A missing document
A pass/fail question asks for a policy you have never formalised. A vague paragraph in its place is read as an absence of control, and a mandatory requirement left unmet ends the bid.
Pre-qualification questionnaire : pass the first gate with evidence, not boilerplate.
A PQQ decides who is invited to bid. It asks for the same proofs every time, financial standing, insurance, policies, references, and screens out the supplier who cannot produce them. Optivalue.ai drafts each answer from your own documents and cites the file, page and version behind it.
What is a pre-qualification questionnaire ?
A pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) is the stage at which a buyer checks that a supplier meets minimum standards, financial standing, insurance, technical capability, compliance, before inviting a full bid. Suppliers who pass are shortlisted ; the others never see the tender documents.
In UK central government practice, the standard selection questionnaire (SQ) now plays this role. The name changes ; the work of proving who you are and what you can do does not.
What a PQQ checks
Five families of questions, in almost every PQQ
- 01
Identity and structure
Legal entity, registration details, ownership and group structure, the subcontractors you intend to rely on.
- 02
Declarations about past conduct
Statements the buyer asks you to make about the company and its officers. They are signed by a person you authorise, never drafted as boilerplate.
- 03
Economic and financial standing
Accounts, turnover over a stated period, credit references, and current insurance certificates with their levels of cover.
- 04
Technical and professional ability
Comparable contracts and references, qualified staff, quality management and the certifications you hold.
- 05
Policies and procedures
The policies the buyer lists : health and safety, environment, equality, information security, data protection, and any other it names.
Why suppliers fail
Three ways to lose a PQQ before the tender starts
An inconsistent answer
Turnover, headcount or insurance cover differ from the figures you gave the same buyer last quarter. Buyers compare, and inconsistency costs more than a modest figure.
Out-of-date evidence
An insurance certificate that expired last month, a policy version replaced since. The answer was right once ; the evidence attached to it no longer is.
How Optivalue.ai handles it
Four stages, from the PQQ received to the PQQ returned
The PQQ is answered in the buyer's own format. Every answer points to a document you can open ; nothing is asserted that your files do not support.
1The PQQ is read as it was senton import
Excel workbook, Word form, PDF or buyer portal : each question is identified, pass/fail questions are separated from scored ones, and the attachments the buyer requires are listed.
2Each answer is drafted from your documentswith its source
The answer cites the file, the page and the version it comes from, with a confidence score from 0 to 100. Figures come from your latest approved documents, so they match from one PQQ to the next.
3Gaps are declared, not filledbefore the deadline
When no document covers a question, the gap is shown and assigned to the person who holds the knowledge. Where the document itself is missing, we help you draft it from your existing material.
4Your expert approves, the file goes backsame format
Nothing leaves without a named human approval. The PQQ is exported in the layout the buyer sent, ready to sign and submit.
What it changes
The PQQ stops being a fire drill
The same figures every time
One approved source for turnover, cover levels and headcount. The answer given to buyer A and the one given to buyer B are the same, because they come from the same document.
Evidence ready before the PQQ arrives
Expiry dates on certificates and policies are visible. You renew an insurance certificate before a buyer asks for it, not the night before submission.
A go/no-go decision made earlier
Unmet requirements surface on import, not on the last day. You decide whether to bid while there is still time to close a gap, or to walk away.
Frequently asked
PQQs : the questions that come up
01
Is a PQQ the same as a selection questionnaire (SQ) ?
They do the same job : deciding who is invited to bid. The SQ is the standard form used across UK central government ; many other buyers still send their own PQQ. Optivalue.ai reads whichever document you receive, in the format it arrives in.
02
Will Optivalue.ai answer the declarations for us ?
No. Declarations about past conduct are made by a person you authorise. The platform shows which questions are declarations and who must sign them ; it does not assert anything on your behalf.
03
What if we do not have a policy the PQQ asks for ?
The gap is declared and assigned. If the practice exists but was never written down, we help you draft the document from your existing material ; if the practice does not exist, the gap stays declared until you put it in place.
04
Does it work with the buyer's Excel file or portal ?
Yes. Answers are written back into the workbook without breaking its formatting, and portal questionnaires are handled without copying and pasting.
05
Where is our data processed ?
In a private instance, hosted in the country you choose among more than 80. Optivalue.ai is ISO/IEC 27001 certified.
Bring the last PQQ you received.
We run it on your documents, in your environment : every answer with its source, every gap with an owner.