Submitting your tender online and checking it has uploaded fully
We recently had a client contact us with concerns that a tender they had submitted using an online e-procurement portal (website) may not have been submitted correctly.
For this client, we had worked with them to write a comprehensive, well rounded technical submission that represented their business and their intentions for the delivery of the contract. We then provided the client with the technical submission to upload, as they had opted to submit the tender themselves once the pricing had been finalised.
Their concerns arose when the e-tendering portal sent them an automated message 48 hours prior to the deadline stating that they had not submitted a response, when in fact they had. The confusion had arisen as they had already completed the submission and the site had emailed them to tell them it had been successfully received.
To check the status of their submission, the client then logged into the portal to investigate. They found that it had indeed been submitted, but when they checked the content of the documents, there had been a corruption in the upload process which meant that none of their submission documents had uploaded correctly and therefore could not be read when opened. As our client made these checks in good time before the deadline, they were able to seek our advice and support in resubmitting the tender documents. Accordingly the tender was correctly and fully submitted, as planned, in advance of the deadline.
However, if they had not logged in to check their submission documents, they might have found that the Authority they were tendering too were unable to access their tender and therefore be unable to consider and evaluate them for the contract. They may have missed out altogether.
To avoid such concerns and occurrences, at Tender Victory we offer a submission service which includes a staged approach to the submission of tenders. These stages include the following steps:
- During the tender writing and completion, we keep a manual written list of all documents required that will comprise the submission. We number this list, make notes as required and create consistent file names for the attachments. Numbering the list helps with the process of checking the right documents and correct number of documents are uploaded.
- When undertaking the upload to the procurement portal, using a printed copy of the list created in stage 1 above, we check off each document on the list as it uploads.
- Once all documents have uploaded, we check the number of documents in total against list number and revisit the document titles/names to ensure all have completed upload.
- As we proceed through the submission stages we take screen shots which show the times and documents. These are saved in case of any future query relating to the submission.
- After completing the submission, we log out and then log back into the portal in order to check the submission and that documents can be viewed.
- Tender Victory, after this last stage, arranges for another member of our team to check the submission documents, to ensure absolutely that they can be accessed.