posted: August 31st, 2011
Great news for our Graphic Design client. They have been awarded the contract with Warrington Council. We reported the news that they had made it through the PQQ (pre-qualification questionnaire) stage last month and now they have made it through the ITT and been awarded the contract.
We supported them on the PQQ (pre-qualification questionnaire) and ITT (invitation to tender).
posted: August 18th, 2011
We were recently asked:
What help is there for small businesses with quality assurance frameworks often requested in ITTs?
As a one person company, I struggle to provide some of the paperwork on quality frameworks and accreditations etc that some tenders request. Where can I get support with this kind of thing without spending excessive amounts of time or money?
Our response was:
By quality assurance frameworks are you referring to the ISO9001 accreditation – ? In our opinion this is not needed for a one person company. However you will need to make it clear how you ensure you deliver a consistently excellent service. This is largely done with a quality policy. It will depend on the specific tender how this response will score. But you can always ask the question to the authority before putting any time, money and effort into the tender. If this will not suffice then it may not be worth going for.
Tendering will always take a certain level of resource. But we find the main way companies save time and money is by being very selective about which tenders they go for. We would be happy to offer a free assessment and honestly look at your chances of success and whether a particular tender is worth pursuing.
Now it is also important to note that ‘tendering’ is not the only way to win contracts in the public sector. Many large and small value contracts are not put out to tender (even though often they should be). And an old fashioned sales approach can still work – depending on the sector.
Join our LinkedIn Group: Tender Advice Forum and send us your questions.
posted: August 15th, 2011
| AWARD CRITERIA | The objective and transparent means by which buyers assess tender responses to select a winner – can use either (a) lowest tender price only or (b) most economically advantageous tender criteria. |
| BEST VALUE | This is planning, delivering and improving goods, works and services to ensure they are delivered in an efficient, effective and economical manner, appropriate to the needs of our Customers. |
| COMPETITIVE DIALOGUE PROCEDURE | A three stage procurement process used in the award of particularly complex projects where an open or restricted procedure is not possible. |
| CONTRACTING AUTHORITY | The State, regional or local authorities and bodies governed by public law. |
| CPV CODES | Common Procurement Vocabulary EU classification scheme used to standardise the classification of goods and services for the benefit of purchasers and suppliers. |
| EVALUATION CRITERIA | The basis upon which various decisions will be taken, either at selection or award stage. |
| EU | European Union |
| ECONOMIC OPERATOR | The generic European term applied to describe suppliers, service providers and contractors. |
| EEA Agreement | An agreement between the EU and Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. |
| EEA Countries | Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein in addition to all EU Member States. |
| EXPRESSION OF INTEREST | An invitation to the market to apply for a place on the tender list. Usually requires providing specified information to the public body regarding a firm’s financial, economic and technical capacity. |
| EU Countries | 27 Member States – Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK. |
| FOI | Freedom of Information – as per FOI Act 2000. |
| FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT | An agreement between one or more public bodies and one or more suppliers, the purpose of which is to enable contracts to be awarded over a period of time. |
| GPA Government Procurement Agreement | Signed by some signatories of the World Trade Organisation Agreement |
| GPA Countries | EEA/EU countries plus Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands with respect to Aruba, Singapore, Switzerland and The United States. |
| ITT | Invitation to Tender or Instructions to Tender. |
| MINIMUM STANDARD | The stated level which must be achieved for specific selection criteria or award criteria (e.g. Selection criteria – evidence of turnover; minimum level £100,000). |
| NEGOTIATED PROCEDURE | An advertised procedure which involves negotiating with a number of firms (usually 3 or more). |
| OJEU | Official Journal of the European Union, which is a website that provides a gateway for Suppliers who wish to search for new business opportunities sent directly from the OJEU and also lower value opportunities from a wide range of other sources throughout theUKandIreland. |
| OPEN PROCEDURE | This is a commonly used purchasing procedure whereby all those companies who apply for tender documents will be allowed to tender. |
