Scoring, comparing and awarding a sourcing event

Supply Chain → Strategic Sourcing → Sourcing Events. Every response is scored and ranked as it is recorded; evaluators mark what a person has to judge; Award lists the responders in rank order.

An RFQ, RFP or tender is only as fair as the way its answers are compared. On Supply Chain → Strategic Sourcing → Sourcing Events, every response is scored and ranked the moment it is recorded, against criteria the event declares — so nobody has to work the ranking out in a spreadsheet, and choosing someone other than the best offer has to be explained.

The criteria an event starts with

Each criterion’s score is weighted and the weighted scores are added up to a total out of 100. The highest total is ranked 1.

• A criterion nobody answered — no supplier quoted a lead time, say — is left out, and the remaining weights are scaled up so the total is still out of 100.
• A criterion marked must-pass that a supplier fails ranks that supplier below everyone who passed, whatever their score.
• Two equal totals are separated by price: the lower price ranks higher.

Changing the criteria

Open the event and use its Evaluation criteria block to change a weight or add a criterion. Price, lead time and payment terms are scored from what each supplier quoted. Anything a person has to judge — technical compliance, quality, after-sales support — is added as a judgement criterion with a maximum mark. Declare the criteria before the responses come in, so that the weights were fixed before anyone saw the prices.

Marking the judgement criteria

1. On the event’s row, choose Evaluate on the criteria.
2. The form first says, in words, what the responses are scored on: each criterion and its weight. Below it is a marks grid with one line for each supplier and each judgement criterion, showing the criterion’s Weight and its Scale — for example 0 to 10, where 0 means it does not meet the criterion and the top of the scale means it fully meets it.
3. Type a number in Mark, within the scale on its line. Decimals are fine; words are not — anything you want to say goes in Comment. A mark left empty stays as it was.
4. Worth now shows what that mark adds to the supplier’s score out of 100, so you can see the effect of a mark before you save.
5. Save. The totals and the ranking are worked out again at once.

Comparing the offers

Compare offers on the event’s row shows the responses side by side: for each supplier, the score on every criterion, the total and the rank. Above the table it says in words how the score was made — which criteria counted, at what weight, and which were left out because nobody answered them.

The event’s Invited suppliers grid shows Score, Rank, Lead time and Payment terms for each supplier who responded. If a lead time or payment terms were recorded wrongly, correct them on the response; the event is re-ranked immediately.

Awarding

1. On the event’s row, choose Award.
2. The suppliers who responded are listed in rank order, each with their rank, their score out of 100 and what it is made of: the offer, the days to deliver and the days of credit. Compare offers shows each one’s full breakdown.
3. Choose the supplier. Choosing the one ranked first needs no explanation; choosing anyone else asks for a reason, which is kept on the event.
4. Tick Raise a contract from the quoted prices if the award should become a contract, and save.

Once the event is awarded, a requisition that went to sourcing can be ordered from the result — see Sending a requisition for approval → Ordering what sourcing awarded.