This chapter provides an overview of bid factors and discusses how to:
Create bid factors.
Create bid factor groups.
The PeopleSoft Strategic Sourcing bid factor function enables you to evaluate events based on factors such as price, warranties offered, lead time, and product quality. Bid factors are questions bidders must answer about their products, services, or company.
You set weightings for each bid factor, letting the bidder know how much value you give to that portion of his bid. Price is by default the first bid factor of any buy or sell event. It is required for auction events, and you set a weighting for it. In some events, price might be the most important consideration, so you give it a 70 percent weighting. Or the color of the product might be so significant that you give it a 50 percent weighting.
If the event is an auction, bid factors of type text cannot be weighted. This is because there is no method to automatically score answers that are given in text (for example, answers to a bid factor that asks, "Describe your quality processes"). PeopleSoft Strategic Sourcing automatically assigns this a weight of zero, enabling you to collect this useful information without affecting bid scoring. If the event is an RFx or RFI event, you can manually score text responses during bid analysis.
You can also create bid factors that you do not display to the bidders, but instead answer during the analysis of the bids. These bid factors can be for subjective responses such as current business relationship or interview results.
You, the creator, can see the scores and can even edit the weighting percentages of the bid factors to consider what-if scenarios for RFx and RFI events.
You can also create bid factor groups which contain multiple bid factors. When you add a bid factor group to an event, the system automatically assigns the bid factors that are assigned to that group to the event.
This section discusses:
Header bid factors vs. line bid factors.
Total costing.
Scoring vs. weighting.
Line weighting vs. bid factor weighting.
Default rule assignment.
Ad hoc bid factors.
Required or mandatory response designation.
Price components.
Contract clauses.
Contract agreements.
Bid factor groups.
Automatic bid factor population with queries.
Header bid factors relate to the overall event, whereas line bid factors relate only to the specific line.
Header bid factors cover the entire event. For example:
Is this a minority- or woman-owned business?
In what state is the corporate headquarters located?
Is the company ISO certified?
Because for any bid factor, you can change such variables as the range for best and worst responses, the ideal response and bid factor weighting, it is possible to use the same bid factor for the event and for one or more line items. This ensures accurate weighting and responses.
For a sale of sporting goods, color might be an important factor.
You can set different colors or weightings for a color list bid factor on the line item for tents, backpacks, and hiking boots.
You can set ideals and weightings that, for the line item, differ from the same bid factor set in the header.
For example, suppose that on the header you set a delivery bid factor, with an ideal delivery time of four weeks. You can set, on a line item, a delivery bid factor with an ideal delivery time of six weeks.
With total cost modeling, you can analyze bids based on three different criteria: lowest price, best score, and lowest total cost. All three methods can be used simultaneously to give you the most information for making the best award decision.
By utilizing this feature, you can designate cost contributions for selected bid factors. Depending on the type of bid factor, costs can be calculated based on the bidder’s bid price, the bidder’s bid quantity, a predefined cost range, or a user-defined cost. The system can then calculate a cost related to each bidder's response to a bid factor as well as total line cost and total event cost. This information can then be used either during manual analysis, or by the optimization engine to determine an ideal award.
The following is an example of how the cost modeling may be used. You are purchasing an item that has a “Warranty” bid factor associated with it. You are asking the bidders to indicate the length of warranty provided for the item, with a range of 1 year to 5 years. The longer the warranty period provided, the less your organization will need to pay for maintenance and repair costs. You determine that for each extra year of warranty provided, that saves your organization $50 in maintenance and repair per unit. You can assign this cost to the Warranty bid factor so that the total cost for this bid factor will be calculated based on the bidder's response. One bidder may bid a bid price of $1,000 per unit, but only provide a 1 year warranty, while another bidder may bid $1,100 per unit but provide a 5 year warranty. Even though the first bidder has a lower bid price, the second bidder will have an overall lower cost since the bidder is providing the full 5 year warranty.
When you create a sourcing event, the bid factor cost information will display based on the associated defaulting rules. You have the ability to add or modify the cost information.
In addition, any changes made by event collaborators are tracked and can be viewed on the Review Event Collaboration page.
See Using Event Collaboration.
For auction events, bidders may compete based on score or price only.
You can also use the optimization feature to determine an ideal award based on minimizing the total cost of the award.
See Optimizing Strategic Sourcing Event Awards.
Here are three factors to consider when looking at scoring vs. weighting:
The score depends on how close the answer to the bid factor comes to the ideal answer.
