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How to Tender
Masterclass
Housekeeping
Participation is mandatory
Challenge, ask questions
One conversation at a time
Everyone is equal
Mobiles off
Stick to time
Parking
HAVE FUN!!
Introductions
Who you are
Where you are from
Experience of tendering
What you want to learn
3
Trevor Kitching – 30 Years Experience
Objectives
Explain the rules surrounding tendering
Explore how to find tendering opportunities
Describe the stages of the tendering process
Provide hints and tips to improve your chances of creating a
winning tender rather than merely a compliant tender
Warm-up Exercise
Individually:
Assume your organisation is bidding for a public sector
contract for which you are well-suited
Why should they choose you?
Give one convincing reason
Public Sector Facts
Frustrating
Cumbersome bureaucracy
Slow to make decisions
But
Over £200 billion spent annually within the public sector ( £10 billion in Scotland)
Recession-proof
Good payers
Loyal
Often lead to more business through referrals
Commissioning
Procurement is defined as:
“Procurement is the process of acquiring goods, works and
services, covering both acquisitions from third parties and from in-
house providers. The process spans the whole life-cycle from
identification of need, through to end of a services contract or the
end of the useful life of an asset. It involves option appraisal and
the critical ‘make or buy’ decision, which may result in the provision
of services in-house in appropriate circumstances.” Local Government National Procurement Strategy
Commissioning is defined as:
“Commissioning is the process of identifying needs within the
population and developing policy direction / service models and the
market to meet those needs in the most appropriate and cost
effective way” ECC Agreed definition of Commissioning
Pick Your Targets
Referrals
‘Meet the buyer’ events
Local / national newspaper/ trade magazine tender
adverts
Tender alerting services
Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) via
Tenders Electronic Daily
Contracts Finder – Public Contracts Scotland ( register
for free alerts)
Portals
Research your Targets
Go to the website – look for:
“Selling to us” pages, or
“Procurement” pages
These should show:
Tender limits
Contact points
Forthcoming contract opportunities
Many
organisations
use portals
Future contract
information useful (but
may be out of date)
Knowing about
current
contracts helps
to plan
Lots of
information
supplied
What’s
important
to them ?
Glasgow City Council
Up to
July
2016 Eg
Scotland
Excel
Free Training
Financial Regulations
These vary – see their website for clues
Several levels
Below £1,000 to £10,000 at least one quotation
From this point to £15,000 - £75,000 (typically £30-50k)
– three quotations
From this point to £172,514 – formal tenders
Over £172,514 (£4.3 million for “works”) – full EU
procurement
Remember it should be the “Value over the life” of the
contract, not annual amount.
Understanding EU Procurement Rules
A supplies and services contract value exceeds
£172,514 (£111,676 for central govt)
A works contract value exceeds £4,322,012
Apply if………
What Are They For?
The aim is a “single market”
Suppliers throughout Europe should have equal access
to potential contracts
All “large” public sector contracts must be competitively
tendered in an open and transparent manner
The process must follow set
procedures
New Rules from 2015 Include :
Contracting authorities will be able to reserve the award of certain services
contracts to mutuals/social enterprises for a time-limited period
Contracting authorities are encouraged to break contracts into lots to
facilitate SME participation
A turnover cap has been introduced to facilitate SME participation.
Contracting authorities will not be able to set company turnover
requirements at more than two times contract value except where there is
a specific justification
The distinction between Part A and Part B Services has been removed,
and a new light-touch regime introduced for social and health and some
other services. There is an OJEU advertising requirement and other
specific obligations for this new light-touch regime, but a much higher
threshold has been agreed (EUR 750,000).
New Rules from 2015 Include :
Social aspects can now also be taken into account in certain
circumstances (in addition to environmental aspects which have previously
been allowed)
The full life-cycle costing can be taken into account when awarding
contracts; this could encourage more sustainable and/or better value
procurements which might save money over the long term despite
appearing on initial examination to be more costly.
One of the UK priorities in the negotiations was to secure flexibility to
enable fledgling public service mutuals to gain experience of
delivering services before being exposed to EU-wide competition.
