How You Use a Two-Stage RFQ

Government organizations and departments as well as other public sector enterprises such as banks often follow a two-stage RFQ process. This process involves the submission of quotes in two separate sealed envelopes.

One contains what is called the technical quote, and the other contains what is called the commercial quote. The technical quote includes all responses by a supplier to questions and parameters pertaining to the technical aspects that are used by the sourcing organization to evaluate the technical feasibility of the quotes and the capacity of the suppliers. The commercial quote addresses the issues of price and other factors associated with the execution of the sourced items.

This two stage process is prevalent among some public sector and many government organizations where it's sometimes mandated by law that the buying organization offer the tender or sourcing contract to the lowest price bid from the qualified bidders. The buying organization initially assesses the suppliers to be technically qualified before their price quotes are unsealed and evaluated. This ensures no bias in awarding the contract.

The two-stage RFQ process involves the submission by the suppliers of a technical quote and a commercial quote. The technical quotes are opened and evaluated first to determine a list of qualified suppliers, and only then are the commercial quotes of the qualified suppliers opened and evaluated.

The procedure for conducting and awarding a two-stage RFQ in Oracle Sourcing includes:

1. Create the RFQ document and enable two stage evaluation. Document the technical specifications in one or more requirement sections and identify them as technical requirement sections. Similarly, document the nontechnical specifications in one or more sections and identify them as commercial requirement sections.

2. Publish the RFQ.

3. Suppliers submit quotes, including responses to the Technical and Commercial requirement sections.

4. Close the RFQ to responding.

5. Unlock the technical responses. The buyer and evaluators can now see technical responses.

6. Optionally unseal the technical responses. Suppliers can now see technical response of other suppliers.

7. Technical evaluators review the technical quotes and shortlist the qualified suppliers.

8. Unlock the commercial responses of the qualified suppliers. The buyer and evaluators can now see both the technical and commercial responses.

9. Optionally unseal commercial responses. Suppliers can now see commercial responses of other suppliers.

10. Commercial evaluators review the commercial quotes and can shortlist the qualified suppliers.

11. Make award decisions.

If a buyer or supplier prints a copy of the negotiation, the print indicates that it's a two-part RFQ, and labels Requirements sections appropriately.

The following quote information is visible to the technical reviewers only during the technical stage evaluation. After the commercial responses are unlocked, the entire quote is visible by all evaluators (subject to regular RFQ security).

The table below shows what information a technical evaluator can view.

Quote Information	Technical Evaluators Can See
Technical Requirements responses	Yes
Commercial Requirements responses	No
Price	No
Quantity	Yes
Promise date	Yes
Need-by Date	Yes
Line attributes (including Quantity and Promised Date for Multi-Attribute Scored negotiations	Yes
Cost factors, price tiers and price breaks	No
"From Supplier: Technical" attachments	Yes
"From Supplier: Commercial" attachments	No
Contract terms, deliverables, and clause variables	Yes
General header attributes (Note to Buyer, Reference Number, Response Currency, Response Valid until)	Yes

If a buyer or supplier prints a copy of the negotiation, the print indicates that it's a two-part RFQ, and labels Requirements sections appropriately.