A "Benchmark Response" is full Response (answers to all questions) from a previous RFP Project that is linked to a different response in the current Project. The purpose of such a link to enable the system to compare answers and scores between responses. Obviously, this only works in cases where the same questions are being re-used between projects.
The aim is to help with scoring a Project by providing a pre-scored example response, sometimes referred to as a "Golden Copy". This is especially useful in cases where PostRFP is used for a review of an existing supplier, rather than a competitive bid.
For example, in the banking sector, there are regulatory obligations to check compliance amongst sub-contractual counterparties. These checks are often implemented in PostRFP via a "Due Diligence Questionnaire". This is a standard PostRFP questionnaire which is issued to each counterparty once per year. Without care, the inevitable duplication of effort involved can lead to errors:
Benchmark Responses can help. Firstly, each Respondent will import all previous answers. They will then check through and update those answers that require a change. No clunky copy and pasting. Secondly, when the analyst receives the Response, PostRFP will flag up those answers that have changed, thus converting dreary duplication of effort into focussed exception processing. This is standard PostRFP answer import functionality. Benchmark Responses come into play for those answers that have changed. By being able to get a side by comparison between the current answer and the pre-scored, "official" answer, the analyst can assign an appropriate score.