Tender analysis so you can decide on evidence.
Before you spend weeks on a bid, Carabela answers what matters: whether you can bid, what the specifications demand, how the price is scored and what happened last time. You decide with that in front of you.
The most expensive decision in a tender is taken at the start, and usually in the dark. Bidding for the one that did not fit costs weeks of your team's time; passing on the one that did costs the contract. In between sit long specifications, requirements scattered across annexes and a price formula almost nobody works out before deciding. Tender analysis is the work that separates the opportunities with potential from the ones that only consume hours, and it is usually the first thing cut when the deadline closes in.
Carabela does that analysis on every opportunity it detects, and it does all of it. First the fit: whether your company can bid, whether it meets the mandatory requirements and the solvency, what documentation it is missing, what competition there might be, what risks the file carries and how much effort the bid would take. Then the specifications: subject matter, lots, budget, deadlines, award criteria, formulas, guarantees, penalties, page limits and grounds for exclusion, turned into a structured list of requirements. Then the price: how the formula scores, which scenarios make sense and where the risk of an abnormally low bid sits.
That analysis does not end when the bid goes in. When the contracting body publishes the award and the data is available, Carabela reads the result: the score obtained, the competitors' scores, the winning bid and the price differences, and carries it into the next decision. If you also want Carabela to find the opportunities it analyses, the tender search is the step before this one. And if you are new to public procurement, what specifications, the PCAP and the PPT are explains them from the beginning.
What Carabela analyses in every tender.
Fit and the go/no-go decision
Carabela checks every tender against what it knows about your company: whether you can bid, whether you meet the mandatory requirements and the solvency, what documentation is missing, what experience you can evidence, what competition to expect, what risks the file carries and how much effort the bid would take. The aim is to concentrate the work where there is potential and to say clearly when there are grounds to pass.
Reading the specifications and annexes
Carabela reads the main documents and the annexes and organises what they contain: subject of the contract, lots, budget, duration and extensions, deadlines, award criteria and price formulas, technical requirements, solvency, classifications, guarantees, penalties, special performance conditions, administrative documentation, prescribed formats, page limits and potential grounds for exclusion. Anything that needs confirming on your side is flagged as such.
Minimum requirements versus scored criteria
Not everything in a specification carries the same weight. There are mandatory requirements you either meet or are excluded on, award criteria that earn points, and conditions that simply describe how the contract will be performed. Carabela separates them and shows how the points are split between the technical and the price side, so that you know where the points are won and lost before writing a line.
Price offer: formulas and scenarios
With the specification's formula in front of it, Carabela studies how different price scenarios score, how sensitive the score is to each change, what competitive position is likely, where the risk of an abnormally low bid appears and how the price side relates to the technical one. All within the minimum margin your company has set: the pricing decision is yours and respects your costs.
What each award teaches
When the award is published and the data is available, Carabela analyses the result: the score obtained, the competitors' scores, the winning bid, the price differences and the technical assessments. Out of that come the weak points, what worked and what is worth changing. The next fit analysis starts from that information rather than from what someone remembers of the last one.
How the analysis is done.
The same order [the whole system](/producto) follows on every tender: decide first, then read in depth, then the price, and finally the result.
- 01
Qualify the fit
Every tender detected is checked against your company's context: activity, evidenced experience, solvency, certifications, contract size and the risk you are prepared to take. Out of that comes a verdict and the reasons behind it. If you have asked to approve every opportunity, the decision waits for your signature.
- 02
Read the specifications in full
The main documents and the annexes become a structured list of requirements: what is being contracted, in how many lots, with what budget and deadlines, how it is scored, what solvency and documentation are required, what guarantees and penalties apply and what could get a bid excluded. Anything that needs your confirmation is flagged.
- 03
Study the price
With the price formula and the split of points in front of it, Carabela prepares price scenarios and shows what score each would earn, where the risk of an abnormally low bid sits and what competitive position is likely. You set the final price, within the minimum margin you have defined.
- 04
Read the result
When the award is published and the data is available, Carabela records the score of each bid, the winning one and the price and technical differences, and looks in them for the weak points and what worked. What is learnt updates your company's context, so the next tender is qualified from a better-informed position.
Who it is for.
For whoever decides which tenders to bid for and does not want to do it by eye.
- Companies that find opportunities but do not know which to prioritise.
- Teams that spend hours reading specifications and preparing documentation.
- Companies that already bid but submit few bids for lack of time.
- Companies that are starting out and want to steer clear of tenders they are not ready for.
- Tender departments that want another layer of analysis and capacity, with people still taking the decisions.
Where you decide.
The analysis proposes; your company decides. Bidding for or discarding a tender, requesting clarifications from the contracting body, setting the final price and submitting the proposal are decisions you can keep for yourself, and Carabela waits at each one until you take it. You can approve every opportunity by hand, review only the significant financial decisions, or delegate almost everything and receive only the exceptions. The degree of autonomy is configured for each company. Nothing is submitted without you.
Frequently asked questions.
What does Carabela's tender analysis include?
Fit, specifications, price and result. First, whether your company can bid and whether it is worth doing. Then everything the specifications and their annexes demand, organised as requirements. Then how the price formula scores across different price scenarios. And when the award is published, what happened and what is worth changing. Each part feeds the next.
Can it tell us whether a tender is worth bidding for?
Yes. It is one of the main functions: analysing the fit of each opportunity before time is spent preparing the bid. Carabela checks the tender against your company's capabilities, experience and strategy and tells you whether you can bid, what you are missing and what risks it sees. The go or no-go decision remains yours, with that information in front of you.
Can we hand it a specific tender we have already found?
Yes. The analysis works the same on an opportunity Carabela has detected and on one you bring with the link or the documentation of the file. In both cases it reviews fit, requirements, criteria and documentation against your company's context. What it does not do is take for granted that you can bid before it has read the file.
What happens if we are missing a certificate or a requirement?
It depends on whether it is a mandatory requirement, whether it can be obtained before the required date and on the conditions of the file. The analysis catches it early, precisely so that you do not sink weeks into a tender that is not viable, or so that it can point out what would need resolving before bidding. Anything that needs confirming on your side is flagged as such.
How is this different from handing the specification to a general-purpose AI model?
A general model can help read or summarise a specification. Carabela analyses the file with your company's context: what you can evidence, your margin, your track record and your strategy. That is why it can say whether it fits, not only what it says. And it connects that analysis to preparing the bid, following the process and learning from the result, inside one system.
Does the analysis guarantee we will win?
No. No company can guarantee that a public body will award a particular contract: the decision rests with the contracting body and depends on the bids submitted. What the analysis does is let you decide with more information, make sure no requirement slips past you and set the price knowing how it scores. Nor does it replace legal advice where a binding legal interpretation is needed.
Other solutions
All solutions →Related guides
- What the specifications of a tender are: PCAP and PPT explained without the jargonThe specifications are the rules of a tender. What sits in the PCAP, what sits in the PPT, and where to start reading if your company wants to bid.
- Solvency, the ESPD and joint ventures: the requirements that decide whether you can bidBefore you write a single page of the offer, you need to know whether the company can bid at all. These three concepts decide it.
- Go / no-go: how to decide which tenders to bid for and which to walk away from in timeBidding costs weeks and walking away can cost the contract. A three-filter method for deciding which tenders to bid for without doing it by feel.
Bring us a tender and we will analyse it with you.
In a demo we go through the fit, the requirements and the price of one of your tenders, and whether it makes sense to work together.