One of the key benefits of Scout is that it generates simple, apples-to-apples comparisons of the bid submissions you receive. You can view these bid comparisons within Scout or export them to Excel. Let's learn more!

Compare Bids

Once you receive bid submissions from suppliers on an event, you can use Scout to compare those bids in two key ways:

• Online in Scout
• Export to Excel

To access the Bid Comparison page, open the event and scroll down to the "Invited Suppliers" section.  If at least one supplier has submitted a bid, you will have the option to click the "Compare Bids" button:

This will bring you to the Bid Comparison page where you can configure your comparisons and/or export them to Excel.

Select Suppliers to Compare

The first step in comparing bids is selecting which suppliers' bids you'd like to compare. Use the supplier checkboxes at the top of the page to make your selections:

You can either select "Check All" to include all suppliers in your comparison, or (un)check individual suppliers to limit your comparison.

View Online

Once you've selected suppliers to compare, you can get started right here in Scout! Click the different dropdown menus to expand tables that directly compare each supplier.

Questionnaire

Click the "Questionnaire Responses" button to see your suppliers' answers to your questionnaire side by side:

Worksheets

Click the "Worksheets" button to view suppliers' worksheet responses, viewing only the columns you need:

Click the "Show and Hide Columns" options link to configure the worksheets comparison - you can limit the comparison to specific columns from your worksheet.

You can make your worksheet comparison even easier by using the "Analytics" options to highlight cells with the lowest cost: 

Attached Files

If your suppliers have uploaded documents to include with their bids, you can download them all together in a single zip file:

Other Options

You can also use online bid comparison tool to compare suppliers' profiles (i.e. company background, address, etc.) and to compare your stakeholders' evaluations of the bids. 

We try to make it as easy as possible to compare each part of your bid, right here in Scout!

Export Bid Comparison to Excel

While we love using Scout to compare responses, we do know that many of our users benefit from the ability to export our direct, "apples-to-apples" comparisons" out of Scout and into Excel. Click here for more details on how to Export Bid Submissions to Excel. 

Click here for more articles about how to Evaluate Submissions