Putting Policy into Practice, with Cost and Quality Tender Scoring!

The introduction of the social value act and the latest procurement policy note (06/20) is a step in the right direction to ensure contractors bidding for work are at the same time, adding positive values and sustainable outcomes when delivering construction projects.

It is important that we all play our part in the shift towards making a difference for the better. As a software company, we not only work with our teams internally, but we also ensure our software provides our clients with the tools they need to make a greater impact. Embedding best practice into the heart of a business or process, has an effect on a much larger scale. It also has the added benefit of creating a new norm, one which focuses less on capital, and more on contribution to society.

Therefore, and in order to help our principal contractors put policy into practice, whilst at the same time aligning to clients and public sector requirements, we’ve launched a tender package review tool which includes a cost comparison calculator, taking into account cost and quality.

Throughout the development process we consulted with both our public and private sector clients to ensure the functionality seamlessly integrates into their day-to-day business operations, with positive outcomes for all. The package review tool is flexible in its approach and therefore, can be used to manage the various approaches and processes contractors have when managing this process offline.

Within LSC, Clients and Contractors can now work together to review tenders which are aligned to delivering the best possible outcomes.

Within the Package Review, Clients & Main Contractors can decide the weighting percentage for both Cost and Quality. From there, package budgets can be set, quotes submitted by subcontractors and normalised values entered by the main contractor. Subcontractors can be awarded a percentage score on Quality, which together with an automatically calculated percentage score on Cost, can create and overall score for each subcontractor’s tender. The process can be repeated at both Tender and Contract Stage with a complete audit trail and automatically updated information as and when data changes.

We also have additional functionality for main contractors to provide complete visibility on a read only basis to clients. This evidences the work which goes into constructing and evaluating package returns, more so for considering added value impact.

It is transparent, engaging, constructive, competitive and most of all aligning to public sector focus on value, in particular social value. For these reasons, the tool will be used by our main contractors to help them win more work with their clients, and by our clients, to put policy into practice, encourage contract awards to tenders which add the greatest levels of societal benefit.