Basically, Best Value is a structured approach to purchasing decisions, which lets you evaluate bids based on all of the things which are important to you, not just price.

First, you evaluate a purchase request based on what you want to accomplish. This process leads to the creation of a list of purchase criteria which you deem to be important. These criteria may include any number of items, such as price, service, supplier capacity, past performance, suitability, supplier location, etc. Then you assign values to these criteria. While price often has the highest value, the combined values of the other criteria may outweigh it. As an example, you may decide your criteria will total 100 points in value. Price may be worth 40 points, ease of operation 20 points, past performance 30 points and maintenance record 10 points.

The next step is to create a Best Value bid document, which clearly delineates the criteria and their specific values to potential bidders. All of these interested parties will know exactly how you are going to evaluate their bids.

Finally, bids are received, evaluated comparing bid responses to the criteria, and a supplier chosen who will be the Best Value for your organization.

You will be required to understand the techniques and process of Best Value and have a willingness to commit to more work preparing the bid documents. However, the payoff in terms of making better purchasing decisions can be huge.

Some readers are probably thinking that the same results can be achieved with the traditional public purchasing process, where a comprehensive specification is created and award is made to the low responsive and responsible bidder. We would argue differently. The traditional process does not challenge you to look carefully at all of the areas where your organization may benefit from the purchase. Also, the traditional process does not allow suppliers to be creative and innovative in meeting your needs.

If you have spent any time evaluating the results of your daily buying efforts, you have realized that sometimes the supplier who gets your business isn't the best choice, but the process does not allow any other decision. If you don't agree, just think about some major purchases, like a home, you have made for yourself. How many times did you purchase for yourself the same way you would at work? If you are being honest, your answer is rarely or never. The fact is most of us buy for our personal lives utilizing Best Value techniques without even realizing it. This is because we consider many factors which could not be specified in a traditional bid document, but these factors ARE important in our personal purchasing decision and they ARE important at work.

Actually, Best Value is a combination of things such as Life Cycle Costing, Value Engineering and the Request for Proposal process. It is only new in the way it brings various methods together and formalizes the process.

Best Value is already being used by a number of state and local entities, the Federal Government and a large number of private corporations. It is used for supplies, equipment, services and construction with much success. Its use is growing rapidly here and internationally. The reason for this growth is because it works!

It is too bad that we in governmental purchasing don't hear about new things to help us do a better job more often. Best Value is a tool that offers the chance for all of us to advance to new levels of success and be of more value to our organizations. For more information, see our web site: http://www.donwoods.com.