Suppliers price to their own structure
One bundles implementation, another itemizes it. One quotes three years, another quotes one and assumes renewal. One excludes the data migration you will definitely need. None of them are being dishonest. Each is answering the question in the way that shows them best.
Normalizing is your job, not theirs. Until it is done, a bid comparison is a comparison of formatting choices.
The gap is bigger than people expect
In the worked example inside the sheet, a bid that came in 11% cheaper on price finishes 9% more expensive once migration and uplift caps are accounted for. Nothing was hidden. It simply was not asked for in a comparable form.
This is the mechanism behind a pattern we see constantly: the award goes to the lowest number, the difference reappears eighteen months later as change orders, scope variations and an uplift nobody modelled, and procurement’s savings number stops being believed.
Ask what is excluded
“What is not included in this price?” is the highest-yield clarification question in sourcing, and it costs one email. Ask it of every bidder, in writing, and price their answer.
Once bids are normalized, the total goes into the evaluation scorecard as the cost input. Normalization is not a substitute for scoring. It is what makes scoring mean something. The weighting guide covers how much that number should count.