Competitive Bid: Review, Evaluate, Accept, or Open New Round of Vendor Bids

This article provides Competitive Bid managers with the steps necessary to review, evaluate, and accept vendor-submitted bids. Vendors may submit their bid at any time prior to the deadline posted on the Details tab; however, bids are only available for manager review after the deadline has passed. A bid may be awarded to a single vendor or to multiple vendors depending on client requirements. If no submission meets the client’s requirements, then no bid is accepted and a new round is opened. New rounds can be generated even when a bid is awarded if the client wants to release a bid with a modified or expanded scope.

This content reflects standard Beeline Enterprise functionality which may vary from what you see when logged into Beeline Enterprise depending on any client-specific settings or adjustments.

Table of Contents

To review and evaluate a submitted bid:

1. Navigate to your Beeline Enterprise Home screen.
2. In the My To Do quadrant, click the number link located within the alert sentence, “You have # Bids Ready to be Reviewed task awaiting action”. A dialog window with a list of bids appears.
3. Click the Action drop-down arrow of the specific Competitive Bid record you want to review.
4. Select the View Details option. You are redirected to the Competitive Bid profile screen.

   You can also click on the link embedded in the email notification you receive when the bid closes. This will take you to a login screen and then directly to the Competitive Bid profile screen.

5. Review the postings in the Bid Summary quadrant (upper right-hand side). This indicates which vendors submitted bids as well as those who declined.
6. Click Compare Bid Responses located in the upper left-hand quadrant of the profile screen. The Compare Bid Responses screen appears. Each vendor’s bid is displayed in a separate column. Evaluators will need to review any essay question responses separately since they are not included in the side-by-side comparison display. The bid total and overall score are displayed at the top of the column for an easy side-by-side comparison. The star icon above the vendor's name indicates a recommended vendor.
7. Click View Bid if you want to review a vendor’s responses in detail. The screen opens the bid at the Welcome tab in the ribbon format. Notice that the previous Assessment tab is now labeled Review.
8. Click Next to advance to the Details tab. Check the number displayed in the Comments tag. Any number other than 0 (zero) indicates that the vendor included comments intended for the Reviewer. Click the icon to review the content.
9. Click Next to cycle through the sections under the Details tab.
10. Click Next to advance to the Review tab. In “review” mode you can view the vendor’s responses alongside the response(s) flagged as “correct” during the initial Assessment buildout. Assessed vendor points display alongside total assigned points. Reviewers also have the option to filter by “Show Only Knockouts”. Check for attachments if this option was granted during the buildout.
11. Click Next to cycle through all vendor responses under the Review tab.
12. Click Next to advance to the Financials tab. Vendor entries are displayed as line items broken out into sections based on financial type. Again, check for numbers >0 in the Comments tag and click the icon to review the content.
13. Click Next to cycle through all vendor entries under the Financials tab. The final tab in this section is the Summary where the Gross/Total amount for each financials tab displays along with the total proposed bid amount.
14. Complete your review.
15. Click the Compare Bid Responses link located under the page title to go back to the side-by-side comparison view. (NOTE: The “return” link exits you from both the ribbon view and the compare bid view. It takes you back to the Competitive Bid profile screen, but the Compare Bid Responses link will not be visible. You will need to complete a new Competitive Bid search to get the “Compare Bid Responses” option back.)

To accept a vendor’s bid:

Option 1: Accept a bid from the Compare Bid Responses screen:

• Complete steps 1 through 6 in the “To review and evaluate a submitted bid” section above.

7. Click Accept Bid in the column that represents the vendor to be awarded the bid. The Create SOW from Bid screen appears. (You can award a single bid to multiple vendors, but each acceptance needs to be processed separately.)
8. Click in the SOW Template box. Based on template-related configurations, a default SOW template will auto-populate, or a selection of SOW (Statement of Work) templates will display.
9. Select a template from the list.
10. Click OK. A new SOW Profile screen displays with a status of “draft” and system records update as follows:

• The General Info, Contributors, Details/Terms (if configured for inclusion), and Financials content auto-populates from the vendor’s bid to the new SOW record.
• The Competitive Bid profile screen updates to include a “View SOW” link in the Bid Summary section.
• The Compare Bid Responses screen (side-by-side comparison) updates to display an “Accepted” status in the awarded vendor’s column along with a new “View SOW” link.

11. Click Return to exit the SOW Profile and return to your Home screen; or click the Compare Bid Responses link beneath the page title to return to the side-by-side comparison view.

Option 2: Accept a bid from the Competitive Bid record (ribbon format):

• Complete steps 1 through 14 in the “review and evaluate” section above.

