The method takes its name from paper tenders, where suppliers literally submitted two sealed envelopes. The first held the technical proposal: approach, specification compliance, team, experience and certifications. The second held the price. The buyer opened the technical envelopes, evaluated them and decided which suppliers qualified. Only then were the commercial envelopes of qualified suppliers opened, often at a formal opening with witnesses. Prices from suppliers who failed the technical stage were never considered.
The purpose is to protect technical judgement from price. An evaluator who already knows that one supplier is far cheaper tends, consciously or not, to score that supplier's proposal more generously, or to forgive its gaps. Keeping prices sealed until quality has been judged removes that anchor. The method is common in public procurement, construction, engineering, pharmaceuticals and any category where a technically weak offer at a low price creates risk later.
In electronic sourcing the envelopes become access rules. The commercial part of each response is stored but hidden from technical evaluators until a named person opens it after technical sign-off, and that opening is recorded. Variants exist: a minimum technical score to qualify, a combined score using a quality and price weighting, or a lowest-price award among qualified offers. Whatever the variant, the audit trail should show who opened what, and when.
How iProcure handles two-envelope evaluation
iProcure supports this directly. Prices can stay sealed until the technical evaluation is signed off, opening them is a recorded action by a named person, and technical evaluators never see them. Your organisation sets the default and each event can change it. The evaluation model is live; the evaluator workspace with sealed prices is shown on sample data today.