| PIN | Prior Information Notice – the means by which contracting authorities may indicate their purchases over the following 12 months at European level. Sometimes used to invite parties to a technical dialogue. |
| PUBLIC BODY OR PUBLIC SECTOR | A contracting authority or a contracting entity |
| PREQUALIFICATION | The mechanism for determining the suitability of applicants for inclusion on tender lists. Also known as selection or eligibility or suitability. |
| PRICING SCHEDULE | A form which is sent out with a Request for Quote or Invitation to Tender which asks the supplier to input pricing information against pre-set goods, works or services. |
| PQQ (PRE QUALIFICATION QUESTIONNAIRE) | A questionnaire document frequently used to request information on financial and technical capacity from interested parties as part of the Restricted, Competitive Dialogue and Negotiated Procedures. |
| RESTRICTED PROCEDURE | This is a commonly used purchasing procedure which provides for the most suitable applicants to be placed on a tender list.Under this procedure normally at least 5 firms are invited to tender. |
| RFP | Request for Price or Request for Proposals. |
| RFT | Request for Tender. |
| SELECTION CRITERIA | The mechanism for determining the suitability of applicants for inclusion on tender lists. See also prequalification. |
| SERVICE CONTRACT | A contract for the provision of services as defined in the EU Directives. |
| SERVICE CONCESSION | A contract of the same type as a service contract except for the fact that the consideration for the provision of the services consists in the right to exploit the service or in this right together with payment. |
| SERVICE PROVIDER | An individual or company which provides services. |
| SME | Small and Medium SizeEnterprise. |
| SPECIFICATION | A description of the product or service required in terms of functional and/or technical performance. |
| STANDARD TERMS AND CONDITIONS | The terms and conditions we send out with all Purchase Orders and Request for Quotes which we expect suppliers to accept and comply with during the contract. |
| STANDSTILL PERIOD | Also known as the Alcatel Period. The minimum period between the notification date of unsuccessful tenderers and the date of contract award. |
| SUPPLY CONTRACT | A contract for the purchase, lease, rental or hire purchase of products (may also include siting and installation services). |
| TENDER | Tender refers to a formal written submission from the supplier or service provider detailing their offer. |
| TENDERER | A party submitting a tender to a public body. |
| TOTAL VALUE | This is the aggregated value of a purchased good, works or service over the duration of a contract. For example a particular service costs £50,000 per year to deliver, but the contract for the service is four years. The Total Value is therefore £200,000 and is therefore subject to the OJEU procedure when procuring that service. |
| TUPE | Tenders which include the potential for staff to be affected must take due regard of the Transfer of Undertaking of Protective Employment (TUPE) regulations, including formal consultation with staff and their trade unions. |
| VARIANT BID | A contract notice will tell the supplier whether or not we are willing to accept Variant Bids, which means if a supplier has a more innovative solution to meet our needs than we have considered, they have a chance to propose and price it as well as providing a Compliant Bid. |
| WEIGHTINGS | The mathematical emphasis placed on various criteria in the selection or award stage of a tender procedure. |
posted: August 11th, 2011
To tender or not to tender? Should this be a sales or business management decision? Are bid teams being kept busy by a sales team who need to look ‘busy’ or because it’s right for the business?
On a recent training event with a National FM Company we examined this key decision making process and the time it incurred as a result. Despite the company being successful through the formal tender process the cost versus reward was starting to look imbalanced.
On examining the process the decision maker held an admin role within the sales team. There was no real responsibility from Management or the Board despite the large impact the decision had on the organisation as a whole. This often meant they were going for every tender they had coming through without a real assessment of if it would be profitable for them, in line with their strategic direction, or if they had a good chance of winning the contract. They very rarely failed on a PQQ so this meant that every decision to go for a contract involved a large amount of site visits, assessments and pricing, not including developing tailored method statements etc. But they had failed to realise that despite getting through the PQQ their chances of winning some contracts was still very low.
We supported them to establish key procedures to improve this process and as a result they are tendering 30% less and their success rate has increased.
Often people rely on feeling busy rather than really tailoring what they want to go for, which needs to be central.