Phase 3: Evaluation

What do I have to do?

This phase is for you to compare your top quotes in detail and pick your winning supplier. Everything you enter will be saved for your records to provide evidence of your decision-making process. You'll see the following new elements:

Award criteria (if chosen): If you selected award criteria while creating your procurement project, you'll see them here in a small table for each supplier. The stars are interactive - click to select how each quote performs against your criteria to show your decision-making process. You need to fill in these criteria in order to reject or select each supplier.
Notes section: At the bottom of each supplier section, there is an expandable text section for you to make detailed notes on each quote and why you've made your decisions.
Reject button: You'll recognise this from phase 2 - click this when you've decided to reject a quote. Make sure you've made any relevant notes and filled out any award criteria as needed first.
Select button: Similar to phase 2: but when you click 'Select' by a quote here, you are choosing this as the winning quote to supply your requirements.
End phase button: When one supplier is set to 'Selected' and the rest are rejected, it will unlock the green 'End phase - confirm choice!' button which will let you proceed to finish the project and contact the supplier!

How do award criteria work?

You will have chosen your award criteria when launching the procurement project - if you don't see any don't worry, you'll only see ones you've set up yourself!

There will be five stars beside each criteria - move your cursor over these and click to select how well the quote compares in each category.
The rating out of five will also be written in digits on the right to be clear what you've chosen.
You can click again to change your score at any point - but make sure to keep a record of when you've made your decisions and why! You can use the handy expandable notes box under each supplier's section for this - all your notes will be saved for your records. Example: 'On 12/12/18, I set this supplier's score for 'Quality' to 3/5 as they offered thin plastic cases rather than the durable metal ones other suppliers quoted for'.
The clever platform will calculate a total score for each supplier based on the weightings you chose and the score out of five you selected. This will be displayed so you can easily see which supplier has scored the highest and help you choose which is the best value for your school's budget!
Use these scores to help you evaluate and compare your quotes, and choose the winning supplier!

How do I expand the notes section?

Click either the blue text on the left hand side of the bar reading 'Your private notes about this proposal', or the 'Show notes' text and arrow on the right hand side of the bar. This will expand the notes section for this supplier.

What should I write in the notes section?

Make as many notes as you think are necessary to show your reasons for making your decisions. Examples of notes may include:

Dates and reasons for the award criteria scores you've chosen
Thoughts on their quoted prices and how this represents comparatively better or worse value for money than other suppliers
How the documents the supplier has provided proves them to have good experience supplying requirements like yours
If you've had someone else assess the quotes too, how and when you compared your scores and reached an agreed decision for each supplier.

At education.co.uk we want to help schools to easily source the best products and services for their budgets while also following procurement guidelines.

You need to show you’ve given thought to the decisions you’ve made so there are no challenges or allegations of unfairness – whether from the suppliers who have put together your quote, or from finance officers who want to see how you’ve decided on where your school’s budget is going. We save your notes on each supplier alongside all your other evidence like reasons for rejection and award criteria, so you can produce detailed records on your decision-making process if ever called upon.

The higher the value of a procurement project, the more notes you are likely to want - put as much as you feel is necessary to meet your school and your local authority's guidelines.

Why do I have to provide a reason for rejection?

Our process has been carefully designed to make it as simple as possible for schools to easily source the best products and services, while adhering to advice on proper school procurement practice. You need to show you’ve given thought to the decisions you’ve made so there are no challenges or allegations of unfairness – whether from the suppliers who have put together your quote, or from finance officers who want to see how you’ve decided on where your school’s budget is going. We save your reasons for rejection alongside all your other notes in your archive so that you can produce evidence if ever called upon.

When you compared and rejected suppliers in phase 2, the reasons we provided were specific and clear to let you dismiss outlying quotes that were obviously not suitable. Phase 3 is different: you're comparing suppliers that all have a chance of winning the project so your reasons for rejecting them will be more subtle and comparative - for example if they don't meet your specification quite as well as other suppliers, or they offer less appealing terms and conditions or delivery schedules.

I clicked ‘reject’ when I meant to select a supplier. Can I undo this?

Absolutely! Click the arrow next to the word ‘Rejected’ (or ‘Selected’ if that’s what you want to undo) and the buttons to select or reject will reappear. Only the latest version of your reasons for rejection will be saved with your notes, so don't worry if you have to submit this again for different reasons.

Make sure you've filled in whatever notes you need to be saved in your records, including any and all of your award criteria for each supplier.
Click 'Reject' or 'Select' as needed by each quote when you've decided which supplier to go ahead with.
When all the suppliers are set to either rejected or selected, the big green 'End phase - confirm choice!' button will unlock.
If you're happy with all your choices and satisfied that your notes are complete and up to date, click the green 'End phase' button proceed to phase 4!

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