15. Click the Action tab icon to go directly to the Action tab.
16. Click Accept Bid. The Create SOW from Bid screen appears.
17. Click in the SOW Template box and a list of SOW (Statement of Work) templates will auto-populate.
18. Select a template from the list.
19. Click OK. A new SOW Profile screen displays with a status of “draft” and system records update as follows:

• The General Info, Contributors, Details/Terms (if configured for inclusion), and Financials content auto-populates from the vendor’s bid to the new SOW record.
• The Competitive Bid profile screen updates to include a “View SOW” link in the Bid Summary section.
• The Compare Bid Responses screen (side-by-side comparison) updates to display an “Accepted” status in the awarded vendor’s column along with a new “View SOW” link.

20. Click Return to exit the SOW Profile and return to your Home screen; or click the Compare Bid Responses link beneath the page title to return to the side-by-side comparison view.

Option 3: no bid is accepted and a new round is released.

• If there is no bid that meets your requirements after you complete your review; then, you can release the Competitive Bid again by starting a new round.

  There can be multiple reasons to start a new round in a Competitive Bid. If some vendor submissions are too close for you to make a final decision between them; then, you can start a new round for that select group to refine and resubmit their bids. If you want to invite different vendors but use the same Details and Assessment content would be another reason. Or, after a review of the vendor bids, you decide you need to adjust the Details and/or Assessment questions; then you can release a new round.

1. Return to the Competitive Bid profile screen.
2. Click Start New Round located in the upper left-hand quadrant of the profile screen. A Competitive Bid (Evaluation) – Final screen appears. Notice that you are at the Welcome tab in the ribbon format.
3. Click Yes or No to copy the previous round. Hover over the iBubble to see which content is carried over in the copy.

If you click “Yes”:

4. Click Start New Competitive Bid Round and wait for the content to be copied over. Any adjustments made during the initial buildout will not be included. Notice that the title bar displays the same Competitive Bid number and name but that a Round # is now added after the bid number. Make note of this for tracking purposes.

   Current round #s display in the Simple Search auto suggestion/type ahead displays so you can identify exactly which Competitive Bid record to select. In advanced search results, Round is a separate column.

5. Update the required fields on the General Info tab as indicated by the asterisk (*). Verify that auto-populated content is correct or adjust as needed.
6. Click Next to advance to the Contributors tab. Review and adjust as needed.
7. Click Next to advance to the Actions Step.

   Access to the other tabs on the ribbon is only made available once the initial approval is complete.

8. Click Submit for Approval. A dialog window opens and an alert message indicates your changes were saved.
9. Click Submit to confirm your intent. A new Competitive Bid screen appears as indicated by the displayed Round #.
10. Click Return to exit the Competitive Bid and return to your Home screen.

• Use the Competitive Bid “how to” instructions starting with the KB article “Competitive Bid: How to define the Competitive Bid” to complete this new round.

If you click “No”:

4. Click Start New Competitive Bid Round. Notice that the title bar displays the same Competitive Bid number and name but that a Round # is now added after the number. Make note of this for tracking purposes.

   Round #s display in the Simple Search auto suggestion/type ahead displays so you can identify exactly which Competitive Bid record to select. In advanced search results, Round is a separate column.

5. Enter the information requested on the General Info tab or use the selection options provided to fill in the fields. Required fields are indicated by an asterisk (*). Verify that auto-populated content is correct or adjust as needed.
6. Click Next. The Contributors tab opens. You can view users that will have access to this Competitive Bid.

• If you need to add Contributors, either click the search icon to locate a name to select from the displayed list or type the name directly in the Add Contributor box. Use the drop-down selection list to identify each contributor’s access level (e.g., Author, MSP, or Viewer). Then click Add Contributor to add your entry to the Competitive Bid Contributors list.
• Competitive Bid Author and Creator name(s) display but cannot be edited.
• Edit other pre-populated Contributor fields as needed.

7. Click Next. The Action tab opens.

   Access to the other tabs on the ribbon is only made available once the initial approval is complete.

8. Click Submit for Approval.
9. Click Submit to confirm your intent. A new Competitive Bid screen appears as indicated by the displayed Round #.
10. Click Return to exit the Competitive Bid profile and return to your Home screen.

• Use Competitive Bid “how to” instructions starting with the KB article “Competitive Bid: How to define the Competitive Bid” to complete this new round.

This concludes the Competitive Bid stage of the Services Procurement Solution. The next stage is the Statement of Work (SOW).

Refer to the SOW “how to” articles in the Projects, SOWs & Competitive Bids section
of the Community Knowledge Base for specific process steps.