Receive and Evaluate Responses
When your tender has closed you will have received a selection of bids from multiple suppliers that you need to evaluate. This section will take you through the key steps and considerations to make sure your responses are received and evaluated effectively and fairly.
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All responses need to be opened in line with your organisation's governance.
Make sure you’re familiar with your organisation’s governance for receiving responses. Should be opened in line with your organisation’s governance arrangements. If your organisation does not use Quick Quote, you should formally record the quotation responses received using the ‘Record of Quotations Received’ form.
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You may only receive one response.
If this happens please contact your local procurement team who will make sure your next steps align with your organisation’s governance.
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Score your responses using the Evaluation Template
You should use the evaluation process and guidance template to score the responses. This evaluation will determine which bid best meets your requirements.
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Any clarification of quotes submitted should be sent in writing
If you need to seek clarification on any or all quotation responses, this should be sent in writing to the supplier(s).
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Your Recommendations Report must cover a number of key areas.
As a minimum the report should include a summary of the process undertaken, decisions for disqualification, the recommended award and an approval request.
5 things to know
Getting started
What to think about first
- Receipt of Responses
Quotation responses should be received through the Sell2Wales Quick Quote system. Quick Quote is a secure way to receive responses and can act as an audit trail if required. This is considered best practice.
Where organisations do not use Quick Quote, quotation responses may be received in writing or by email. Remember to check your junk mail folder before and after the quotation deadline in case bids have been filtered by your email system.
- Opening responses
Quotation responses should be opened in line with your organisation’s governance arrangements. If your organisation does not use Quick Quote, you should formally record the quotation responses received using the Record of Quotations Received form.
If less than three quotation responses are returned, reasons should be sought from the suppliers who did not submit a bid. This feedback should be retained on file and can be used as lessons learned for future quotations.
- Evaluating responses
You should use the evaluation process and guidance template in ‘Downloads’ to score the responses. This evaluation will determine which bid best meets your requirements.
Your evaluation should score the evaluation criteria you published in the Invitation to Quote documents.
- Supplier Interviews and Presentations
In exceptional circumstances, you may consider interviewing/inviting presentations from suppliers to assist in the evaluation of quotation responses. However if you decide to score a supplier presentation as part of the evaluation you should have stated this in the Invitation to Quote documents.
For supplier interviews/presentations, you should provide the suppliers with details of the time, place and format of any interview or presentation, ideally as part of the Invitation to Quote (ITQ).
- Recommendations Report
Once the evaluation is done you should complete a recommendations report. This report is used to present your findings and proposal to your manager/senior management team (in line with your organisation’s governance arrangements) for approval to proceed.
When receiving and evaluating responses you should always remember the following points:
Single Response Received
If only one response is received, you should contact your local procurement team on how best to proceed.
Clarifications
If you need to seek clarification on any or all quotation responses, this should be sent in writing to the supplier(s). You should set a specific deadline for supplier(s) to respond with their answer(s) and treat all suppliers on an equal basis.
All suppliers should be treated equally
Suppliers should be provided with an equal opportunity for interview, presentation or site visits unless the initial evaluation undertaken shows that the supplier could not meet the Invitation to Quote core requirements.
Records of the interviews/presentations should be kept for audit purposes.
Abnormally Low Price Response
Any quote which shows an abnormally low price may be queried with the supplier to identify the reason(s) for this. If this is due to supplier error, you should consult with your local procurement team for further advice on how to proceed.
Alternative Terms and Conditions of Contract
If any of the quotation responses are received with alternative Terms and Conditions (T&C’s) of Contract to those you published in your quotation, you must inform the supplier in writing that your original T&C’s of Contract apply.
Recommendations Report
Once the evaluation has finished you should complete a recommendations report.
The recommendations report should contain as a minimum:
- A summary of the process undertaken
- Ensure any decisions for supplier disqualification are given
- Recommendation of award
- Request for approval
The report should contain reference to the following:
- Summary of the process to date
- Any decisions for supplier disqualification demonstrating that they have been fully documented and that the paperwork is available for inspection
- Recommendation of award & request for approval
- Selection Stage evaluation results (if not contained within previous report)
- Technical & commercial evaluation (including whole life costing) together with details of any clarifications conducted, benefits and savings available
- Details of any risks still present and mitigation plans
Net Zero
All your previous efforts to prepare your ITQ documents, to clearly and consistently describe how you plan to address CO2e in supply chains through your procurement, should mean that:
- You’ve received high quality responses from potential suppliers, who have understood the wellbeing goals and impact you’re aiming to achieve
- Potential suppliers have clearly stated how they can contribute to achieving this
- Your team will be well placed to evaluate ITQ responses to determine which bid best meets your requirements for addressing CO2e in supply chains.
This will help set up the resulting contract for success from the outset, with net zero and wellbeing impact more broadly at the heart of its delivery, and managing the relationship with your supplier.
