Evaluation Criteria (graded)

The formulation of evaluation criteria has long-lasting implications throughout the life cycle of a contract. The result should be picking the right seller for the contract. In fact, the development of evaluation criteria has often been debated to be one aspect of contract procurement that needs to be closely coordinated with both the contract administrator and project manager. What are your thoughts on the role that the contract manager should have in the development of evaluation criteria? What about the project manager? Who else should be involved in establishing and applying the evaluation criteria?

The RFQ and RFPs are coordinated by the Contract Administrator, who oversees the bidding and evaluation process for entire contract procurement process. The evaluation committee considers the experience, abilities, references and/or background checks of the Applicant. contract administrator has a role to play in the solicitation for services including the scope, requirements, and evaluation criteria for selection. The aspects of evaluation criteria such as meeting the SLA's, overall project schedule and cost are some of the parts of the evaluation criteria where contract administrator has a critical role in the development of tbe evaluation criteria. Project scope and technical assessments related to the current commitment of labour and plant resources, the ability to handle the type, quality, size of work, and the ability to perform on site are some of the evaluation carried out by the project manager.

Contract Manager should be more involved in the Evaluation Criteria for the fact that he is more aware of legal issues, compliance, guidance on contract matters, and most especially contract polices that has to do with business strategy. However, project manager needs to be more of a listener because it gives him the sense to know the key criteria that is most important to the customer in keeping the seller from deviating from the scope and the essentials of the contract. Notwithstanding, the customer should also be involved in establishing and applying the evaluation criteria along with other groups of interest that are supporting the contract.

In creating thorough evaluation criteria you will need to see different areas and then blend them effectively. The Contract Administrator will have a good understanding on how to set up an equitable exchange, protect the company's interest, and ensure compliance by both parties. The PM may have a broader range of understanding the working relationship between the buyer and seller and how to manipulate the aspects to meet overall goals. I would also want experienced senior management team and specialized experts to weigh in for a balanced evaluation criteria.

It is very common to find customers/clients that fail to identify the RFP evaluation criteria during the procurement planning process, and in fact do not define the evaluation criteria until after proposals have been received and the evaluation process is set to begin. What do you think the risk of waiting is until bids have been received to establish the evaluation criteria to be used to select a preferred vendor?

RFP Evaluation criteria are guidelines that enable project participants to standardize the project criteria to be considered during evaluation of a proposal. Also, they provide vendors to understand how proposals will be evaluated. To achieve these two purposes, evaluation criteria should be stated clearly in the RFP so that they can be understood by both those responding to the RFP and by those evaluating the proposals. Proper evaluation planning can ensure that the project vision, goals, and requirements are clearly articulated and understood by all potential responders and evaluators. Finally, not having an Evaluation criteria upfront and waiting until the receipt of bids could result in bias during evaluation of the proposals.

If you do not know how evaluate the bids until after you get them you may end up lacking the information you need or it may be inconsistent among the bidders. By doing it in advance the buyer can be assured he gets the information they need to evaluate at a minimum. if more information or evaluation criteria become apparent during the RFP process then it can decided whether to make changes. Leaving this chance or using criteria that is less than ideal create unforseen issues in the BPO process.

Some customers don't realize that being so vague with the criteria can cause misinterpretation and frustration for the vendors. When the customers don't specify how they are evaluating firms, we have to guess about what information we should provide and what would be irrelevant. When customers do this, they run the risk of missing out on a great potential vendor, who may not have provided enough information to fit their newly thought of criteria, but would have been a perfect fit. They also run the risk of leaving themselves with vendors who are not as capable as others.

Evaluation criteria gives you the chance to identify vendors strenghts and weakness. It also gives the customer the chance to carefully evaluate the situation at hand and make the best decisoin for the company. Not having time to evaluate can lead to the customers unsatifaction as well as unlimited risk. The evaluation criteria shall be carefully explained in the RFP in order for the customer to make a proper decision

there are at least three risks with this.

1) There is a significant risk to project schedule. When the received bids come in, there is a good chance that none of them will be exactly what the customer is looking for. This leads to a re-bid situation when the customer uses the first bids to finally develop an accurate scope.

2) There is also a risk that a well qualified vendor with a good price could be filtered out due to evaluation criteria that he/she wasn't aware of. For instance, if part of the evaluation criteria was the format of the bid submission and this vendor made a submission error, its bid could be discarded.

3) Not publishing the evaluation criteria can lead to accusations of favoritism or unfair evaluation criteria.

Do you think that clearly defining the evaluation criteria as part of the procurement process also locks in the Client to making his/her selection based on the specific criteria identified, thus reducing the potential for a client making a selection purely on subjective criteria (even through the ranking of proposals on a pre-defined set of criteria could in itself be subjective)?

The evaluation criteria should support the objectives/goals of the BPO decision. In turn, it would not make sense to request information from vendors (via an RFQ or an RFP) that represents the client's evaluation criteria. In other words, the objectives/goals of the BPO should be the first priority in vendor selection.

In defining the criteria, it would also set apart thost vendors whose focus would be solely on costs rather than service. For example, if I send out an RFP for quotes on products alone, the vendors will try to just beat each other's costs and those will all be very similar. However, I am also looking for shipping terms such as delivery dates, costs, and uel surcharges, as well as ease of ordering and returns such as online shopping lists and pick-ups.

I do not think that defining the evaluation criteria as part of the procurement process locks in the client to purely base their decision on the identified criteria. For one thing, more than one contractor can meet this criteria; another thing, out of these vendors, each brings its own strengths to the table, which play an important part in the evaluation process.

