For contractors
| Plan Status | Tier |
| Included | ✅ Advanced |
| Available Add-on | ➕ Core |
| Upgrade required | ✘ Free |
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The Competitor Insights feature is for Bidx.com contractors using the Competitive Analysis Suite. This feature lets you search for historical and statistical information about item bid prices and compare them to your bids of the same item. You can also compare your bids to the bids of a specific contractor.
If the agency posts bid tabulations to the Bid Express service, the Competitor Insights service provides a statistical competitive analysis of your bid against other bidders for a specified letting, down to the item level. It allows you to set and change data parameters, such as quantity ranges, locations, and dates, so the service can compare your bid to others and be configured to perform an analysis of the letting and item prices. The service also allows you to perform specific historical analyses in areas such as historical performance against other contractors by work item, geographical area, and other criteria.
There are two ways to compare bids and contractor information in Competitor Insights:
- Comparison lets you compare contractors, items, and historical submission history.
- Job Profile displays the completed works or work in progress of other contractors during a specified time frame.
Comparison
Use Comparison to compare your bid with a specific contractor and a specific item or contractor. You can choose to compare your bid to the contractor, the item, or both.
Because you can have different bidder IDs associated with your account, use the Select Contractor field to choose the ID that you wish to use to compare items.
- Select the mode and enter the name of the contractor to whom you want to compare your bid. You can enter the name directly and use the down arrow on your keyboard to see a list of all contractors matching your criteria.
- Enter the item to which you want to compare your bid. Click Clear if you entered the wrong comparison.
- Enter the beginning date of your search parameters in the Start Date field.
- Enter the last date of your search parameters in the End Date field.
- Click Search.
You can move the Comparison slider guides to change the search ranges for price, quantity, and dates when looking at the item comparison results on the Competitor Insights tab.
- The Price slider displays the range of the unit price bid in the proposal for the item. Use the square guide to increase or decrease the price bid for the item.
- The Quantity slider displays the range of the item quantity contained in each proposal. Use the square guide to increase or decrease the quantity of the item.
- The Dates slider displays the range of the due dates for each proposal. Use the square guide to change the dates in the display.
Once the slider guide is set to the desired range, click Updated. The Bid Express service displays the results with the updated parameters. To reset the guides, click Reset.
You can also click the value next to the slider guide to enter in a specific value for the search range. For example, click the dollar amount next to the slider guide for Price and enter in the price you want to search for.
Contractor
Contractor search mode allows you to compare two contractors who bid on the same items. When you search by contractor, the Competitor Insights service displays the items the two contractors bid on, plus the item description and unit. The Count column displays the number of times the contractors have bid on the item. Items are listed numerically by item number.
You can click the row for an item in the Item Comparison list to see the Item Comparison Results page, sorted by proposal number.
The Bid Express service displays comparisons of each proposal that contains both the item and a bid by the contractor. The comparisons also includes the quantity bid and the bid price.
A variance bar shows by how much your bid was over or under the comparison bid. Your bid value is represented by a diamond while the bid of the selected contractor is represented by a circle.
- A red line indicates your bid for the item was greater than the contractor’s bid.
- A green line indicates your bid was less than the contractor’s bid.
Click any of the variance bars to see the Item Comparison Details page.
Item
If you are searching for an item, Competitor Insights displays a list of vendors who also bid on that item and the number of times the item was bid upon. The vendors are listed in alphanumeric order.
Enter a contractor name in the Select Contractor field to filter by that contractor. Select the contractor in the Item Comparison list. The Bid Express service opens the Item Comparison Results page and displays the ranges of bid prices for the item.
The Bid Express service displays the item comparison results. Your bid value is represented by a diamond while the selected contractor is represented by a circle.
A variance bar shows by how much your bid was over or under the comparison bid.
- The green represents your bid amount for that item in the proposal being lower than the selected contractor’s price.
- The red represents your bid amount for the item being higher than the selected contractor’s price.
Click a green or red variance bar graph for a selected item in the Item Comparison pages of the Competitor Insights tab to see details of your bid and the selected contractor’s bid against all bidders for the proposal.
The details display the proposal information of the selected item and the amount that all contractors bid for the item. All bids except yours and the bid of the selected contractor are shaded for easier viewing.
The weighted average is the average of the amount bid for this item across all winning bids over the past year. This includes amounts that have been lowered due to the quantity involved.
Historical
The Competitor Insights feature lets you search for the bids from a specific contractor in a specified time frame.
