Public Sector Tendering Part 1

I have been asked by a few charities I work for occasionally to post up a summary of tendering guidelines for the public sector. I have posted some notes I made when working on a proposal for the first public sector contract CrossLight went for. I have done a few of these - especially when applying to be included on framework agreements (although still have to get some business from them!!) - And all of the points below have come up. I have based this on public information from some of the authority web-sites in the UK and Wales (will find the references and post so they can be looked up directly)

Introductory Remarks

Firstly it is important that you provide all the information requested in the tender document, and make sure you respond by the due date or you will be rejected from the process and simply not reviewed - and make sure you follow the administrative instructions to the letter!

If there are any areas in the documentation you do not understand you should ring the contact named in the tender documentation and request further information.

Note in principle to put an answer in all sections even if it seems a little strange if you have no actual policy or real answer. For example, I have, for my own company (and others) had to craft answers explaining why we have NOT got some process in place (investors in people is a common one) – I will cover some boiler plate on these topics as we go along.

If you put a question or ask for clarification it is normal practice for the answers to written questions to be circulated to all those bidding for the work - if you do not want your application to be known to competitors ask to be anonymous in these circulations. Also if you have thought of a unique approach to the work that can really set you apart DO NOT ask if it is OK to put in the tender docs – do so in the tender response anyway. Make sure all the questions actually asked are answered and include your unique – you do not want to tip off the opposition that you have found an angle to set you apart and win the bid.

General Points

• Organisation and presentation of information is as important as the content – it must be a professional job for large scale bids and you may want to engage a professional company to put the whole thing together for you (we have such a company as a member of BizFace) and type-set the final documents.
• Include a covering letter that responds to the bid invitation, summarises your main message and explains how the documents are organised (if there is a strict administrative format stick to it – use the templates etc.). Do not plead for the business or be over obsequious in you language – be business like (I have seen some syrupy efforts).
• State the purpose and origin of the bid
• Summarise your bid and why it answers the client’s needs and you are the unique organisation that can deliver the product or service required - put this a the beginning of your tender
• Check you have signed each page as required and the correct authorised person has done so – this will be specified in most tender procedures.
• Place your tender presentation in a package (brown paper envelope!) that does not name your company and remember to use the label layout required by the client – make sure your franking machine does not print the name of your company and the courier does not attach a label displaying your company name - it could disqualify you.
• Never back out at any stage of the tendering procedure without setting out in writing why you have done so – if its because your made a mistake in the costs, say, they may allow you to re-submit. Be very careful about this though be sure you really want to bid before you submit - when tendering with some organisation (such as NATO or other European agencies) they require a letter of credit to be deposited along with your bid documents – if you are selected based on your bid and you leave it too late you may end up losing lots of money!!
• Be aware that information from your tender can be disclosed in the future under the Freedom of information Act.

More next week as we step through the information required on most tenders.

Royston

We have an organisation on BizFace that will train in this difficult area:

Contact Lloyd Sewell on this forum or at his site:

Forum user Name: blsewell for a PM

lloyd@tfc-training.com


Royston

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