Once the evaluation criteria are agreed upon by the outsourcing team, the customer should rank the vendors based on their fulfillment of the criteria. Please Identify the five common steps involved in the evaluation of vendor proposals.

The structure and scope of the vendor evaluation process will vary depending on the customer's approach, the number of vendors being evaluated, time constraints, and audit and report requirements. Five Common steps include:

•Selecting key evaluation criteria

•Identifying who will be asked to participate in the ranking of vendors

•Establishing a scoring system

•Weighting the key criteria

•Implementing final sign-off procedures

By the end of the evaluation period, the customer should have identified a preferred vendor or vendors.

References:

Business process outsourcing : process, strategies, and contracts / John K. Halvey, Barbara M. Melby.—2nd ed.

weighting the key criteria is a juggle among the outsourcing team. Most often every group, be it engineering, real estate, inventory, operation, and so on. Each department wants their portion to be a key criteria. This prolongs the decision and may cause some dissatisfaction among the outsourcing team.

The five steps are outlines as follows

1.) Identifying the Key criteria. This includes deciding ahead of time what is important and what is irrelevant

2.) Setting up an evaluation team tasked with evaluating vendors based off criteria, This team should be representative of the departments affected and have input on the criteria.

3.) A scoring or weighting system for the criteria should be established.

4) score and evaluate the vendors who respond to the RFP / RFQ

5) Select and sign off on the selected Vendor.

do you think that procurements are rarely protested due to unclear or unspecified evaluation criteria, or do you feel it happens more often than we think? Do you feel a vendor is likely to protest a selection process for the sake of getting the decision overturned and possibly even getting selected, regardless of what it does to the relationship with the client/owner?

I will think because procurement is mainly noncore BPO service, it becomes a bit difficult to have a very comprehensive scope. By this I mean that the scope continue to add or subtract which makes it difficult for experienced vendor to even protest anything.

On the selection process, vendors who will protest for the hopes of reversing decisions in their favors under any circumstances must not be business savvy, because it will only ruin the buyer-seller relationship. However, I am sure that a few desperate vendors may do just that and risk never being considered for future contracts.

Should vendors be aware of the evaluation criteria during the procurement phase, or after they have submitted their proposals/bids?

As long as the scope is defined properly, the vendor need not be concerned with the evaluation criteria. The customer is not in the business of preparing and evaluating vendors for the variety of projects that they may encounter. Through the RFP, the vendor will get a detailed account of what will be asked of them and if they are not capable of performing the required tasks, then they need not apply.

Though this sounds harsh, it is just business. There are some vendors that will use the information from the RFP to contact other vendors that specify in one of the parts of the project and subcontract those individuals. Then they will submit a bid for the entire project. Thus allowing them to expand in their services and establishing a win-win situation for both themselves and the customer.

There are some vendors that only work for other vendors and not directly with the customer. They utilize this method to maintain a certain clientele base and not have the headaches of dealing with the customer. This can be found in specialized fields where the vendor can focus on this specific field and not have to worry about having to multitasking.

Why do you think some owners do not like to define the selection/evaluation criteria as part of the request for proposals?

One of the main reason, I would think is because owners don’t want to be overwhelmed with incompetent vendors who will tailored their responses in their favor to suit the evaluation criteria. This prolongs the decision in selecting the right seller. It may also isolate new competent sellers; a disadvantage to the owner.

Some owners don't like to define the selection/evaluation criteria as part of the RFP because they fear that if they do, the vendors will only offer what is requested and set their price structure for just that. But if the criteria are not specifically defined, vendors will put together a proposal outlining all of what the vendor thinks the company would like to see and include it all in one price structure. This would be beneficial to the owner. Then the owner could weed out exactly what it is he or she is not looking for. A broader proposal could allow the owner to see things he or she did not know were needed. Whereas a proposal that is too "slim" or one that does not contain enough information could help the owner deselect vendors.

If the customers are not completely aware of the methodology/ technology, exact skills set required, the type of materials etc. to be implemented/applied in the project, they may want to keep the RFP a little vague so that they can expand on their knowledge about the project and look at various alternatives suggested by different vendors responding to the RFP. This is especially tue in case of the some emerging technology or complex project.

is it bad to have a vendor developing his/her proposal based on the evaluation criteria provided in the RFP or RFQ?

I would say it is not bad as long as the vendor is truthfully answering the questions or providing the information requested. I would look at how accurate or informative the answers in the RFP/RFQ were. The detailed description a vendor provides in RFP or RFQ gives you a good indication the quality of its work. I would be cautious, though, that vendor’s own criteria may be in its favor and undermine the customer’s goal or objective.

The evaluation criteria should be included as part of the RFP. Knowing what the evaluation criteria are helps a vendor/prospective bidder understands how his/her proposal will be evaluated. It also helps guide the structure, format, and content of the proposal.

From the Client's standpoint, the evaluation criteria help confirm his/her objectives for the outsourcing work, and helps ensure that prospective bidders are compatible with the services being requested and capable of satisfying the client's objectives. It also forces the client to think about the proposal judging criteria ahead of time in order to ensure that the evaluation criteria are as objective as possible.

In addition to the evaluation criteria, the relative weights assigned to each criterion should be specified (since these in turn are representative of the priorities of the Client and/or the Client's ranking of the evaluation criteria in order of importance). The scoring scale (e.g. 1-10 points per evaluation factor) should be used.