- Click on the Comparison icon and select Historical in the search mode
- Enter the contractor in the Select Contractor field.
- Select the date range.
- Click Search.
The Bid Express Competitor Insights service displays the contractor and its bids for the specified date range, including its rank among the other bidders and the bid total. You do not have to have bid on the proposal in order to view the comparison details.
- Click the Letting ID to see the letting details.
- Click the Proposal ID to see the proposal details.
- Click the rank or the green arrow of a proposal to see the bid comparison results.
The graph shows the contractors who also bid on the proposal and the percentage difference of their bids compared to the chosen contractor’s bid. The contractor is represented by a diamond and the other contractors are represented by a circle.
Bid comparison results
This display includes the proposal information and the number of items in the proposal, plus your bid total.
The Percent slider guide displays the percent difference between the highest and lowest bid totals and your bid total.
The Amount slider guide displays the dollar amount difference between the highest and lowest bid totals and your bid total.
Use the slider guides to narrow the comparison data or click on the value next to the slider and enter a new amount. Click Update once the amounts are set to display the new parameters. Click Reset to move the guides to their original positions.
The table contains the amounts each vendor bid on the proposal and a graph of the over or under bid percents based on your bid.
- The green variance lines in the display represent the percentage of the bid amounts that bid less than you for the selected proposal.
- The red variance lines represent the percentage of the bid amount that bid more than you for the selected proposal.
Bid comparison details
Click the red or green variance bar on the Bid Comparison Results page for the bid you want to compare. The Bid Express service goes to the Bid Comparison Details page.
The Bid Comparison Details page displays an overview on the proposal details. The graph displays the proposal's major items. Click All Items in the bar on top of the display to see all the items in the proposal.
The graph breaks down the bid by item, description, and quantity, plus the amount difference and percent difference of the two bid totals. You can use the slider guides to filter the items.
When you are finished on the Bid Comparison Details page, click Bid Comparison Results in the navigation trail to return to the Bid Comparisons Results page. Items are listed in order of percent over bid.
Click the variance bar on the Bid Comparison Details page to see the item comparison details.
Viewing options
You can view all the items in the bid comparison details, the items that have the same bid, or the items that were over or underbid by selecting the option at the top of the table. The default is All.
You can view the item prices as dollar amounts or as a percent of the difference between the item bid totals by selecting the option at the top middle of the table. The default is Price.
Click All Items on top of the display box to see all the items in the proposal. Click Show Major Items to display only the items that account for five percent or more of the bid total.
Slider Guides
Use the slider guides to change the criteria of the items displayed. For example, if you want to see items above a certain quantity, click the left slider guide in the Quantity field and slide it to the quantity you want.
You can also click the number on either side of the guide and enter a new number.
Once the guide is set, click Update to see the new search results.
Job profile
The Job Profile displays contractors who had the low bid for a majority of the proposals on which you bid during a specified time frame. The Bid Express service displays the completed jobs and the works in progress for those proposals in the selected time frame in the state agency you selected when you first logged in.
If you have a saved list, the Job Profile instead displays the results of the list.
- Click on the Job Profile icon.
- Enter your bidder ID or business name from the Select Contractor field and enter the time frame to search.
- Click Search.
The Bid Express service displays a list of contractors who have submitted low bids in that area during the selected time frame and pins the locations of the three vendors who had the most low bids.
You can filter the list to show select contractors in a variety of ways:
- Enter the contractor’s name in the Search for a contractor field.
- Select or clear the check boxes for the contractors you wish to display or remove.
- Use the All or None options to select or clear the check boxes for all contractors in the list.
Click a pin to show the job details, including the low bid for the project. Click the X in the details to close the detail window.
Use the Save List link to save a set list of contractors.
Job profile save list
You can configure the Job Profile to display only certain vendors. If you have a saved list, you will see only the contractors you selected, regardless of if those contractors have any works in progress in the specified date range.
- If the contractor isn’t already visible in the list, enter the contractor’s name in the lower Search for a contractor field. Select the contractor from the list that displays. You may see a message that the selected contractor does not have any bids for the specified time frame. Click OK.
- Repeat the step until all contractors that you want to see are listed.
- Click the X for any contractor you do not want displayed.
- Click Save List.
The Bid Express service saves your custom list. The next time you use the Job Profile page, you will see only your saved contractors.
To clear your saved list, click the X for all the contractors in your list and click Save List. The Bid Express service clears your list and displays the contractors who won projects in the selected time frame.
Depending on the number of jobs won in the area, the list may take some time to display.
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