Make Competing Vendor Proposals Actually Comparable
Software vendor evaluation rewrites competing proposals onto a single scope and scores them against your criteria, for a business holding several quotes it cannot fairly compare, whether choosing a packaged product or a development partner.
What Vendor Evaluation Covers
This is for a business already holding two or more proposals - for a packaged product, a development agency, or a services vendor - and unable to compare them fairly because each one defines the scope differently. We rewrite every proposal onto one common scope, check the underlying product or approach against how your business actually works, and score them against criteria you agree with us first.
A Construction Firm's Three Project-Management Quotes
A construction contractor has collected three proposals for project-management software, one from a specialised construction platform, one from a general project-management vendor, and one for a custom build. Each proposal lists different inclusions - the construction platform bundles site-diary features the others charge for separately, one quote excludes mobile access entirely, and the custom build's price depends on a scope nobody has pinned down in writing. Restating all three against the same requirement - subcontractor tracking, site photos, budget-versus-actual reporting - is what makes the three numbers finally mean the same thing.
What the Evaluation Produces
- Each proposal restated against the same scope, so the prices compare like for like
- What each vendor has quietly excluded, and what that exclusion would cost to add later
- A scorecard against criteria you agree on in advance - fit, cost, support, portability
- Specific questions to put to each vendor before you sign, based on what their proposal left vague
What Drives Cost and Duration for an Evaluation
How many proposals are being compared, and how differently each one has scoped the work - two proposals covering nearly the same ground are a faster comparison than three that each define the requirement differently and need to be pulled apart line by line. Duration also depends on how quickly the vendors themselves respond to clarifying questions once gaps are found.
What You Hold at the End of the Evaluation
A Common-Scope Comparison
Every proposal restated on the same requirement, so the price difference reflects the vendors, not how differently each one chose to scope the work.
Questions to Ask Before Signing
The specific gaps and vague clauses in each proposal, written as questions you can put to the vendor directly.
Frequently asked questions
Do you talk to the vendors directly, or only work from their documents?
We work primarily from the documents and your own account of each vendor's pitch. Where a proposal is genuinely ambiguous, we prepare the clarifying question for you to put to the vendor rather than approaching them ourselves, so the relationship stays yours.
Can this cover development agencies as well as packaged products?
Yes. The same restating-onto-one-scope approach applies whether you are comparing software licences, implementation partners or development agencies bidding on a custom build.
What if one proposal is clearly better once restated?
We say so plainly. This is not designed to manufacture a close contest - if the evaluation shows one option is genuinely stronger once compared fairly, the scorecard reflects that.
What drives the cost of an evaluation?
The number of proposals in scope and how differently each one has defined the requirement. Proposals that already cover similar ground compare faster than ones that scope the same need in entirely different ways.
What decides how long an evaluation takes?
How quickly the vendors respond to clarifying questions once gaps are identified, since some of the restating depends on details their original proposal left out.
Do we need a written requirement document already, or can you work from the proposals alone?
A requirement document makes the evaluation faster and more accurate, but is not required - where none exists, we reconstruct the common scope from the proposals themselves and your description of the need.
What do you need from us to start the evaluation?
All the proposals you are comparing, in full, plus your criteria for what matters most - cost, speed, fit to your process, long-term support - so the scorecard reflects your priorities rather than a generic checklist.
Tell us what you need.
Send a short brief and one of our engineers will come back to you — usually the same day.
- No obligation
- We reply the same working day
- Your details stay private