To simplify setting up criteria for an evaluation there is a manageable library of pre-defined mandatory requirements and criteria, with associated questions and responses. These are fully managed per enterprise enabling admins to build up fully formed evaluation criteria and requirements that can be easily imported into each evaluation.
There is an ability to create and store individual criteria and requirements, but also an ability to store 'sets' of criteria or requirements. The benefit of using sets is that the criteria and requirements can be bundled based on purpose such as an evaluation set for 'Construction purchases over $100K', then when applying that kind of purchase the criteria are already grouped for that purpose.
Changing criteria or requirements in the library does not change any criteria or requirements as they are in any existing evaluations. Criteria and requirement details are applied to the evaluation on the initial selections of those criteria and requirements they do not get automatically updated at any point.
Accessing the Criteria Library
On the bottom of the Advanced Evaluations dashboard, there is a 'Documents and links' section. Here, there will be a link to access the Criteria Library. This link is only visible to Administrators by default.
In the Library, the templates are split by the Evaluation Criteria and Mandatory Requirements, which you can toggle between with the options at the top. In both sections, you will find the individual templates in the top table and the sets in the bottom table.
Creating and Managing Individual Criteria Templates
You will be provided with some existing criteria templates in-system, these can be retained, overwritten, updated or deleted. For these existing items, you can click on the row in the table to open up and edit it.
Alternatively, you can use the + (plus) button on the right to create a new item.
This will open up a pop-up window where you can build or manage the individual template. Firstly at the top, you will give it a unique name (how it'll be referenced in the library for admins) and a displayed name (how it'll appear for users when importing onto an evaluation).
Criteria Questions
Below that you will have a table where you can create or manage the questions included for the criteria. You can click on existing questions to edit them or use the + (plus) button on the right to create a new one.
When creating/managing a question, you will set the following:
Question
Here you will enter the question text as it will be presented to evaluators when completing their scoring.
Question weight
This allows you to determine the weighting of this individual question, relative to this criteria only.
The criteria this question is under will be worth a specific point value and percentage to the total criteria, and this weighting determines how much this question is worth to contribute to this individual criteria score.
If all questions are equal, then each question should be worth one point, however, you can increase this for any question which has higher importance.
A percentage will be automatically calculated taking into account all question weightings set for the criteria.
Response Type
Here you will select either the Yes/No option, which will just give you evaluators two response options to answer the question, or the Dropdown option, which will allow you to build a scale of multiple response options.
Responses
The options here will differ depending on the 'Type' selected above. The Yes/No type will only give those two options. The Dropdown type will allow you to include as many response options as you like.
When building your dropdown of options, you have two ways of doing this. Firstly, you can use one of our provided pre-defined response templates, or secondly, you can build your own scale.
To use one of the pre-defined response options, click the button below the list of responses:
You will have the following options to choose from:
- Agreement
- Likelihood
- Satisfaction
- Frequency
- Performance
- Familiarity
- Quality
- Importance
You can select one of the options to get a preview of the scale, and if you want to use it then you will need to hit the 'Apply' button.
Once the scale has been applied to the question, you'll see the points allocated to each response on the right. The points for the responses will dictate how much of that point will be awarded based on the selection. For example, if the question is 1 point and a mid-scale response is worth 50% then the supplier would get 0.5 points for that question.
From here you can make any changes to the responses as you need to. You can change the wording of the responses, change the points allocation (which will automatically change the percentage) and keep adding new lines of responses to the question to build out your own scale.
If you're building your own scale you do not need to use one of the pre-defined response scales, but you can if you'd like to use it as a base to amend further.
You can add new lines by hovering over the responses and using the table controls on the right.
Saving
Once you've made your changes, click on the 'Save' or 'Save and Close' button in the top right of the popup window.
You can then continue to create as many questions as you need under a criteria.
Creating and Managing Criteria Sets
Once you have created your individual criteria templates you can then sort them into criteria sets.
You will be provided with some existing criteria set templates in-system, these can be retained, overwritten, updated or deleted. For these existing items, you can click on the row in the table to open up and edit it. To make changes to an existing set you will need to set the status to 'inactive' first.
Alternatively, you can use the + (plus) button on the right to create a new set.
This will open up a pop-up window where you can build or manage the criteria set template.
Firstly at the top, you will give it a name and hit the 'Confirm' button.
Criteria 1 is always going to be for Price as this is a mandatory item in the Evaluation Criteria. Here you can determine the points weighting you will give to Price when using this criteria set. The system will automatically give the respondents a score for their price, which essentially gives the lowest price the highest score and all others a score based on how their price compares to the lowest. You can set this to zero if you don't want Price to contribute to the total criteria score when using this evaluation set.
From there you can start to add your existing individual criteria templates using the 'Add from existing library' button. You can also use the 'Create new criteria' button to start creating a new individual criteria template from here.
Once you select to add a new item, you'll be able to select the individual criteria template from the dropdown list. You will also be able to determine the points weighting for the criteria as well.
Use the 'Add another' button to continue adding as many individual criteria templates that you want to include in the set.
You can remove a criteria by clicking on the 'X' button.
Once you've added all of your required criteria to the set, set the status to 'Active' at the top and confirm it to make it available to users and then hit the 'Save' or 'Save and Close' button in the top right.
Creating and Managing Individual Requirement Templates
You will be provided with some existing requirement templates in-system, these can be retained, overwritten, updated or deleted. For these existing items, you can click on the row in the table to open up and edit it.
Alternatively, you can use the + (plus) button on the right to create a new item.
This will open up a pop-up window where you can build or manage the individual template. Firstly at the top, you will give it a unique name (how it'll be referenced in the library for admins) and a displayed name (how it'll appear for users when importing onto an evaluation).
Below that you will have a table where you can create or manage the questions included for the criteria. You can click on existing questions to edit them or use the + (plus) button on the right to create a new one.
When creating/managing a question, you will only be able to set the question text. The Responses are always only going to be Yes or No, so it's important to word the questions that can be answered with one of these responses. There are also no points allocated to these questions and responses.
Once you've made your changes, click on the 'Save' or 'Save and Close' button in the top right of the popup window.
You can then continue to create as many questions as you need under a requirement.
Creating and Managing Requirement Sets
Once you have created your individual requirement templates you can then sort them into requirement sets.
You will be provided with some existing requirement set templates in-system, these can be retained, overwritten, updated or deleted. For these existing items, you can click on the row in the table to open up and edit it. To make changes to an existing set you will need to set the status to 'inactive' first.
Alternatively, you can use the + (plus) button on the right to create a new set.
This will open up a pop-up window where you can build or manage the requirement set template.
Firstly at the top, you will give it a name and hit the 'Confirm' button.
From there you can start to add your existing individual criteria templates using the 'Add from existing library' button. You can also use the 'Create new criteria' button to start creating a new individual criteria template from here.
Once you select to add a new item, you'll be able to select the individual criteria template from the dropdown list.
Use the 'Add another' button to continue adding as many individual criteria templates that you want to include in the set.
You can remove a criteria by clicking on the 'X' button.
Once you've added all of your requirements to the set, set the status to 'Active' at the top and confirm it to make it available to users and then hit the 'Save' or 'Save and Close' button in the top right.