When you already know the provider you want, you don't need an open competition. A Direct Request sends a fully-scoped job to exactly one provider and brings their quote back on the record. Here's how to write one, choose your provider, and decide.
Send a governed, non-competitive request to one provider and act on their quote.
An approved vessel organization. The provider can be one from your Preferred library, or any company you invite by email.
About 5 minutes.
Reflects Direct Request, live August 2026.
From your dashboard, open Direct Requests and create one. It's authored by your vessel team under role-based authority, and the request is stamped with who created it and when.
Creating a Direct Request from the vessel dashboard.
Give it a title and scope: work type, category, the equipment it concerns, location, and, for goods, the parts and shipping. The AI Scope Assistant can draft the scope from a plain description. Set what the quote must include, such as insurance, license, or warranty.
The Direct Request scope form, with the AI Scope Assistant.
Pick a service provider from your Preferred library, or invite an outside company by email. There is no competition: this request goes to that one provider only.
Choosing the recipient: a preferred provider or a guest email.
Send, and MBN delivers it: a provider already on MBN sees it in their dashboard; an outside company gets a secure link and can quote with no account. Set the urgency (routine, priority, or urgent) so they know how fast you need it.
Sending the Direct Request, with the urgency selector.
Their quote comes back structured and priced, and they can revise it if the scope evolves. You and the provider share one governed thread for questions and clarifications, all on the record.
The provider's quote and the governed thread.
Accept to create the Maritime Service Agreement from the agreed quote (the same governed contract a tender award produces), or decline (you can add a reason). The provider is notified either way. Every step, the send, the quote, and your decision, is user-, role-, and time-stamped.
Accepting or declining the quote on a Direct Request.
Once you accept, set the date with the provider right on the thread: propose a date and time, they confirm or counter-propose, and the confirmed date exports to your calendar (Google, Outlook, or .ics). The whole handshake stays on the record.
Proposing and confirming the service date on an accepted Direct Request.
Accepting creates the Maritime Service Agreement, the same governed contract a tender award produces, for both sides to sign. Post-award execution (workrooms) arrives for Direct Requests in MBN's next phase, around January 2027.
Log in and open Direct Requests from your dashboard. New to MBN? Request free access first.