Viewing the Bid Insights

The Bid Insights feature for bid packages is a powerful tool that helps you evaluate subcontractor bids based on their bids in similar projects. This feature provides a bid insight amount for each subcontractor based on historical bid data in previous similar projects, enabling smarter comparisons and more informed decision-making.

Specifically, in the Bid Insights section you can:

• View trends in subcontractor bidding across similar projects.

• View the suggested bid amount for each bid package phase and subcontractor, which is calculated using historical bids from similar projects. These values can be normalized to account for market fluctuations, regional cost differences, and other factors, using standard or custom cost indexes.

• Flag high or low bids for further questioning before awarding.

• Make data-driven selections with confidence.

Before displaying the Bid Insights

• Optionally, set up the cost indexes to normalize subcontractor historical bids based on market fluctuations, regional cost differences, and other factors.
• Publish eligible projects to mark them as valid and usable for recommendations and analysis.
• Configure similar projects, suggested subcontractors, and cost indexes for the project as follows:
  • For a new project, use the Insights step of the Create Project wizard.
  • For an existing project, go to the Insights tab of the project's right-side information panel.

To view the Bid Insights:

1. On the Summary Sheet, select either the bid package code or description.

2. Select the cell next to the desired bid package phase under the corresponding subcontractor.

   In the Bid Insights section, the subcontractor's actual bid for the bid package phase is displayed under the graph on the left and the bid insight on the right. The value between them shows the percentage difference between the two. The bid insight is not available if the subcontractor has not submitted bids for the same bid package phase in at least three previous similar projects.

   The percentage difference between the actual bid and the bid insight amount helps you to assess quickly how closely the bid aligns with the estimated amounts. Specifically:

   • If a bid is up to 10 percent higher or lower than the suggested amount, the percentage difference is shown in green.

   • If a bid is between 10 and 25 percent above or below the suggested amount, the percentage difference is shown in yellow.

   • If a bid is more than 25 percent higher or lower than the suggested amount, the percentage difference is shown in red.

   The graph provides a clear visualization of the subcontractor's bidding activity. By default, phase budgets from historical bids appear in blue, while bid insights are shown as a dotted line to highlight trends. You can customize the display using the Legend dropdown to additionally show subcontractor bid amounts in purple and awarded bids in green.

3. Optionally, hover over a point on the graph to display the following information:

   • Project name

     You can select it to open the project's Summary Sheet.

   • Size

   • Location

   • Bid date

   • Indexed amount

4. Optionally, select Show Cost Breakdown on the dialog to display the following information:

   • Actual and indexed phase budget, bid, and awarded amounts.

   • All the cost indexes that have been selected for the project. The index used for normalization appears in green. Selecting it opens the Cost Indexes page in a new tab, with the value that was used for normalization highlighted.

5. Optionally, to set the bid insight amount for the selected bid package phase as the actual bid, select Use Insight under the graph.