Receive and Evaluate

Quotation responses may be received in hard copy or by email.

If you plan to receive responses via e-mail, you should bear in mind that these may go into your junk mail folder so it is important to look there prior to your deadline.

Quotation responses should be opened in line with your organisation's governance arrangements. You should formally record the quotation responses received using the Record of Quotations Received form . If less than three quotation responses were returned, reasons should be sought from the suppliers who did not submit their quote and this information should be retained on file. If only one response is received contact your local procurement team on how to proceed.

Any quote which shows an abnormally low price out of context may be queried with the supplier to identify the reasons for this. If this is due to a mistake by the supplier, you should consult with your local procurement team for further advice.

If quotation responses are received with alternative Terms and Conditions of contract to those you are using in the Invitation to Quote the supplier must be informed in writing that the Terms and Conditions of Contract as originally identified will apply to the requirement. If the supplier continues to challenge the Terms and Conditions, you should seek advice from your procurement or legal services team.

You should use the evaluation form and guidance to determine which response best meets your requirements.

If you need to seek clarification of any or all quotation responses, this should be done in writing and a specific timeframe for response should be given. You should take care to treat all suppliers on an equal basis in this process.

In exceptional circumstances, you may consider interviewing/inviting presentations from suppliers in order to assist in the evaluation of quotation responses. This need should be identified upfront in the process, should you decide to score the presentation as part of the evaluation process this should be stated in the Invitation to Quote. If you do decide to request supplier interviews/presentations, you should provide details of the time, place and format of any interview or presentation to the suppliers. Care should be taken to ensure equal treatment of suppliers in this process. All suppliers should be provided with an equal opportunity for interview, presentation or site visits unless the initial evaluation undertaken shows that the supplier could not meet the core requirements.

Records of the interviews/presentations should be kept for audit purposes.

Any documents you need are available here

Record of Quotations Received Form (Microsoft Word document, 50 KB)

Evaluation form and guidance (Microsoft Excel workbook, 61.5 KB)

Before carrying on, please check you've got everything you need

• Agreement amongst those evaluating the responses
• Sign off on the evaluation and recommendation before issuing any notification letters to suppliers
• Names of those who may be required to attend a feedback meeting with supplier