How to compare vendor proposals

Write the rows first: the requirements, cost lines, service commitments, implementation milestones, and contract terms that will decide this purchase. If the frame comes from the proposals, the loudest vendor sets the agenda.

Paraphrasing early is where evaluations go wrong. Capture the actual sentence, plus the page it came from. A “yes, with configuration” and a “yes” are different commitments and should not collapse into the same cell.

Put every quote on the same basis: same term length, same user count, same number of sites, same treatment of one-off fees. Keep the original structure visible next to the normalized number so nobody loses the assumption behind it.

An unanswered requirement is information. Track it as its own row with the vendor and the requirement ID, then send it as a written clarification question rather than assuming intent.

• Data migration scope and how many source systems are covered
• Integrations included versus quoted separately
• Training days, environments, and testing support
• Travel, expenses, and change-request rates
• Support hours, response times, and escalation paths

Before the decision meeting, every cell should be traceable to a page in a proposal. That is what turns a spreadsheet into an evaluation record. Proposight builds this comparison for you and keeps the source reference attached to each point — see vendor proposal comparison.