The weighting is based on how important the bid factor is to the overall line or event.
The final score is the average of the score and the weighting.
The header and line bid factors are scored separately; each bidder gets two scores. The following table outlines how scores and weighting are used by the system:
Bid Factor |
Best/Worst/Ideal |
Bidder's Response and Score |
Weighting and Score |
Header: Is the headquarters located in North America? |
Ideal: Yes |
Yes = 100 percent |
70 percent = 70 (70 percent of the score of 100) |
Header: Is the company ISO 9000 certified? |
Ideal: Yes |
No = 0 percent |
30 percent = 0 (30 percent of the score of 0) |
Combined header scores. |
NA |
50 (100 + 0 / 2) 50 is the header score if no weightings are set. |
70 (100 percent * 70 percent + (30 percent * 0 percent) 70 is the header score if these weightings are set. |
Line: How many pages-per-minute can be processed? |
Best: 20 Worst: 1 |
10 = 50 percent |
30 percent = 15 (30 percent of 50) |
Line: "How many years does the warranty cover?" |
Best: 10 Worst: 1 |
8 = 80 percent |
70 percent = 56 (70 percent of 80) |
Combined line scores. |
65 (50 + 80/2) 65 is the line score if no weightings are set. |
71 ((50 percent * 30 percent) + (80 percent * 70 percent)). 71 is the line score if these weightings are set. |
You can set two types of weighting on a line item:
The bid factor weighting, meaning how important the bid factor is to an overall event.
Set bid factor weightings if you want to factor the weightings into the bid scoring.
The line item weighting, meaning how important that specific item or service is to the overall event.
If you do not set specific line weightings, the lines are weighted equally.
For example, in an event to purchase central processing units (CPUs), monitors, and keyboards, the CPUs might be more important to you than the keyboards. You weight the line item for the CPUs at 50 percent, the monitors at 30 percent, and the keyboards at 20 percent.
The table below uses this example. The bidder scores high on bid factors for the line items that have a low line weight. After line weighting is calculated, his per-line scores decrease:
Example Score with Bid Factor Weightings Calculated |
Line Weight |
Final Score for Each Line Item |
CPU = score of 80 |
50 percent |
40 (80 * 50 percent) |
Monitor = score of 90 |
30 percent |
27 (90 * 30 percent) |
Keyboards = score of 100 |
20 percent |
20 (100 * 20 percent) |
87 (Total combined line score) |
You have the option to create default rules for bid factors and bid factor groups. Default rules can be for header or line bid factors. For example, if you have a line bid factor group default rule called Apparel, and you assign an Item ID of 10006 to this rule, the bid factor group Apparel always appears by default on any event line containing the item 10006.
You can default bid factors and bid factor groups based on item categories, item IDs, start price, extended price, and event quantities. Bid factors and groups can be associated with business units or departments to provide additional filtering options.
The bid factors that you create on the Bid Factors page are available to use in any of the events.
You can also create ad hoc bid factors, specific to an event, when you create the event. An ad hoc bid factor is valid only for the event in which you create it and is not available for any other events.
Use the Event Bid Factors page to add or edit user-defined response costs for a bid factor.
See Also
You can designate that a response is required for a bid factor. If required, the bidder must enter a response for the specified bid factor before successfully posting a bid.
You can also designate that the ideal or best response is required for a bid factor. The bidder's response must match the specified best or ideal response for the bid to be considered for award.
You can break out the price bid factors into related and measurable components, such as material, labor, shipping, and so forth. This enables you to gain a better understanding of what comprises the quoted bid price as well as negotiate on specific price components, thereby increasing your overall negotiation power.
Event creators can create sourcing clauses that can be associated with bid factors and these clauses will provide additional legal, policy, or other terms to bidders during the bidding process. If a sourcing event is awarded to a contract, those clauses can then be passed onto the awarded contract.
Important! You must have PeopleSoft Enterprise Supplier Contract Management installed to use this feature.
You can associate contract clauses with bid factors using the Assign Contract Clauses page.
See Assigning Contract Clauses to Bid Factors.
You can also map a bid factor to one or more contract agreements. If a sourcing event is awarded to a contract, the bidder’s awarded value for each bid factor will be passed onto the contract agreement and can be tracked for compliance.
Important! You must have PeopleSoft Enterprise Supplier Contract Management installed to use this feature.
You can associate contract agreements with bid factors using the Assign Contract Agreements page.
See Assigning Contract Agreements to Bid Factors.
