What to Expect During Your Proco Intelligent Matchmaking Journey

A practical guide for customers

Proco’s Intelligent Matchmaking process is designed to help you select suppliers with confidence — without unnecessary admin, fragmented communication, or drawn-out timelines.

This guide explains how the journey works from your side, what decisions you’ll be asked to make (and when), and how to keep the process moving smoothly from start to finish.

Getting started: your access to The Hive

Your journey begins with an invitation to The Hive, sent from
[email protected].

This email allows you to:

• set up your username and password
• access The Hive, where your full matchmaking journey takes place

As the email is sent from a do not reply address, please don’t respond directly to it. All support and queries should be raised via The Hive.

If you don’t see the invitation, check your spam or junk folder first — this is the most common cause of early delays.

Selecting suppliers (including those not yet on the platform)

During setup, you may wish to include suppliers who are not yet registered on Proco’s platform.

That’s absolutely fine.

You can add their details directly, and we will:

• approach them
• invite them to participate in your Intelligent Matchmaking process

A few important guardrails:

• suppliers have 7 days to respond
• if they don’t, the process continues without them
• once the initial supplier selection is confirmed, no additional suppliers can be added

This keeps the process fair, time-bound, and ensures all suppliers are evaluated on the same basis.

Reviewing and approving specifications (a key decision point)

Your specifications will be shared with you via The Hive.

This is one of the most important stages of the process.

Before approving, it’s essential that you:

• open and review the documents thoroughly
• confirm the scope reflects your actual requirements
• involve any internal stakeholders who need to sign off

Suppliers rely on these specifications to price and scope their responses correctly.
If changes are needed, they must be made before approval — not during the process.

Once approved, the specifications are locked to protect comparability and fairness.

If something doesn’t look right, pause and raise it with us before moving forward.

Handling supplier contact (and why it matters)

Suppliers are often enthusiastic about new opportunities and may attempt to contact you directly.

Please don’t engage with them.

Instead, simply direct them back to Proco.

Why this matters:

• it protects fairness across all suppliers
• it prevents mixed or incomplete information
• it keeps your evaluation clean and defensible

Proco will handle communication and ensure that any clarification is shared equally with all participating suppliers.

When suppliers say they’re “missing information”

Occasionally, a supplier may claim they haven’t received certain details or weren’t fully briefed internally ahead of a presentation.

It’s important to know:

• Proco releases information to all suppliers fairly and at the same time
• each supplier has access to everything they need via the platform

If a supplier says they’re missing information, redirect them to Proco. We’ll help them access what has already been provided or clarify where needed.

Key decision points to be aware of

To help you plan internally, there are a few moments where your input is critical:

• confirming your supplier shortlist
• approving specifications
• reviewing the final matchmaking outputs

Being aware of these upfront helps avoid last-minute delays caused by internal alignment or availability.

Receiving your final results

At the end of the process, your final outputs will be available for download on The Hive.

You’ll receive two documents:

1. the Matchmaking Report – summarising outcomes and comparisons
2. the Supporting Pricing Appendix – detailing commercial submissions

Both documents work together. Make sure you download and review both to get the full picture.

These outputs are designed to support confident, defensible decision-making.

What Proco does — and doesn’t do

To set expectations clearly:

Proco does:

• design and manage the matchmaking process
• ensure consistency, fairness, and comparability
• provide structured outputs to support decisions

Proco does not:

• choose suppliers on your behalf
• influence customer decisions
• renegotiate pricing after the process concludes

Our role is to run a disciplined process that gives you clarity — not to steer outcomes.

Getting help when you need it

The Hive includes a built-in chat function if you have questions or get stuck.

While the process is system-driven to improve efficiency:

• we do not use chatbots
• a real person will respond, typically within 24 hours

If something feels unclear, ask early — it’s always quicker than fixing issues later.

The bottom line

Proco’s Intelligent Matchmaking process works best when:

• decisions are made at the right time
• communication flows through one channel
• structure is respected

That structure exists to protect fairness, speed, and the quality of the outcome — not to create friction.

If in doubt, pause and ask.
We’ll guide you through it.