Tender Subscription Services

Tender subscription services - outsourced tender support services

With the rise in formal tenders across both the public and private sectors, there is a growing need for consistent and reliable bidding and tender writing support services. Tender subscription services provide organisations without an in-house bid team to compete for and win tenders.

What is a tender subscription service?

A tender subscription service is a specialised platform or service offered by companies or organisations that provides users with access to a curated database of tender opportunities. These services cater to businesses, particularly those involved in government procurement or public sector contracts, by aggregating and disseminating information about upcoming tender opportunities relevant to their industry or area of interest.

Subscribers to tender subscription services typically receive regular updates or alerts about new tender opportunities, tailored to their specific preferences or requirements. This may include details such as tender descriptions, deadlines, eligibility criteria, and contact information for the contracting authority.

By subscribing to such a service, businesses can stay informed about potential opportunities, streamline their tendering process, and increase their chances of securing contracts. Additionally, tender subscription services often offer additional features such as market analysis, bid management tools, and support services to help businesses navigate the tendering process more effectively.

Thornton & Lowe tender subscription services

Search and Selection (S&S). From £390 per month our search and selection service involves not just monitoring tender alerts each day, but also shortlisting providing tailored opportunities. This is not a software solution but completed by our research team who get to understand your business and what is really of interest. Saving you time and money

Bid Mentor Service (BMS). From £650 per month the bid mentor service provides clients with monthly guidance session, bid strategy, a bid pipeline and time available for bid writing and reviews

Bid Administration Service (BAS). From £1000 per month, our bid admin service includes tender alerts, but also portal management, tender inbox management, collating tender documents, more basic supplier forms, and producing summaries to support our clients to make effective decisions

Bid Success Programme (BSP). Starting from £1950 per month, our BSP has been the core of our business and tender subscription service for nearly 10 years now. We become our clients dedicated bid writing team, producing better results and return on investment.

Why do businesses need a tender subscription service?

Businesses seek tender subscription services for several reasons, including:

Access to tender alerts. Tender subscription services provide businesses with access to a wide range of tender opportunities from various sectors and geographic locations, allowing them to identify potential contracts relevant to their expertise and interests. In addition to our Search & Selection Service detailed below, we also have our free to use Tender Pipeline - for tender alerts, contract awards and frameworks

Saving time. By receiving regular updates and alerts about new tender opportunities, businesses save time on manual searches and can quickly identify relevant contracts that align with their capabilities and resources. Combined with our bid administration and writing services means you are able to outsource a large part of this critical function

Competitive advantage. Tender subscription services enable businesses to stay ahead of competitors by having bidding expert capacity available to meet your peaks and troughs. At Thornton & Lowe we have a combination of both procurement and commercial bidding expertise. Combine this with having worked on thousands of success bids, and got tender feedback each time; we really know our stuff!

Market Insights. Our tender subscription services provide clients with market insights and analysis, helping them understand industry trends, competitor activity, and upcoming procurement opportunities, which can inform strategic decision-making and business development efforts. This includes contract award notices, bid pipelines and competitor analysis.

Bid writing and tender process with our tender subscription services

The tender process can be a lot more efficient and effective when using one of our tender subscription services.

1. Our team complete daily checks for new tenders. We meet you and learn about your business, which informs our selection. This is not automated but completed by our talented bid research team

2. Choosing and collecting tenders. We shortlist and send across the key details of tenders in a format agreed by you, ensuring we can take the hassle out of tender selection. Via our subscription service we can gather all the documents needed for the tender, like the scope, pass/ fails, rules, incumbent details and deadlines

3. Accessing and using tender portals. Our subscription services allows our team to access key portals and websites on our clients behalf. Monitoring inboxes and sharing key information and updates across your business

4. Deciding Whether to Bid or Not. The subscription services help businesses decide if they should bid on a tender or not, as we provide the leg-work in the background collating key details to inform your decision.

5. Managing and Writing Bids. Our contracted or subscription clients get a lead bid writer, and support team to ensure a streamlined approach and that you dealing with someone who has time to learn about your business. We provide bid writing, coordination and management, ensuring bids are submitted on time and to the highest quality standard. We have to work very closely with our clients to build up a bid library, and to then chase down specifics for live tenders. This approach ensures we minimise the disruption to your team but can still submit highly tailored or fully bespoke tender responses. This means businesses can write stronger bids, increasing their chances of winning contracts, via our outsourced bid writing services.

6. Submitting Bids. We support our tender subscription clients to collate all their responses into the required format and upload them onto the portal, checking for word counts, character restrictions and final check of clarification questions. Wherever possible we aim to submit bids 3 days prior to the deadline, or at least have them online, uploaded and ready to be submitted. In most cases, our clients then click submit. This ensures clients can submit bids with confidence, knowing they've done everything right.

7. Learning and Getting Better. After submitting a bid, as a tender subscription service client, we then have a lessons learned workshop to ensure each bid is better and the bidding process is as effective as possible.