Compare vendors

Compare brings evaluation evidence together without hiding what is missing. Capability scores, commercials, credit and business requirements remain separate decision lenses, so the team can understand why vendors differ instead of relying on one unexplained total.

Before you start

• Submit the relevant questionnaires and confirm the project stream weights. A draft or unanswered evaluation cannot contribute a real score.

• Link Must, Should and Could requirements to RFI questions if you want Business Voice Check to trace vendor answers back to the original need.

Step by step

1. Start with evidence completeness

Open Compare and identify vendors with real submitted scores. Only vendors with at least one real score are ranked; vendors under Awaiting evaluation are unscored, not bottom-ranked. Open each stream to review scored versus scorable questions and any missing responses.

2. Inspect score quality

Review must-pass results, respondent score range and agreement as well as the composite. A high average with unmet must-pass questions or wide reviewer disagreement needs investigation before shortlisting.

3. Keep decision lenses separate

The composite follows the project stream weights. Commercials and credit appear alongside it as separate context and are never silently blended into the capability score. Review each lens against the project priorities.

4. Run Business Voice Check

Open Business Voice Check to compare the project requirements with finalist RFI verdicts such as Satisfies, Partially, Roadmap or Gap. Where a requirement has no linked RFI question, create the link rather than treating the blank as a vendor failure.

5. Recalculate when inputs changed

Choose Recalculate scores after changing scoring configuration or when submitted evidence appears stale. The action recomputes from submitted questionnaires and is safe to run again; it does not invent scores for drafts or unanswered questions.

6. Use AI as a review aid

With at least two scored vendors, generate the AI evidence analysis and shortlist cross-reference. It can surface differentiators, gaps and a recommendation, but reviewers must open the underlying answers and validate every material claim.

What happens next

• When the evidence is sufficient, open Team vote for an advisory round or Finalists to review the active field.

• Resolve missing submissions, requirement links and scoring configuration before presenting the comparison as decision-ready.

Troubleshooting

A vendor does not appear in the ranked comparison

Look under Awaiting evaluation. Confirm a scorable questionnaire was submitted and then recalculate; a draft, invitation or entirely unscored response is not ranked.

Business Voice Check contains blanks

Check that project requirements exist, that each relevant requirement is linked to an RFI question and that the finalist submitted an RFI verdict.

The composite changed unexpectedly

Review project stream weights, form scoring and newly submitted responses. Commercial and credit values cannot change the capability composite, so inspect those lenses separately.

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