The new Public Contracts Directive permits competition for certain
contracts, listed by CPV code, mainly in the social and health sectors, to
be “reserved” to organisations such as mutuals and social enterprises
meeting certain limited criteria described in Article 77 of the Public
Contracts Directive. The reservation works in practice by requiring an
OJEU competition for those services using the ‘light touch regime” but only
allowing bids from organisations meeting the mutual or social enterprise
criteria.
New Rules from 2015 Include :
The Public Contracts Directive also expands the scope of the existing
reservation for sheltered workshops/employment programmes by
allowing reservation of any contract for disadvantaged as well as disabled
workers,
A new “light-touch regime” for a smaller number of categories of services
contracts in the health and social service areas
the award of contract must be based on the tender most
‘economically advantageous’ to the authority (MEAT). This can
however include assessment on the basis of price/cost only as well as
other methods including the ‘best price/quality ratio’ (equivalent to value for
money), which can include social and environmental requirements
provided they relate to the contract
New Rules from 2015 Include :
Five award procedures, rather than the previous four:
The open procedure, under which all those interested may respond to the
advertisement in the OJEU by submitting a tender for the contract;
The restricted procedure, under which a selection is made of those who respond
to the advertisement and only they are invited to submit a tender for the contract.
The competitive dialogue procedure, under which a selection is made of those
who respond to the advertisement and the contracting authority enters into
dialogue with potential bidders, to develop one or more suitable solutions for its
requirements and on which chosen bidders will be invited to tender.
The competitive procedure with negotiation under which a selection is made of
those who respond to the advertisement and only they are invited to submit an
initial tender for the contract. The contracting authority may then open negotiations
with the tenderers to seek improved offers.
The innovation partnership procedure, under which the contracting authority
uses a negotiated approach to invite suppliers to submit ideas to develop
innovative works, supplies or services aimed at meeting a need for which there is
no suitable existing ‘product’ on the market. The contracting authority is allowed to
award partnerships to more than one supplier.
Three Types of OJEU Notice
PIN notice – to notify a planned contract which may
occur later in the year
Contract notice – information about a real and
immediate contract
Contract award – required to notify that a contract has
been awarded – but hardly ever used
The Tender Process - How Does
it Work?
The Tendering Process –
How Does it Work ?
Advert (always – if EU)
EOI (often)
PQQ (often – but less so in future for low value contracts)
ESPD (above EU threshold)
ITT
Tender submission
Bid clarification (often)
Presentations (sometimes)
Evaluation
Decision
Award
Contract start
Benefits of the Tendering
Process
Provides clear public accountability
Protects employees from bias
Level playing field to judge the market
Ensures value for money
Potential suppliers all have the same clear
understanding
Sound basis for a properly constructed contract
Prevents complacency
Electronic Tendering
The public sector is rapidly moving towards e-tendering
If your potential client wants to do things electronically
you will be told right at the start
They will be using one of several different e-tendering
software systems, although they all have similar
functionality
For full e-tendering you should do everything
electronically – follow the instructions they give you!
Expression of Interest
If it is an EU procurement and you submit an
“Expression of Interest” before the deadline they must
consider you
Either:
Invite you to tender if an “open” procedure
Send you a PQQ for all other procedures (Replaced in
Scotland by ESPD)
Expressions of Interest
Dos:
Be concise
Remember to add your full contact details
Quote the correct contract details
Don’ts:
Don’t over elaborate
Don’t forget to follow up if you get no response
Don’t worry, save your efforts for the bid
documents!
Pre-Qualification
Financial Strength Issue – Can the candidate cope
financially with the size of contract or the asset
requirement?
Dependency Issue – Will the candidate become over-
dependent on this contract or contracting authority?
Capacity Issue – Does the candidate have sufficient
resources to meet the contract demands?
Capability Issue – Does the candidate have the
necessary skills and experience to carry out the work?
