Procurement
A tender evaluation matrix fixes, before any return is opened, what the client will weigh and how much each criterion counts, and then turns every tender into a score that can be explained later. In Fidrel the matrix sits in the same request for tender as the documents and the returns: you weight price and quality criteria to a total of 100, score each tender and watch the ranking change as you type.
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If the weightings are settled after the returns are open, a losing tenderer or an internal auditor can fairly ask whether they were tuned to a result. The criteria have to be fixed while the tenders are still sealed.
Scores in one spreadsheet, clarifications in an inbox and the returns on a shared drive make it hard to show which version the decision rested on, who changed a mark and why.
Most clients want quality, programme and resourcing to count as well as price. Without an agreed formula, choosing a dearer tender looks like favouritism even when it is the sounder decision.
Under Award criteria each criterion gets a name of up to 120 characters, a type and a weighting. The weightings must add up to 100 and only one criterion can cover price, so price is counted once. The standard set starts with Price at 60, Quality and methodology at 25 and Programme and delivery at 15, which you rename or reweight for the package, and an optional description records what is assessed and how marks are given. With sealed tenders you can prepare and save the criteria during the tender period, before anyone can see a return. Fidrel does not freeze them when the returns open: removing a criterion, or turning it into price, deletes the marks already given on it, so agree them before the deadline. Once the contract is awarded they are locked until the award is withdrawn.
Procurement
A request for tender goes only to the companies you invite, by email or from your organisation’s supplier register. Each tenderer has a folder of their own and cannot see anyone else’s. Clarification questions are answered for everyone: published responses go to every tenderer, and who asked is never shown. If you seal the tender, its returns open automatically at the tender deadline and not before, even for administrators, and the deadline can be extended but never brought forward. Without sealing the matrix is open during the tender period, with a warning that tenders may still change.
Step 1
Add each criterion with a name, a type of price or quality, a weighting and an optional description, or start from the standard set and adjust it to the package.
Step 2
Invited tenderers upload their return to a folder of their own and submit it, or decline to tender. If the tender is sealed, nobody can open a return before the deadline.
Step 3
Once the tenders are open, type each tender sum and mark every quality criterion from 0 to 5 in half steps, adding a comment wherever a mark needs a reason.
Step 4
Choose the successful tender from the compliant ones that were submitted, add a justification and award the contract. The decision is kept with its date and who made it.
Price is scored against the lowest compliant tender. That tender gets the full price weighting, and every other one gets the weighting multiplied by the lowest sum and divided by its own, so a tender at twice the lowest price earns half the points. Quality points are the weighting multiplied by the mark out of 5. Take the standard set and three compliant tenders. A comes in at £640,000 and is marked 3 for quality and 3 for programme: 60 + 15 + 9 = 84 points. B is £700,000, marked 4.5 and 4: 54.86 + 22.5 + 12 = 89.36. C is £800,000, marked 5 and 5: 48 + 25 + 15 = 88. B ranks first although A is the cheapest. If you then choose A, Fidrel warns that you are not choosing the highest-ranked tender and asks you to justify the decision.
Every tender in the matrix has a Compliant tick. Clear it to exclude a tender and give a reason: the tender is then neither ranked nor open to award, and the reason stays in the evaluation. A tender is ranked only when every criterion has a value, and until then it shows as Incomplete. Equal totals share a rank. Totals and ranks update as you type, and everything saves automatically.
The matrix downloads as a CSV file that opens in Excel, with each tenderer’s rank, compliance and any reason for exclusion, tender sum, points per criterion and total. The tender evaluation report sets out the criteria with their weightings and descriptions, the tenders in rank order with their points, and the award decision with its justification, on a page you print or save as PDF with two lines for signature, name in capitals and date.
The matrix is for comparing tenders in your own project and follows no statutory procurement procedure. Requests go only to the tenderers you invite; nothing is advertised, and there is no pre-qualification questionnaire. Each tenderer needs a Fidrel account to see the request and submit a return. A return is the files the tenderer uploads plus one tender sum you type in, so there is no tender levelling of rates or quantities. The matrix holds one shared mark per tenderer and criterion, not a separate mark from each evaluator. Fidrel does not tell tenderers the outcome, so you let them know in the way you normally would.
Your trial applies to your first own project and starts when that project is created. No card required. Afterwards, choose card or invoice to continue.
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Read moreYes. Add the criteria that suit the package, each with a name, a price or quality type and a weighting. The weightings must add up to 100, and only one criterion can cover price.
The lowest compliant tender sum gets the full price weighting. Every other tender gets the weighting multiplied by the lowest sum and divided by its own, so twice the price earns half the points.
No. The matrix holds one mark per tenderer and criterion, shared by everyone who runs the tender. A comment can be added to each mark to record the reasoning behind it.
With a sealed tender, once the tender deadline has passed; until then you can prepare the criteria. Without sealing the matrix is open during the tender period and warns that tenders may still change.
No. The award decision is saved in Fidrel with the date and the name of whoever made it, but tenderers are not told from there, so you write to them as usual.
Yes. The matrix downloads as a CSV file for Excel, and the tender evaluation report can be printed or saved as PDF from the browser, with signature lines for the people who approve it.
