ICM - Leeds Design Agency

Love Me Tender

Hello, I’m Louise and this is my first ever blog (or should I say ‘the first time I have ever blogged’?) I wanted to share with the world my thoughts on a subject close to my heart – public sector tendering. I’ve had good experiences, bad experiences and very bad experiences of tendering and have put together some ‘top tips’. Hope they help.

To those of you who have already tendered for Public Sector work, you will know that in order to win contracts you have to go through the costly, time consuming and enjoyable process of tendering. This process begins with the Pre Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) which demands answers to many business related questions which cover everything from your name and address, turnover and technical capacity to past work examples and the inside leg measurements of all key staff employed to work on the project*. If you pass the PQQ stage and are shortlisted, the next stage is the Invitation to Tender (ITT). I only have experience of the ITT stage from within the creative industry but for us creative types, this is where we have to demonstrate our capability by responding to a brief set by the contracting authority, and submit costs. If you are successful at that stage then you are either awarded the contract (brilliant!) or added to a roster (great, but work still needs to be done before you are actually awarded any work).

Anyway, here are the tips.

1) Give someone in your organisation complete responsibility over the tender – it’s fundamental that the deadline is met and that the information is presented clearly. This does not happen if the tender documents are passed from one colleague to another.

2) Read through the tender document thoroughly. Sounds obvious but read it and then think hard about whether you can win the contract. Unfortunatley, it’s not about whether you can DO the work, it’s about whether you can DEMONSTRATE that you can do the work. If you don’t have relevant experience, you will more than likely fall down at the first hurdle.

3) Ask the contracting authority if you have any queries. Most procurement people are helpful so call them and ask if you are unsure about what they are looking for. This saves their time in the long run too.

4) Find out what the contract is worth and how long it runs for – this will help with motivation when you’re sobing into a pile of tender documents that at first glance make little sense.

5) When you’ve completed your response (try to make this more than 1 day before the deadline) read through it. Bear in mind that the person reading it will have read many other tender applications (sometimes as many as 500!) just like yours so make absolutley sure that the information is clear and what they have asked for.

Good luck!

*You don’t really have to give inside leg measurements, although I think the government is looking to include this in future Procurement Policies.