2-25.1 Identification of Proposal Evaluation Team Members

The proposal evaluation team should include experienced professionals with an appropriate level of market knowledge to assist in the evaluation. Depending on the purchase/SCM team’s assessment of the business situation, a proposal evaluation team chairperson may be appointed. Ideally, those involved will have previous experience working on purchases of a similar nature, scale, and complexity. Specifically, those involved (or the proposal evaluation team as a whole) will require skills that include:

• Market knowledge — understand suppliers’ responses in context (e.g., market-specific terms and conventions, commercial pressures on suppliers).
• Business knowledge — relate the responses received to the wider organizational picture (e.g., relation between this requirement and strategic aims or other relevant contracts, projects, or requirements).
• Purchasing skills — knowledge of procedures to be followed and deliverables required; understanding of the scope and aims of the proposal evaluation strategy and its context in the wider purchase process.
• Understanding of the requirements — assess the responses to the requirements (e.g., in terms of business processes involved, likely transaction volumes/service levels required, relevant technical aspects).