Evaluate Vendors

Using Government Source Selection (GSS), evaluators can access everything they need from a single place. They can find their assigned tasks, view vendor documents, and complete their ratings. The GSS solution environment facilitates secure evaluation data transfer. Evaluators can see only the evaluations that are assigned to them. Data that the evaluator uploads or submits is viewed only by the contracting office and the evaluator.

After contracting personnel start an evaluation, evaluators rate vendor submissions based on the evaluation factors assigned to them. For best value evaluations that run in multiple rounds, evaluators receive tasks only for the factors included in the current round. The evaluation summary includes a Rounds section listing each round and its status, and the Factors and Vendors sections are labeled with the current round. The permissions granted to an evaluator enable them to view only the information that is relevant to them and their role.

Evaluate vendors

To complete a vendor evaluation in Government Source Selection (GSS), an evaluator must review the vendor's submission documents, add responses, and submit a rating:

1. Go to the My Workspace tab.
2. Select an evaluation card in the Active Evaluations section to navigate to its summary.

   Note:  Each card represents an active evaluation assigned to evaluators. It identifies the team name and individual evaluators. Evaluators check the progress bar to see their task completion percentage.

   Alternatively:

   1. Scroll down to the Tasks grid to see all your assigned tasks.
   2. Select a task of the type Complete Evaluation to navigate to the Evaluation page.
   3. Skip to step 4.

   

3. Expand a factor in the Factors section to see its tasks and subfactors. For a multi-round evaluation, this section is labeled with the current round and shows only the factors included in that round. The Evaluation Tasks grid includes a Round Name column identifying the round each task belongs to.
   • Select Assigned to me using the ASSIGNEE dropdown to filter your assigned tasks in the Factor Tasks section.
   • Click a subfactor in the Subfactors section to view the subfactor tasks.

4. Select a task to navigate to the Evaluation page.

   

5. Click a document in the Documents section to download and review the vendor submission document.
6. Click ADD RESPONSE in the Responses section to open the response form.
7. Select Section using the dropdown. Out-of-the-box values are Significant Strength, Strength, Significant Weakness, Weakness, and Deficiency.
8. Enter Response and its Justification.
9. Enter References to sections in the vendor response document.
10. Click SAVE to add the vendor response, or click SAVE AND ADD ANOTHER to add more vendor responses.
11. Scroll down to the Final Rating section.
12. Select a rating. Rating methods are pre-configured during the evaluation creation process.
13. Enter Rating Justification.
14. Click UPLOAD to browse and upload supporting evaluation documents.
15. Click SAVE AS DRAFT to save the rating as a draft and work on it later.

16. Click VALIDATE to detect any inconsistencies between your ratings and written responses.

    1. In the Final Rating section, view the inconsistencies detected by AI and take corrective action.

17. Click SUBMIT to submit the vendor rating.

    • Note: The SUBMIT button remains disabled until you have validated your rating and responses at least once.

      This action completes the task and removes it from the task list.

      

View vendor response analysis

When an evaluation is started in Government Source Selection (GSS), the requirements extraction begins where AI extracts the solicitation requirements from the evaluation title, evaluation description, factor description, instructions, and the solicitation text from Government Contract Writing (GCW). Once the requirements extraction is done, the vendor response analysis can be initiated by the Contracting Officer for a maximum of 10 vendors at a time. Evaluators can view the AI-generated analysis for their assigned vendor and factor alongside the vendor documents on the evaluation form.

To view the vendor response analysis:

1. Navigate to the Evaluation page for a vendor task.

2. Click the Vendor Analysis tab in the right pane, next to the Summary tab.

   

   The Vendor Analysis pane displays the following information for the vendor-factor combination:

   • Summary: A brief overall assessment of the vendor's response to the factor.

   • Factor Analysis: A list of findings extracted from the vendor's proposal documents. Each finding includes:

     Field	Description
     What	A brief label identifying what aspect of the factor the finding addresses.
     Text	The actual text or detail from the vendor's response.
     Source	The document name, section, and page where the finding was identified.

   

3. Click a Source link to open the referenced document at the specific section and page in a popup.

   

Update evaluation responses

To update an evaluation response in Government Source Selection (GSS):

1. Select a response using the checkbox.
2. Click Blue Edit icon to open the edit response form.
3. Update the vendor evaluation fields.
4. Click SAVE.

Delete vendor responses

To delete an evaluation response in Government Source Selection (GSS):

1. Select a response using the checkbox.
2. Click DELETE to open the confirmation dialog.
3. Select YES.

Submit on-the-spot consensus

In Government Source Selection (GSS), enabling on-the-spot consensus for a round skips individual evaluator tasks for that round. The factor chair can submit the consensus report directly. See On-the-spot consensus for more information.

Select LPTA vendors

After starting an LPTA evaluation, the evaluator is assigned a task to select vendors.

For LPTA evaluations, evaluators review vendor pricing and select the winning vendors based on the evaluation's award type:

• Single Award: Select a single vendor.
• Multiple Award: Select multiple vendors.

To select an LPTA vendor:

1. From the evaluation Summary tab → Evaluation Tasks, click LPTA Evaluation Task to navigate to the LPTA Evaluation page.

   

2. Review the vendor pricing details and documents.

   

3. In the Vendor Decision section:

   1. Select a Decision option: Select or Reject.

   2. Enter the Reason for your decision.

      • If you choose Select:
        • Click SUBMIT to finalize the vendor selection.
        • Click NEXT to select more winning vendors. This option is available only for multi-award evaluations.

        

      • If you choose Reject:
        • Click SUBMIT to finalize the vendor rejection.
        • Click NEXT to navigate to the next vendor's LPTA Evaluation page to review their submission details and make a decision to either Select or Reject.
      • Alternatively, click SAVE AND CLOSE to save progress and return later.

      Note:  The decision for a rejected vendor cannot be changed. Click BACK to see the rejected vendor's details.

      

Next steps

After an evaluator submits a rating, see how the factor chair creates the consensus based on completed evaluations.

Feedback