Vendor Evaluation & Selection
Monday.com · Salesforce · Edison365 · shortlist and decision
A structured, scored evaluation of the three candidate platforms (Monday.com, Salesforce and Edison365), against a single set of weighted criteria and a common demo script. Recommendation and executive decision by the end of July, so build can start on 1 August with 9 weeks to go-live.
The shortlist
Three platforms, one honest read
Monday.com
8–10 weeksConfigurable work OS with a strong bid/pipeline template ecosystem. Ships fast, low-code, high UX.
Strengths
- Fastest configuration and shortest time to first working system
- Excellent user experience, high adoption ceiling
- Flexible dashboards and automations without developer effort
- Reasonable licence economics for our scale
Watch-outs
- Less mature for deep CRM/opportunity workflow than Salesforce
- Reporting depth ceilings hit sooner as complexity grows
- Integration to ERP and finance systems needs middleware for anything non-trivial
Best fit if: Speed to go-live and adoption matter more than enterprise-CRM depth.
Indicative: £50–80k yr 1 build · £30–60k yr 1 licences
Salesforce (Sales Cloud)
12–16 weeksEnterprise-grade CRM with the deepest opportunity, forecasting and reporting capability on the market.
Strengths
- Best-in-class pipeline, forecast and reporting engine
- Huge partner ecosystem and long-term extensibility
- Strong out-of-the-box governance, roles and permissions
- Credible if bid becomes part of a wider commercial platform
Watch-outs
- Longer implementation, higher total cost of ownership
- Real risk of over-configuration killing adoption
- Licences and premium features (CPQ, Einstein) escalate fast
Best fit if: You expect bid to be one part of a broader commercial CRM footprint within 18 months.
Indicative: £90–140k yr 1 build · £50–90k yr 1 licences
Edison365
10–12 weeksMicrosoft 365-native bid & innovation platform, purpose-built for opportunity, bid and portfolio management.
Strengths
- Purpose-built for bid lifecycle: qualification, review gates, content
- Native inside Microsoft 365 (Teams, SharePoint, Office), so very low friction for existing users
- Strong out-of-the-box governance for stage gates and approvals
- Lighter change curve where the org already lives in M365
Watch-outs
- Smaller partner ecosystem than Monday or Salesforce
- Reporting less flexible than Salesforce for non-standard views
- Roadmap dependency on a single vendor's release cadence
Best fit if: The bid lifecycle is the primary use case and Microsoft 365 is the productivity backbone.
Indicative: £60–100k yr 1 build · £30–70k yr 1 licences
Weighted scorecard
Nine criteria, one scored recommendation
Indicative weights and 1–5 scores based on public capability. Numbers to be re-scored during live demos and reference calls.
| Criterion | Weight | Monday | Salesforce | Edison365 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time to first working system | 15% | 5 | 3 | 4 |
| Fit for bid lifecycle out-of-box | 15% | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| User adoption / UX | 15% | 5 | 3 | 4 |
| Reporting & forecasting depth | 10% | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| Microsoft 365 integration | 10% | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| Extensibility & ecosystem | 10% | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| Total 3-year cost of ownership | 10% | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| International rollout fit (14) | 10% | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| Vendor & partner risk | 5% | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| Weighted total (out of 100) | 79.0 | 75.0 | 80.0 |
Indicative only. Final scores emerge from live demos, reference calls and total 3-year cost. A single-vendor recommendation, with dissenting views captured, goes to the CEO by end of July.
Evaluation process
Four weeks from kick-off to signed decision
- 1
Days 1–5
Confirm requirements
Bid lifecycle, non-negotiables, must-integrate list, KPI definitions.
- 2
Day 5
Shortlist confirmed
Monday, Salesforce, Edison365 confirmed as the three-way scored evaluation.
- 3
Days 6–8
Common demo script
Same scripted scenarios shown by every vendor: opportunity, review gate, content reuse, reporting.
- 4
Days 10–20
Vendor demos
2-hour scored demo per vendor + 60-min Q&A with implementation partner.
- 5
Days 15–22
Reference calls
Two reference customers per vendor at comparable scale / footprint.
- 6
Days 20–25
Commercial proposals
Fixed-scope proposals to a common statement of work.
- 7
Days 25–28
Scored recommendation
Weighted scorecard + qualitative narrative, single recommendation with dissent captured.
- 8
By end July
Executive decision
One-page recommendation to CEO, contract signature within 5 working days.
Non-negotiables
What every vendor must demonstrate live
- Full bid lifecycle: qualify → propose → review gate → submit → outcome → post-mortem
- Role-based views for bid manager, contributor, reviewer, exec sponsor
- Native Microsoft 365 / Teams / SharePoint integration for documents
- SSO via Entra ID / Azure AD, MFA enforced
- Configurable stages and fields per country, without forking
- Live pipeline, weighted forecast and win-rate reporting out of the box
- Bulk data import from Excel with mapping and validation
- Fixed-scope statement of work with a 30 September go-live commitment