Reverse Auction Rules & Guidelines

RFPs may be subject to a real time bidding event or reverse auction, in which you will be able to see in real-time where your firm ranks vis-a-vis other firms who are also participating in the reverse auction. We will hold firms to their lowest submitted price and we will not accept price increases during the auction.

The clients have the option to, during the auction, show firms one of the following:

• Rank only;
• Rank and prices of other firms;
• Rank and the lowest priced proposal.

The auction is completely anonymous. No identifying information of any firm will be shown. You can find more information on the auction types in the article. No matter the auction type chosen, you will also see your overall rankings for your firm and phase-based rankings at each individual item phase.

For any auction:

• Firm names, individual names, and answers to qualitative questions are always hidden from view.
• Firms can revise the phase level or activity level fees by clicking "view details" on their proposal and then clicking "revise proposal." Firms that make changes to their total price throughout the auction as a quick revision tool are encouraged to true up their phases prior to the auction's conclusion. If firms fail to make revisions at the phase level because they run out of time, the client has the ability to reopen the request for them after the auction for final revisions.
• Firms cannot see price ranking or other firms' proposed pricing until the moment the auction begins.
• Any change in ranking as a result of firms revising their pricing will be shown to all firms in real-time. 
• Time extensions
  • If there are any revisions submitted by a firm in the last 5 minutes of the auction, the clock will reset to 5 minutes to allow other firms to also make final changes. This will continue until there are no further changes for a 5 minute period.
  • If a firm needs more time revising their proposal, they can extend the auction another 5 minutes by clicking "Revise Proposal". Firms can only extend if they're revising their proposal. They cannot extend if they are only looking to revise price.
• Please see FAQ and/or reach out to support@persuit.com for additional questions pertaining to this section.

Total Price and Comparison Value
An auction is run on the basis of either a Total Price or Comparison Value number to drive the rankings.

Total Price is a figure that is defined by the client. Often this is defined as the sum of particular phases or a different calculation that gives the client a good benchmark to compare firms at a high level. This is helpful when the client wants to utilize a specific reference in assessing the proposals. Instructions and assumptions on how to calculate the Total Price are typically outlined in the pricing section. If pricing items are revised at the phase level, firms and vendors should ensure that those adjustments are reflected in the calculation for the Total Price. This is particularly important during the auction and should be completed before the auction ends.

The Comparison Value is a figure that is automatically calculated based on the sum of all the pricing items. The comparison value does not sum hourly rates, rate cards, or discount %s. This simplifies the high-level comparison figure to a simple sum across the items and does not need to be recalculated or updated by the firms or vendors. The advantage of this figure is to allow firms and vendors to focus on the individual pricings items that make up the new Comparison Value.