You can assign multiple bid factors to a bid factor group. The total of the assigned bid factor weightings must equal the weighting of the bid factor group. The system provides the bid factor group weightings first over individual bid factor weightings when providing defaults.
You can select a bid factor group during event creation and all associated bid factors are added to the event. You can also assign bid factor groups to business units and departments.
You can associate a bid factor with a specified PeopleSoft query, which automatically populates bid factor responses based on the query results. When a bidder selects to bid on an event, the query that is associated with the bid factor is executed and the resulting values are populated in the respective bid factor response fields.
For example, you could have a header bid factor asking whether the bidder is a minority vendor. This information is collected when the bidder registers and is on the vendor record. You can build a query by using the vendor and bidder records, and as part of the bidder event response, the system runs the query and automatically populates the response with the minority vendor information.
You can also extract external supplier information, such as supplier performance, to weight and factor in during bid analysis. You can map a supplier performance bid factor to the Supply Chain Warehouse database or to a Dun and Bradstreet database.
See Also
Enterprise PeopleTools 8.46 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Query
To set up bid factors, use the Bid Factor Setup component.
This section discusses how to:
Specify bid factor attributes.
Use total cost modeling.
Use price components.
Assign business units and departments to bid factors.
Assign defaults and rules.
Assign responses based on queries.
Assign contract clauses to bid factors.
Assign contract agreements to bid factors.
See Also
Type |
Determines what bid factor fields appear on the page. Values are:
|
Question |
Unlimited length field in which you can ask the bidder a question. |
Display Bid Factor |
Click to display bid factor to bidders. If not selected, the event creator or any collaborators add their input to bid factors that are hidden to bidders. |
Bid Factor Response Required |
Click to indicate that a response is required for this bid factor. |
Ideal Response Required |
Click to indicate that a bidder must respond with the best or ideal response in order for the bid to be considered. If the bidder doesn't provide the best/ideal response for one or more bid factors, the bid is disqualified and unavailable for award. |
Page Name |
Object Name |
Navigation |
Usage |
BID_FACTOR_PNL |
Sourcing, Create Events, Bid Factor Setup |
Specify the attributes of the bid factor. Use this page to assign total cost modeling to overall bid factors. |
|
BID_FCTR_BUDEPT |
Click the Assign Business Units and Departments link on the Bid Factor Setup page. |
Assigns bid factors to business units or departments to facilitate searching. |
|
BID_FACTOR_LINE |
Click the Assign Additional Defaults and Rules link from the Bid Factor Setup page. |
Assign a default rule based on item ID, item category, price, or quantity to the bid factor. |
|
BID_FCTR_QRY |
Click the Assign Response Query link on the Bid Factor Setup page. |
Associates queries to bid factors, which automatically populate bid factor responses based on the query results. |
|
BID_FCTR_CLAUSE |
Click the Assign Clauses link on the Bid Factor Setup page. |
(Optional) Associate clauses with bid factors. Important! You must have PeopleSoft Enterprise Supplier Contract Management installed to use this feature. |
|
CS_CONTENTS_SEARCH |
Select By Reference Text and then click the Search button on the Assign Contract Clauses page. |
Search for clauses to be associated with bid factors. Important! You must have PeopleSoft Enterprise Supplier Contract Management installed to use this feature. |
|
CS_CONTENTS_XREF |
Click the Where Used button on the Select a Clause page. |
View where the particular clause has been used. |
|
BID_FCTR_CLSDEP |
Click the View Dependent Clause button on the Assign Contract Clauses page. |
View any dependent clauses for the bid factor. Note. This button is available only if there are dependent clauses. |
|
BID_FCTR_AGRMNT |
Click the Assign Response Query link on the Bid Factor Setup page. |
Assign contract agreements to bid factors. Important! You must have PeopleSoft Enterprise Supplier Contract Management installed to use this feature. |
Access the Bid Factor Setup page.
The bid factors that you create on the Bid Factor Setup page become available to be used in any sourcing event.
You can also create ad hoc bid factors—specific to an event—when you create the event. An ad hoc bid factor is valid only for the event in which you create it and is never available for other events.
Price Bid Factor |
Indicates that this bid factor is used as the line bid price factor on events. Only one bid factor per SetID can be a price bid factor. Selection enables you to enter price components. This check box becomes available only for bid factor types of Monetary. Note. You must have a price bid factor for auction and RFx events. |
Bid Factor Types and Available Fields
This table lists the different fields that are available depending upon which bid factor type is selected.
