anscers RFI Service Updates

About six weeks ago, CMA launched a beta test version of an enhanced RFI service on anscers.com that allows registered anscers users to send RFIs to companies listed as references on credit applications. I am pleased to report that the many CMA members have tried this new service with positive results, and I would like to thank everyone who gave us your honest feedback so that we could continue to improve this new service. Based on feedback from CMA members, a number of changes have been made to the RFI service on anscers, which are detailed below. This service will continue to be offered for free during the month of June, so I encourage everyone who still clears references to give it a try and give us your feedback. Thank you again for your support.

1. ACTIVE RFI (Main Page):

A.    Added Group Filter (upper right) – displays only for members of multiple groups.

B.     Added “View Report” icon for accessing the RFI Report. This icon only displays when you have submitted or responded to an RFI.

C.     Removed “view report” link from “Subject Company” column and replaced with “view confirmation” (see detail on Page 5) that links to a PDF document of the RFI Confirmation Page (see detail on Page 5); link is only available to the company that submitted the RFI and to Administrators.

D.    In the “Requested by” column, the Business Type and Group ID can be clicked to display full text (in the example above: EMPL = Employee; AA = Test Group; EE = Employee Group).

2. RFI REFERENCES PAGE:

A.    Subject Company Name now appears in the header (example above: “Add Your Reference #1 for Test Company 0045ht”); as more references are added, the header text reflects the reference # (Reference #2, Reference #3, and so on).

B.     Length of Search Results box has been extended to display more results.

C.     A field has been added for the Subject’s “Account Number” (not required).

D.    The “Additional References” option has been moved to the bottom of the form (additional references are those that already exist in the anscers database).

3. RFI CONFIRMATION PAGE (NEW)

After user clicks “Submit RFI,” a new RFI Confirmation page will display and includes the following information:

•         Instructions about viewing the live and archived RFI Report.

•         RFI expiration date.

•         RFI Subject Company.

•         List of References user added that received the RFI by fax.

•         Number of additional anscers References that received the RFI by fax.

•         Credit Groups that received the RFI.

The RFI Reference Code, which is included in parenthesis next to the Subject Company, contains the Company ID (seven digit number after the hyphen) of the reference company. This number can be used as a reference to identify trade responses from reference companies that appear on the RFI Report.

The RFI Confirmation is available as a PDF document to RFI Submitters by clicking the “view confirmation” link next to the Subject Company Name on the ACTIVE RFI Page. (see first screen above). Once the RFI has expired, the RFI Confirmation will be available on the User Billing Page in the My Profile section of anscers.

4. RFI EMAIL DAILY SUMMARY (formerly known as “Email Digest Mode”)

Credit Group members can choose to receive a single email each day that will include all RFIs submitted within the last 24 hour period. The Daily Summary email is scheduled for release at 4:00 pm PST each day, and will include a list of all RFIs submitted to Credit Groups of which the user is a member, since 4:00 pm the prior day. The page where users update their preferences has been renamed to “Communication Preferences” and is still located on the “My Account” page. As a point of clarification, the Reference RFI preference controls how a user receives RFIs when named as a reference; at the present time, RFIs are delivered to references by fax only; if a user chooses the Web option for this preference, the user will not receive a fax RFI reference request.

Sample RFI Daily Summary email: