AWARD® works alongside sourcing tools to support your complex projects
When and why do I need AWARD®?
If you’re working in procurement, the likelihood is that you’re already using a sourcing tool.
End-to-end sourcing tools have been around a while, with expanding feature sets and capabilities that focus predominately on volume and commoditising efficiencies.
AWARD® does not replace your sourcing tool
But complex, high-risk procurements require a different focus entirely, and the technology supporting them demands a flexibility and depth that is not offered by sourcing tools.
The evaluation capability presented by these tools tends to be fairly basic and aimed at providing an efficient mechanism for procurement buyers to structure their decision-making with a limited set of criteria, individual reviewers or small teams of evaluators.
These types of purchases typically represent around 80% of an organisation’s procurements, so implementation of the sourcing tools delivers broad efficiencies and standardisation across the organisation.
In 2019 only 8% of the UK government’s most complex and strategically significant projects were evaluated robustly*
National Audit Office
The remaining 20% of sourcing events – complex and/or high-risk strategic procurements – often represent some of the largest and most important procurements an organisation will ever undertake.
In a recent sample of tender evaluation spreadsheets, 99% had some form of error
Somewhat unbelievably, where AWARD® is not in use, organisations will more often than not use a spreadsheet rather than their sourcing tool or any other application.
This introduces huge risk to the process and massively increases the probability of failure and/or challenge – more in our blog here.
Public sector organizations could save 15% of their budget if they adhered to procurement best practice
This is exactly why we developed AWARD®
Our customers often use AWARD® for their complex projects, integrated with their sourcing tools to complete a full end to end process.
Alternatively, AWARD® is used on a project basis by organisations that have one-off complex procurements to run.
Transparency, confidence & control for your most high-risk decisions
We can quickly set you up to use the AWARD® solution on your own (with the support of our ExpertAssist service, Knowledge Base and LMS) or alternatively, we can support you with as much or as little advice and assistance as you need to successfully deliver the best possible outcome on your procurement.
| AWARD® at a glance: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Quick to set up (same day) | High impact | Complementary to sourcing tools |
| Speed to onboard | Standardised complex processes | Achieve the best VfM outcomes |
| Easy to deploy | Project-by-project success focus | Flexible & configurable |
AWARD® has been specifically designed to support high-risk, strategic and/or complex procurements and integrates fully with incumbent sourcing tools. Commerce Decisions provides solutions that support clients in achieving better outcomes on their most significant projects.
AWARD® offers many features over and above sourcing tools, designed specifically to support the more in-depth and varied requirements of complex projects such as:
- Unique, embedded thought-leadership modules specifically designed to support complex procurements:
- Collaborative weighting tool with process flow and guidance
- Real Value for Money function to support definition of VfM approach
- Sensitivity Analysis
- Structured Criteria Development module to support creation of robust, fit for purpose, defensible criteria
- Supports multi-stage/multi-lot competitions/competitive dialogue/negotiated procedures
- Supports all MEAT calculations
- Individual users (subject matter experts) access a simple to use interface to submit evaluator responses
- Control user access down to named individuals and specific documents
- Extensive and flexible scoring approaches
- Enhanced Moderation/Consensus functionality
- Criteria thresholds
- Full automated debrief capability
- Advanced reporting capabilities
We work with customers using various Sourcing Tools, including JAGGAER, SAP Ariba, Atamis, BIP Delta and Proactis. Here’s what they say…
“We use AWARD® for various reasons:
- User Preference, some contract managers prefer AWARD®
- Or for projects where:
- There are a high number of suppliers or evaluators
- A wide spread of SMEs is required
- There is the potential to be litigious.”
“We do some of the less complex, lower value evaluations in our sourcing tool – but we find it quite restrictive; AWARD® offers far more flexibility and we use it to evaluate our higher value, more complex procurements.”
“Our users like the flexibility of being able to allocate specific questions to evaluators who are experts within that field.
It’s easier to manage multiple evaluators too – some projects can have a team of 60 evaluators – the intuitive nature of AWARD® means that their onboarding is a simple and relatively speedy process.”
“Our sourcing tool can handle the simple stuff and mini-call offs, but not evaluating a big tender with multiple stakeholders and different user requirements for visibility etc.”
Visit our dedicated AWARD® page to find out how AWARD® can ensure consistent success in all your complex procurements, as well as working alongside your existing sourcing tool.
For more information or to request a demo, get in touch with us at info@commercedecisions.com.
