RFP Analyzer: Streamlining Your Go/No Go Process
Last updated: October 19, 2026
RFP Analyzer helps you decide whether an RFP is worth answering before you spend days on it. Upload the documents and Iris pulls out the requirements, checks each one against your Knowledge Map, scores the RFP against your evaluation criteria, and suggests Go, Review or No Go. You make the call. You'll find it as RFP Analyzer in the sidebar if your role includes the RFP Analyzer permission.
Setting up what Iris judges against happens in Settings. That means Evaluation Criteria, Analyzer Presets and Scoring Schemas, and it is covered in Evaluation Criteria, Analyzer Presets and Scoring Schemas. This article is about running an analysis.
The RFP list
Open RFP Analyzer. Across the top you'll see Qualification Rate, Total RFPs, Requirements and Pending, with Evaluation Criteria and Upload RFP at the right. Your analyses sit in a table below, with the RFP Title, Upload Date, number of Requirements and Status. All RFPs shows every analysis you're allowed to see, and My RFPs shows the ones you uploaded. If your role allows only one of them, you'll see only that tab.
The RFP list. Status says Needs review until you've made a decision, then shows it.
While an analysis runs, Status reads Analyzing... and then Evaluating..., or Analysis Failed if something goes wrong. After that it shows your own decision, Go or No Go, and Needs review until you decide. A file with nothing to extract reads No requirements found. It never shows Iris's suggestion. That lives on the RFP's page.
Start an analysis
Click Upload RFP.
Add your files. Drag them in or click Browse files, and add as many as make up the RFP. PDF, DOCX, XLSX, XLSM, CSV, TXT and MD files work, up to 100 MB each. If your organization has Salesforce connected and this is turned on, a From Salesforce tab lets you pick an Opportunity and choose from its attachments instead. You can't mix the two in one analysis.
Mark each file Response or Context. A Response file is read for requirements and scored. A Context file is searchable background that is never scored, such as a prior contract or a pricing sheet. At least one file must be Response.
Check the RFP name, which the dialog fills in for you. Iris fills it in from your first Response file, and you can change it.
If your organization has Analyzer Presets, pick one from Analyzer preset. It sets the Knowledge Map tags and the criteria for this RFP. Without a preset, the Knowledge base tags start with your organization's defaults, marked (Org default), and you can add or remove tags. With no tags, Iris searches your whole Knowledge Map.
Click Analyze. It stays gray until you've added a file. Analysis usually takes 2 to 5 minutes, and you can close the page and come back.
Drop in every file that makes up the RFP. The dialog explains Response and Context, and Analyze stays gray until a file is added.
Several Response files become one analysis with one set of requirements, one score and one decision. A requirement that appears in two files is listed twice. If one file can't be read, the others still count.
What the analysis page shows
Click an RFP to open it. A progress display walks through Analyzing document, Evaluating requirements and Evaluating criteria. Your criteria run automatically after the analysis, so there's nothing to start.
The top of an analysis: the title and buttons, Qualification Rate, Key Dates, and the RFP Decision section.
Near the top you'll see these summaries:
Qualification Rate counts how many requirements you meet, shown as a "weighted score". A requirement marked Meets counts in full and Partially meets counts as half. If the RFP publishes its own scoring criteria, those weights are used. Otherwise every requirement counts the same.
Go / No-Go Score shows up once your organization has scored criteria, meaning Must-have or Red flag criteria. It counts how many of them passed. A must-have passes when it's present. A red flag passes when Iris doesn't find it. Additional context criteria are never scored, so if that's all you have, you won't see this tile.
Key Dates lists the deadlines Iris found. Use Add to calendar on any date.
The Go / No-Go Score once must-have or red-flag criteria are in place.
Below them, the Summary gives a short overview of the RFP. Analyzer Notes is a place to jot down pricing reminders or stakeholder comments, and the notes carry into the project if you start one. A collapsed Reference section holds Key Contacts and the RFP's own Scoring Criteria.
Review and adjust the results
Requirement Coverage has two tabs. Extracted Requirements lists each requirement with a status of Meets, Partially meets or Likely does not meet. Expand one to see where it came from in the RFP, add notes and leave comments. If you know something Iris doesn't, click the status and choose a different one. Your change is saved right away and counts toward the Qualification Rate.
Click a status to change it. Expand a row for its source, notes and comments.
Did Iris miss a requirement? Click Add requirement and describe it in a sentence.
The Evaluation Criteria tab shows how the RFP did against your criteria, with a quote from the RFP as evidence for each finding. You can change a criterion's status here too. Evaluate All re-runs every criterion, which is handy after you edit your criteria in Settings. The Re-evaluate button at the top of the page re-runs the requirement checks without re-reading the document.
Record your decision
Next to the title you'll see Iris's suggestion, such as Review with "suggested" beside it. In RFP Decision, Iris shows "Iris would lean Go", "Review" or "No Go" with the reason. Iris leans No Go when a serious red flag is present, and Go when no red flags are present and you meet at least 80% of the requirements. Anything else is Review. If your organization uses Bid Assessment Scorecards, the scorecard's result appears beside the suggestion.
Then it's your call. Click Go or No Go, add Notes if you like, and click Confirm Decision. Your name and the date are saved with it, and Change Decision reopens it. There's no Review button, because Review is a suggestion and not a decision.
Start the response
Decided to go? Click Start Response and choose Start project or Start proposal. Start project opens the new project folder with the RFP's files already in it: Response files stay Response and Context files stay Context. See Project Folders. Start proposal is covered in Proposal Generation. Once a response exists, the page shows Go to project folder.
Re-analyze
Updated your Knowledge Map, or want to focus on different sources? Click Re-analyze. A pop-up titled Re-analyze this RFP? asks which tags to use under Tags used for this run. Tags are required here.
Pick the tags Iris should consult for the new run, then click Re-analyze.
Re-analyzing keeps the statuses you set by hand and any verdicts you commented on. It drops requirements you added yourself, so add them again if you still need them.
Export and permissions
Export Report downloads a Word file with the summary, key dates, contacts, scoring criteria, requirements and criteria results. Several actions depend on your role:
Action | Permission |
|---|---|
Upload an RFP | Create Project Hubs |
Analyze, re-analyze, re-evaluate, record a decision | Edit Projects |
Export Report | Export Project |
Delete an RFP | Delete Projects |
See Roles in Iris.