We are pleased to announce that MeRLIN version 22.0 is now live. The updates have been compiled into release notes below, providing an overview of the enhancements in our product, ensuring that users are up to date with the latest developments.
New Features
Supplier Management
Supplier Portal
The supplier portal dashboard now shows the responsible buyer’s name and email address directly below the supplier’s name, for both approved and unapproved suppliers. Previously, suppliers had no easy way to see who their point of contact was on the buyer side. With this change, suppliers can see the right person to reach out to as soon as they log in, without having to search elsewhere.
Supplier Management
When an approver rejects a supplier registration approval request, the person who originally submitted the request now receives an email notification right away. Previously, they would only find out if they checked the system manually. This change ensures the right person is informed promptly so they can take corrective action without delay.
Responsible Buyers can now make changes to supplier information without sending any email notifications to the supplier. This is useful in situations where the update is driven by an internal process, such as a change coming in from an ERP or CRM system, and the supplier does not need to be involved. The buyer can switch this notification off when making the change and turn it back on at any time.
When a supplier submits a request to edit or update their registration information, the Responsible Buyer now receives an email notification in addition to the bell notification already available in the system. This ensures buyers do not miss supplier requests, even if they are not logged in at the time.
Responsible Buyers and Vendor Masters can now send a password reset email directly to a supplier user from the Supplier Contacts screen. Previously, if a supplier forgot their password, they had to find and use the Forgot Password link themselves, which many were unaware of, leading to repeated calls and emails to the buyer. With this option now available on the buyer side, the buyer can trigger the reset link on behalf of the supplier with a single action. The supplier receives the link by email and resets the password themselves, keeping the process secure.
When a supplier registration request is rejected at any stage of the approval process, the supplier code entered by a previous approver is now retained. Before this fix, the code was cleared when a later approver rejected the request, meaning it had to be looked up and re-entered in the next round of approval. The code can still be edited if needed, but it will no longer be lost.
Supplier Data
The Approval Workflow History for supplier information changes now shows who submitted the change request and when it was submitted, alongside the existing record of who approved or rejected it. This gives approvers the full picture when reviewing a change, including whether it was the supplier or a buyer who initiated it.
Before submitting changes to supplier information, both buyers and suppliers can now see a change log that lists every modification made in the current session. This allows the person making the changes to review everything at once and confirm that all updates are correct and complete before sending them into the approval process. Previously, this view was only available to the buyer after the supplier had submitted.
Supplier Information
Responsible Buyers can now archive supplier documents that have come in through other business processes, such as sourcing events or contracts, not just documents from the supplier registration form. Previously, only registration form documents could be archived, which meant older documents from other sources were building up and cluttering the document list. Buyers can now keep the supplier document repository organized and relevant.
When a user saves changes in the supplier registration form, the system now checks automatically whether any existing documents have expired or are close to their expiry date. If any are found, the user sees a notification before the submission goes through, and those documents are automatically moved to the Archived Documents list. This means the active document list always stays accurate and up to date, without the user having to check manually.
Suppliers can now select more than one supplying location, including a Select All option, when completing the Supplying Location tab during registration. Previously, only one location could be selected at a time, which was time-consuming for suppliers serving many locations. The update also handles the cost center mapping that was in place at location level, so selecting multiple locations now works correctly without disrupting any existing configuration.
Sourcing Events Management
RFI Evaluations
RFI evaluations can now be transferred to a different evaluator when the originally assigned person is not the right one to carry out the assessment. The evaluator can choose a replacement from the available RFI Evaluator or Chief RFI Evaluator roles. Once transferred, the new evaluator receives an automatic notification and picks up from where the process stands. This ensures assessments are always completed by the most suitable person without any delay or manual follow-up.
RFQ
Buyers can now create a purchase order directly from the evaluation results of an RFQ, without having to go through the award package and contract steps separately. This simplifies the process for buyers who deal with straightforward procurement decisions and do not need a formal evaluation committee. The award package and contract are still created in the background by the system and auto-approved to keep the audit trail intact, but the buyer does not need to act on them manually. Both the direct purchase order route and the traditional award package route remain available, so each buyer can follow the process that suits them. Currently supported for catalog items.
A new summary screen has been introduced at the start of the RFQ evaluation process, before buyers enter the detailed comparison view. This screen shows all suppliers who received the RFQ, along with their quoted amount, their MeRLIN supplier score, their response score from any previous RFI, and any available risk or compliance information from connected third-party sources. Suppliers who declined to quote or have not yet responded are clearly marked. Buyers can use this overview to choose which suppliers to take forward for detailed comparison, rather than having to review all respondents at once. This makes the evaluation process faster and more focused, especially for RFQs sent to a large number of suppliers.
Kategorie Management
Category
The View Category Definition screen now shows the full list of suppliers registered under that category, including each supplier’s code and category area details. Previously, users could only look up which categories a supplier belonged to, but could not easily see all suppliers within a given category. Users can also download this list directly to Excel for reporting or offline review.
Procurement
Requisitions
The line items tab in Requisitions has been rebuilt with a simpler, grid-based entry interface. Users can now add catalog, non-catalog, and service items directly by clicking Add Row, with the delivery date and location automatically carried forward from the previous entry so common details do not have to be typed repeatedly. Items can also be found by searching on item number or description. The original catalog browse and search capability is still available for those who prefer it. Users can also now select multiple line items and delete them in one action. This simplified view can be switched on or off per customer, and the original interface remains available.
Contracts
A new Blanket Contract type has been introduced alongside the existing rate contract for ad-hoc Contracts. A blanket contract is set up at item level with a unit price, a minimum spend, and a maximum spend, rather than a fixed quantity. This allows buyers to agree commercial boundaries with a supplier for a set period and raise purchase orders against the contract as and when needed, without having to go through a new sourcing process each time. The contract also now shows how much of the agreed total has been consumed across all purchase orders raised against it.
Plattform
Intergration
When the status of a purchase order changes to Published, or when a supplier accepts or rejects it, the system now automatically sends this status update to connected external systems via a custom API call. In this release, the integration is in place for Epicor ERP, so Epicor users can see in real time whether a purchase order has been accepted or rejected by the supplier, without any manual update.
