Evaluating bids

What you need

• An issue for quotation, built on the Issue for quotation tab.
• The vendors’ responses. You paste them in by hand: nothing is read from the bid files.
• Optional: the client specification as a table (Excel or CSV). PDF specifications are not read.

One, two or three bids

• One bid: evaluate it fully, say why only one came back, and choose proceed or re-tender.
• Two bids: compare them side by side. If one is rejected, treat it as a single bid.
• Three bids: grade each as preferred, acceptable, acceptable with clarifications or rejected, and pass at least two acceptable bids to commercial where possible.

The steps

• 1. Start the evaluation from an issue on the Bid evaluation tab. The invited vendors are filled in for you.
• 2. Log each bid. Set the status (received, no bid, withdrawn), the date, the bid revision, a late flag and a reason, and attach the bid files.
• 3. Fill in the compliance matrix. Each datasheet has a row and each received bid a column. Paste the model and response, and mark each cell complies, deviates, not quoted or clarification needed. You can paste a whole column at once.
• 4. Check against the specification. Import the spec table. Each requirement is tested against the matching label on the 0B datasheets, and mandatory limits missing from a pasted response are flagged.
• 5. Raise clarifications. Number the questions per vendor, paste the answers, and note the effect.
• 6. Work the audit comments. A standard list of nine checks is added for you, five of them blocking. Add your own comments and resolve or accept each one.
• 7. Write the recommendation and choose the decision.
• 8. Send it for approval. The existing sign-off roles are used, with no stamp. Once the last role signs, the evaluation is locked.
• 9. Apply the selected vendor (optional). Review the list, tick the datasheets, and the vendor name and model are copied to their tags and written to the change log.

Client specification table

• Download the template and add one row per requirement: spec number, clause, instrument type, field, the label printed on the datasheet, a test (=, contains, >=, <=, present), a limit and whether it is mandatory.
• Re-importing a newer version shows what is new, changed and removed.
• The check reads the first sheet of the datasheet Excel and takes the value to the right of the label. Always confirm the result by eye. A datasheet with no Excel file yet shows “No Excel yet”.

Reports and rules

• Download the report as Excel, or open the HTML report and print it to PDF.
• Open blocking audit comments, unanswered clarifications, an unset outcome or a missing recommendation stop the evaluation from being sent for approval.
• Prices, where entered, appear in the report as a commercial note only.