Bid Factor Type |
Available Fields |
Cost Option (Factor Cost Based On field) |
Date: All calculations are based on the number of days between the best, worst, and bidder's response. |
Currency: Required if assigning a cost contribution Best (date) Worst (date) |
Bid Price: Based on unit cost Bid Quantity: Based on per unit Cost Range: Based on per unit or total cost N/A (not applicable) User Defined: Based on total cost |
List: All calculations are based on the cost associated with the selected list response. If multiple selections are allowed, the cost is the sum of the costs associated with selected list responses. |
In the List Items group box:
Currency: Required if assigning a cost contribution Ideal: (Optional) Indicate the ideal response in this free-form field. Allow Multiple Selections: You can allow bidders to select multiple list items. |
Bid Price: Based on per unit. Bid Quantity: Based on per unit Fixed Cost: Based on total cost N/A (not applicable) |
Monetary: Calculation is based on the bidder's response to the monetary bid factor. The system will apply monetary costs as per unit or total cost. |
Currency: Required if assigning a cost contribution Best Worst |
N/A (not applicable): Based on per unit or total cost |
Numeric: All calculations are based on the difference between the best, worst, and bidder's response. |
Currency: Required if assigning a cost contribution Best Worst UOM (unit of measure) |
Bid Price: Based on per unit Bid Quantity: Based on per unit Cost Range: Based on per unit or total cost N/A (not applicable) User Defined: Based on total cost |
Text: Calculation is based on the cost specified by the user during bid analysis. |
Ideal |
Bid Price: Based on per unit Bid Quantity: Based on per unit N/A (not applicable) User Defined: Based on total cost |
Yes/No: Calculation is based on what the Ideal response should be. If the ideal response should be “Yes”, and the bidder responds “Yes”, then the cost is based on the Best Cost value. If the bidder responds “No”, then the cost is based on the Worst Cost value. |
Ideal group box:
Ideal Currency: Required if assigning a cost contribution |
Bid Price: Based on per unit Bid Quantity: Based on per unit Fixed Cost: Based on total cost N/A (not applicable) |
Access the Bid Factor Setup page.
Cost Contribution
Factor Cost Based on |
Select a value to use as a basis factor the cost.
|
Apply Cost |
Select Per Unit or Total Cost. This field is available only with Cost Range. For Per Unit, the system calculates the cost by multiplying the bidder's response by the maximum bid quantity to determine a total cost. |
Note. You can designate a cost as a credit by entering a '-' in front of the cost value. For example, if you want to give a bidder a $5,000 credit if the bidder is ISO certified, you can enter a value of -5,000 in the Best Cost field for that bid factor. If the bidder responds Yes to the question, the bidder will receive a $5,000 credit, which will lower the bidder's total cost.
Access the Bid Factor Setup page using the price bid factor.
Price Bid Factor |
Indicates that this bid factor is used as the line bid price factor on events. Only one bid factor per setID may have this indicator set to yes. When selected, enables entering price components. |
Component |
Enter a price component such as material, labor, tax or profit. Only enter price components if you want bidders to specify the components for their bids. You can assign an unlimited number of components to the price. |
UOM (unit of measure) |
Enter a UOM for each price component. This is optional. |
Weighting |
Assign the weighting for this component. This can be used during analysis to determine the importance of each component on bids. The sum of the weighting for all price components must total 100%. |
Access the Assign Business Units and Departments to Bid Factor page.
Select the business units and departments to which you want to assign bid factors.
Access the Assign Defaulting Rules to Bid Factor page.
You can assign default bid factors based on item categories, item IDs, line quantity, line start price, line extended price, or any combination of defaults. The system provides bid factor as a default when an event line meets any of the criteria that you set here.
You can assign default bid factors to the event header or to the applicable line.
You can set unique weightings at the rule level that differ from the weightings that you set at the overall bid factor level. These weightings override the weighting that you enter at the overall bid factor level.
You can also add total costing to bid factors by using the Cost Contribution group box on this page.
Cost Contribution
Use this group box to assign total cost modeling to the specific bid factor rule.
See Using Total Cost Modeling.
Example
Consider a bid factor for warranty. At the overall bid factor level, you set a best to worst range of two to five years. You then create two separate rules and assign the bid factor to two categories:
Hardware category, for which you set a best to worst range of two to six years.
Equipment category, for which you set a range of five to ten years.
