Tendering can be a resource intensive process for businesses. To ensure that your resources are being appropriately allocated, it is important to make the right decision on whether or not to bid for tender opportunities.
By carefully considering and selecting opportunities to bid for, you avoid the costly “scattergun” approach to tendering which not only risks unnecessary resource expenditure, but also poor results.
In developing a bid/no-bid methodology, there are a number of considerations that you can take into account that will inform a robust decision making process. Your bid/no-bid methodology can be as formal or informal as you like – as best suited to your business size and structure.
Considerations to work through when assessing a tender opportunity can include the following (any reference to competitors below refers to those companies you are likely to be bidding against for this contract):
- Accreditations specified:
– Are they mandatory or scored?
– Do you have them?
– Do your competitors have them?
– How much investment is required to achieve them?
– How long would it take to become accredited?
– Is this achievable within the contract timetable?
- Geography:
– Under this contract, where do your products/services need delivering?
– How does this affect your logistics and contract management?
– Will the client’s location result in increased costs to you that you have to factor in?
– Where are your competitors located?
- Technology:
– Are certain software/hardware systems required to deliver this contract?
– Is use of such technology a mandatory requirement or scored?
– Do you have these in your business currently?
– Is there an implementation time/cost for introducing this technology?
– Are your competitors already using this technology?
- Recruitment?
– Do you have sufficient staff to service the contract if awarded?
– What recruitment/uplift in personnel numbers is required?
– Can recruitment and the required training be undertaken prior to contract award?
- Value:
– How does the value of this contract relate to the turnover of your business? Many public sector Authorities are mindful of awarding contracts to businesses where the contract value equates to too high a proportion of the business’s turnover
- Experience:
– Can you really demonstrate past experience that is relevant to this contract?
– Do your competitors have experience that is relevant to the delivery of this contract?
– Experience will be an important consideration in the evaluation and award of the contract.
- Price:
– What weighting does the pricing section have?
– What is your price position in your industry/marketplace?
– Can you bid competitively on price?
- Procurement Process:
– What procurement process is being undertaken by the Authority?
– Is it a one stage tender?
– Are there multiple stages over a number of months?
– What will the cost of tendering for this opportunity be to your business?
In the above considerations, where we refer to mandatory criteria or scored, we seek to understand whether the requirement being specified constitutes a pass or fail (i.e. if you have it you pass, if you don’t, you fail the tender process at this point regardless of other answers/responses). For scored criteria, you should seek to understand how heavily this consideration is weighted in the evaluation process and what your potential score in this area might be.
In addition to those areas noted above, there are many other factors you can take into consideration when assessing a tender opportunity. For those tenders that you decide to bid for, using a carefully considered approach when tendering will help to inform your tender preparation and writing.
We have assisted clients in varying industries with preparing bid/no-bid methodologies. If this is something that you would like further assistance with, please do drop us a line to discuss further.