Flawed tendering processes?
posted: February 25th, 2012
Both the Mayo News and Connaught Telegraph report on Councils paying well over the odds for services allegedly due to flawed tendering processes.
Important Changes to Public Procurement
posted: February 24th, 2012
A great briefing from Cobbetts details the important changes to public procurement that came into force in 2011 and explores the possible impact for each.
Understanding the Competition – Competitor Profiling
posted: February 23rd, 2012
When completing a PQQ or tender there is often not enough time spent on understanding the competition:
- What can they offer?
- What experience do they have?
- Where are they based?
- What are their staffing levels?
- How operationally would they manage this contracts?
This is essential. It allow you to get a read understanding of:
- If you can compete and therefore if it’s worth pursuing the tender
- What you can offer over and above your competitors
- What your unique selling point (USP) is and what added value you bring to this contract.
If you are looking to have a consistently high success rate when tendering for contracts then this needs to be a consideration.
Thornton & Lowe offers ‘Competitor Profiling’ for their clients. This involves:
- Identifying the type of contracts you want to tender for
- Researching who has been winning these over the last 2 years
- Gaining a detailed understanding of these successful bidders
- Establishing how you can compete what you need to have in place and what you need to offer.
For further information please contact us now on 0845 862 0154 or complete the quick contact form.
New OJEU thresholds
posted: February 22nd, 2012
The OJEU financial thresholds, ie the value of a contract that means they have to be advertised through the OJEU (Official Journal of the European Union), from January 2012 to December 2013 are:
Central goverment bodies
Supplies and Services - £113,057
Works - £4,348,350
Other contracting authorities
Supplies and Services - £173,934
Works - £4,348,350
Utilities and Defence and Security Public Contracts
Supplies and Services - £347,868
Works - £4,348,350
SMEs face tougher tender contests in Construction
posted: February 22nd, 2012
An interesting article details the findings of a Constructionline report including how the SME market are being affected by increased competition for tenders and later payment times for completed work.
Cloud Procurement gets EC investment
posted: February 13th, 2012
A Guardian article reports on the 10 million euro investment the European Commission is giving to set up the European Cloud Partnership – tasked with bringing the public sector and IT industry together to work on cloud procurement, ensuring security, standards and competition.
Great news for Scottish SMEs
posted: February 10th, 2012
An interesting article outlines the new sustainable procurement bill is being proposed in Scotland.
This will mean that:
- opportunities are advertised and awarded through Public Contracts Scotland;
- the process is made simpler and clearer;
- businesses can find out why decisions have been made and challenge them if necessary.
This is great news for small businesses in Scotland but will it also make things easier for large businesses?
Another article on the same topic reports on Alex Neil MSP’s views on the bill and a report by think tank The Jimmy Reid Foundation calling for further reforms of Scottish procurement.
Public Sector – commitment to carbon reduction
posted: February 9th, 2012
A recent article in the Guardian highlights how committed the public sector is to carbon reduction. The public sector wants to partner with organisations who are like them and who share similar values. If you want to discuss how your business can show this within PQQ’s and tenders contact us now for some free advice.
Ensuring you answer the question
posted: February 8th, 2012
This sounds so simple but from our assessments of hundreds of companies’ PQQ and tender submissions ranging from construction, to facilities management to telecomms, from the largest billion pound organisations to SME’s – the key area of improvement we identify is ensuring theyclearly answer the question.
Questions are usually asking you to demonstrate several different aspects of the business and your experience. Marks are awarded for fully answering the question so make sure it is clear you have done so. Break your response into clear sections (with titles if possible) – each will demonstrate how you can fulfill if not exceed the requirements.
The authority, whether it be the MOD, Housing Association, Council, Local Authority, NHS, etc. will be able to quickly see you have answered the question – so you are helping them and by helping them you are helping yourself!
Another top tip is to ensure more than one person checks the understanding of the question and therefore how to best respond. If it is not clear – then clarify exactly what the authority is looking for.
Construction PQQ’s – ensuring success
posted: February 6th, 2012
PQQ’s in Construction are becoming more and more frequent. Many companies will have held contracts with Local Authorities, Councils, Housing Associations etc. for many years. They are being asked more and more to complete PQQ’s, which are advertised to the whole market. If a company is new to this process, despite being very experienced in the sector and even with the specific contracting authority, they can often fail this pre-qualification stage. This of course can be devastating for any company.
3 top tips to success:
1. Plan. Ensure you have enough time. Considering the amount of business that can come from these types of contracts ensure you have time and resources to do everything possible to ensure success. You will then have enough time to ensure effective responses can be developed, clarification questions can be asked, and checks and improvements can be made. You need time to consider the questions, the weightings, your competition and how to put the company in the best light possible (showing how you can add value).
2. Follow the instructions. This includes making sure you fully understand the PQQ and all the requirements. This will relate to everything from the contracting authority’s aims and goals (and how you can help them achieve those goals), to making sure you clearly answer the question and return the response in the required format and within the deadline.
3. Evidence. Some PQQ’s will have restrictions on supporting documents – so you have to be careful to fully follow these. But where ever possible make sure you evidence what you are saying. Other companies might say they do it – but if you actually do it – prove it!