After bid factors are assigned to categories, you create an event with an item from the hardware category:
All bid factors that are associated with the hardware category automatically populate into the event.
You can delete any that are not relevant to the new event, or add more that are.
These bid factors display the ranges that are related to that category; for this example, the range is two to six years for the warranty bid factor.
Access the Assign Response Query to Bid Factor page.
After creating a query by using PeopleSoft query and associating it with a bid factor, you can test the query to assure that it executes properly within the bid response application.
The Bidder Setid, Bidder ID, Bidder Type, and Bidder Location are used as query bind variables. The system uses the Query Result field to display test query help and query results.
Bidder Type |
Select a value to be used for the query:
|
Test |
Click to test the query against the query bind variables. |
Access the Assign Contract Clauses page.
Bid Factor Clauses
Contract clauses are defined on the Clause Definition page (Supplier Contracts, Manage Contract Library, Clauses).
See Defining Contract Agreements.
Clause ID |
Select a clause to add to the bid factor. |
|
Click the Look up Clause ID button to retrieve a display a list of valid clauses. This display lists the clause ID, description, and title of the clause. |
Search |
Leave the Clause ID field blank and click this button to retrieve all valid clauses. This search provides you with more details associated with the contract clause such as SetID, approval status, or date ranges. This more complex search is discussed in the Searching for Contract Clauses or Viewing Where-Used Information section below. |
Full Text |
The system displays the text associated with the contract clause to the sourcing bidders. |
By Reference |
The system only displays the reference text associated with the clause to the sourcing bidders. |
View Dependent Clauses |
Click this button to view any dependent clauses. Note. Dependent clauses cannot be transferred onto awarded contracts. |
Searching for Contract Clauses or Viewing Where-Used Information
Access the Select a Clause page by clicking the Search button on the Assign Contract Clauses page.
Clause Attributes |
Enter or select fields to narrow the search criteria such as clause ID, approval status, or created by. |
Search |
Click to retrieve clauses that meet the selected criteria. |
Where Used Search |
Click to view where clauses have been used. |
Select |
Click this button to select the contract clause that you want to associate with the bid factor. |
OK |
Click to return to the Bid Factor Setup page. |
Access the Assign Contract Agreements page.
Note. Contract agreements are defined on the Contract Agreement Definition page (Supplier Contracts, Monitor and Update Agreements, Set Up Agreements, Contract Agreements).
See Defining Contract Agreements.
Agreement Code |
Select the agreement code to assign to the bid factor. Click OK to add the agreement to the bid factor and to return to the Bid Factor Setup page. Note. Only those agreement codes with the same type as the bid factor will be retrieved. For example, a date bid factor will return only those agreement codes that have a date type. |
To set up bid factor groups, use the Bid Factor Group Setup component.
This section discusses how to use bid factor groups.
Page Name |
Object Name |
Navigation |
Usage |
BID_FACTOR_GRP |
Sourcing, Create Events, Bid Factor Group Setup |
Assigns multiple bid factors to a group. |
|
BID_FCTR_GRP_SRCH |
Click the Select Bid Factor Group link on the Bid Factor Group page. |
Search for bid factor groups by group code, business unit, or department. |
|
BID_FCTR_GRP_BU |
Click the Assign Business Units and Departments link on the Bid Factor Group page. |
Assigns bid factor groups to business units or departments to facilitate searching. |
|
BID_FCTR_GRP_RULE |
Click the Assign Additional Defaults and Rules link on the Bid Factor Group page. |
Creates default rules for bid factor groups. |
Access the Bid Factor Group page.
Weighting |
Enter a default weighting for the group or for the bid factors that are associated with the group. The total of the bid factor weightings that are associated with the group must equal the weighting of the bid factor group. The system then calculates the total of the bid factors |
You can add rows to include multiple bid factor codes for the bid factor group. If you select a bid factor group during event creation, all associated bid factors are added to the event.
The system looks to bid factor groups before individual bid factors when applying defaults. For example, if you have a bid factor group of COMPUTERS which includes two bid factors: manufacturer, which is weighted 10 percent, and warranty, which is weighted 30 percent. The COMPUTERS bid factor group is assigned to item AP-001, which has a category of HARDWARE. You also have WARRANTY created as a bid factor, assigned to the HARDWARE category, and weighted 20 percent. If you add item AP-001, the system provide WARRANTY as a default based on the group rule, and therefore provides it a weighting of 30 percent, which overrides the individual bid factor rule that had the weighting of 20 percent.