How to compare apples and oranges?
We often heard clients wonder how to unravel different proposition that all looked the same at first glance.
Some organisations want to implement a digital signage project but they don’t have all the information they need to do so and how to evaluate it.
Sometimes the sentence “I’m lost there are so many propositions and they are so different from one another!” is heard.
We sometimes see buyers compare a domestic screen price which is not guaranteed in a commercial environment to a screen conceived to operate 24 hours a day during 5 years. Or even not take under consideration the quality and frequency of the support service, the technical support, the software features and the monthly fees.
Often in the past for public invitations for tenders and even for tenders from private organisations that solicit proposals to implement a digital signage network, we would only look at the price.
More and more we see some evaluations grids including 4 to 8 criteria.
Recently, in a municipality from Quebec, submissions for a digital signage network were requested by publishing the following evaluation grid:
- Tenderer’s experience in a similar implantation: 10 points
- Mandate assigned project manager’s experience and expertise: 10 points
- Equipment’s capacity to answer the mandate’s needs: 10 points
- Compliance with functional requirements: 30 points
- Methodology, schedule realization, training: 10 points
- Additional features: 5 points
- Price: 25 points
In another public tender, we saw a simplified breakdown:
- Tenderer’s experience and expertise: 20 points
- Team’s experience and expertise: 20 points
- Understanding of the estimate, the approach and the equipment proposed: 20
points - Price: 40 points.
Depending on every organisation’s needs, different departments representatives can participate in the proposition analysis; not only the accounts department!
Weights like this allow you to get the best value for money; to get what you paid for.
With this kind of evaluation grid, we can even distinguish apples and oranges.
*Image source: Facebook