Background
Tender Victory’s aim is to help SMEs across the country grow through tendering. Our core service is to provide tender writing expertise to businesses to help secure their next contact win. In addition, we often help smaller businesses who are new to tendering to understand the public sector procurement landscape, get themselves ready for tendering and train them in writing winning tenders.
In late 2022, Devon County Council sought to award a contract, through a competitive tender process, to help Devon based businesses to better understand tenders and procurement, as part of the Council’s Community Wealth Building programme, post COVID-19.
Due to the skillset we have in our team, we bid for the contract to deliver a programme of tendering support to businesses across Devon, referred to as the ‘Get Set to Tender’ scheme. More details on the scheme can be found here: https://tendervictory.co.uk/cases-studies/devon-council-get-set-to-tender-training/
Challenges
A key challenge with the tender was the specified requirement to include the marketing and enrolment of businesses onto the scheme. We engaged with potential sub-contractors and suppliers to support this element of the requirement, to ensure that we could fully meet the requirement. We also raised several clarifications with the Council, as part of the tender process, to ensure we could fully meet their requirements in all aspects of the specification and delivery.
Implementation
Vicki (Director) developed Tender Victory’s offer, based on delivering monthly workshops and 1:1 sessions, in order to support Devon businesses to learn how to get ready for tendering and apply their knowledge to increase their bidding success.
During the tender writing process, Vicki planned out the responses to each of the quality questions, taking into consideration the specification and clarifications. She also liaised with other members of the Tender Victory team for input, in addition to their undertaking reviews of the draft responses. In compiling the tender submission, we followed our own advice, by planning, drafting and then getting a fresh pair of eyes to review the draft tender responses!
Result
Tender success for Tender Victory! We were awarded the contract to deliver the programme of sessions outlined in our tender offer.
The programme, comprising group workshops and 1:1 sessions, was very positively received. Due to the success of the scheme, particularly towards the end of the contract, the demand was such that Devon County Council decided to extend the contract so that more SMEs could benefit from the content and sessions. Feedback across all the workshops averaged between 4.5 & 5 out of 5, demonstrating the attendees’ satisfaction.
Tender Victory, together with Devon County Council, raised the profile of SME tendering in Devon and supported small businesses and VCSOs in getting themselves ready and prepared for tendering in the public sector, upskilling businesses and increasing the number of companies able to tender.
Summary
By interrogating the specification and using the clarifications process, we were able to ensure that our proposal was both compliant with the Council’s requirement and also met their budget. Involving key members of the team in discussions on the approach, also helped to ensure we submitted a well-rounded proposal that was deliverable and would meet the aims of the scheme.
The scheme enabled numerous SMEs and CICs to go on to submit successful tenders and grant applications, further contributing to the stability and growth of these organisations.