Before you start
Vendor Bid Comparator
Compare supplier bids like for like, so the cheapest bid on paper is also the cheapest bid in fact.
Open the bid tabulation: line items down the side, a column of prices per bidder. Add the evaluation scores to rank on quality as well. They are read inside your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Bid tabulation
Drop a spreadsheet here
One row per line item and a column of prices per bidder, with a frequency column (one-time, monthly, annual) if prices recur. Write what a bidder left out as blank or not quoted, and what it includes as included.
Evaluation scores (optional)
Drop a spreadsheet here
One row per criterion with its weight and a score column per bidder, named as in the bids. A row named Price with only a weight scores price.
Bids do not compare as they arrive
One bidder prices the licenses by the month and another by the year. One leaves out training; another marks support as included. One prices the integration at a tenth of what everyone else asked, which usually means it priced something smaller than was asked for. Added up as written, the cheapest bid can be the most expensive one.
What is done
Every price is counted over the same term. A line a bidder left out is priced from what the others bid for it, so every total covers the same scope, and the page says how much each gap added. Prices far below or above the rest are marked as questions to put to the bidder before award.
How narrowly it was won
With evaluation scores, price is scored against the lowest like-for-like total and combined with the weighted quality scores. The page then says how far the price weight could move before a different bidder wins, and how much the runner-up would have to cut its price to overtake.
What this does not do
It does not award the contract or score the bids’ quality; the evaluation is yours, and the decision too. It compares prices as written, so terms that change the price (caps, indexation, volume tiers) need reading in the bids themselves. Procurement rules on how gaps must be priced vary; choose the average or the highest other bid to match yours.