reading the bids
Your brief is listed on the marketplace under Your requests & conversations as Your brief is out. Press it to open the brief.
The brief page shows What every bidder can see and What none of them can. Under the bids heading, each bid shows They would do, They would not and What they need answered first. A bid has no price; the price comes later as a quotation.
For each bid you can:
- Press Answer them to reply to their questions. Answering does not name you.
- Press Ask for a price to open the request to that practice. This names your company to them, and from here the hire carries on as in "Hiring a DPCO or DPO, step by step".
- Press Not this one to pass on the bid.
With two or more live bids, press Side by side to compare them, and Back to the bids to return.
To stop new bids, press Take it down. Press Put it back up to reopen it.
Shortlist three
Press Shortlist three. A panel headed Three, and why shows the first three practices in the list you are looking at, under the filters you have already set. Practices only on the Commission's register are skipped, as they hold no Asiri account. If nothing matches your filters, widen one or post a brief instead.
Each card shows the practice's Licence, Delivered on time and Capacity, and Worth knowing where there is something to say. The panel also lists what the ordering used. It does not use money.
The shortlist posts nothing. To contact a practice, press Message and its name under its card. This opens the request to that practice:
- Under What do you need done, choose the job, and one of their services if it fits.
- Under What would help them quote?, add a few useful facts and choose topics to discuss.
- Under Check it, then send, read it through. Tick Ask for a quotation now if you want a price straight away; this shares your company's name with the practice.
- Press Send enquiry, or Send and ask for a quotation.
The conversation with that practice then opens. Do the same for each practice you want to hear from.
From the compare table
When you compare practices, Write one brief instead closes the table and opens an empty brief. The brief goes to the practices that claim your sectors, not only the ones you were comparing.
Common questions
"When do practices learn who we are?" When you press Ask for a price on a bid, or send a request with a quotation asked for. Not before.
"Can we set a budget or a closing date?" No. The closing date follows When you need it, and the price is for each practice to quote.
"A brief reached fewer practices than the count said." Conflicts and the limit of eight can reduce the number reached. The brief page shows how many can see it.