Technical status / professional status
Pre-Qualification
European Single Procurement Document (ESPD)
The new EU Procurement Directives made provision for
the introduction of a European Single Procurement
Document (ESPD) which is intended by the European
Commission to remove some of the barriers to
participation in public procurement, especially for Small
and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
The ESPD (Scotland) will replace the requirement for
suppliers to provide up-front evidence or certificates by
allowing them to self-declare that they meet the relevant
selection and exclusion criteria. Bidders will be asked
to provide proof of this at a later stage.
Pre-Qualification
From Monday 18 April 2016 all Scottish public bodies
must issue and accept the ESPD ( European Single
Procurement Document) for all procurements worth
more than the EU thresholds. This will replace the
standard pre-qualification questionnaire (sPQQ) and
any local PQQs used by public bodies.
Covers:
Quality
Health & Safety
Environmental Management
Pre-qualification
Questionnaires
PQQs are likely to include the following sections
Organisation information (and contact details)
Financial information (recent turnover and profit figures)
Technical information (any accreditations, capability
statements, case studies, references)
Policies on equal opportunities, health and safety,
environmental management and perhaps customer care
How do they assess
PQQs?
PQQs are usually scored using prepared templates
Some questions are a straight pass/fail
If you don’t fail, your final score will be compared
against the others and the highest scoring PQQs will be
short listed to bid
PQQ pass / fail issues
Financial turnover compared to size of contract (often)
Historically turnover had to be greater than 4 or 5 times annual
contract value ( 2 x max under new EU rules)
Insurance cover (often)
Employer's liability
Public liability
Professional indemnity
Appropriate technical accreditations for the contract in
question
Eg CQC registration for residential care home operators
Criminal records, health & safety prosecutions, etc
Company Policies &
Insurance
May have been covered at PQQ, if not . . .
Ensure your relevant policies are up to date and suitable:
Equalities and diversity
Quality
Health & safety
Sustainability
If you need increased insurance cover, confirm additional premium
now and check that it can be quickly set up if you are awarded the
contract
Health And Safety
It is a legal requirement to have a written Health and
Safety Policy
You are also required to carry out a full Risk
Assessment.
Go to www.hse.gov.uk for further advice
Equalities And Diversity
It is important to remember that if you want to work with
the public sector you must have an equal opportunities
policy
It should cover recruitment and training practices as well
as operational practices
Go to www.eoc.org.uk for further advice
Environmental
Sustainability
Environmental (or sustainability) policies are
increasingly important in the public sector
Look on the client's website and search under
“environmental procurement”
Go to www.Environment-agency.gov.uk or
www.Envirowise.gov.uk for further advice
Accounts
When applying for public sector contracts, be prepared to
produce 3 years’ worth of accounts.
Usually they will only need a basic P/L and balance sheet
or even just your income for the last 3 years. However, the
more formal the tender process is, the more rigorous their
demands become.
Always prepare for the worst; that will be 3 years of
accounts and annual reports. This may take some time to
organise so prepare them now, so that when asked you
can produce them rapidly.
Credit reports may also be used
Some Issues
Closing dates and times are rigorously applied – late
tenders will not be considered
Missing documentation may invalidate a tender – even if
it might have been the best bid
Discussion Exercise
How do you decide whether or not to bid?
Bid decision issues
Cost of bidding:
Our time and resources
Lost opportunities
Chances of success
Capacity to do the work
Capability to do the work
Perceptions (theirs about you)
Quality of relationship
Likely profitability/impact of project
Fit with your strategy
Some Pointers
Don’t bid for everything
Better to pull out at the beginning than part way through
Don't divert attention from existing clients to bid for new
business
It costs ten time more to win a new customer than to keep an
existing one
You’ve got to be really good to dislodge an incumbent
Unless the incumbent is really bad
Bid Process
Bid / no bid decision
Organise resources
Analyse ITT
Develop strategy
Outline your response
Content
Submission / post-submission
Research
Internet
Go to their website – look for:
“Selling to . . . ” pages, or
“Doing business with . . . ” pages, or
“Procurement” pages
Google on “client name” + “contract topic”
Direct
Attend bidders’ meeting, or
Call client – ask for meeting, or
Questions over ‘phone
You may want to do this later after the bidding team has been assembled
What Else Would You Like
To Know?
How well (or badly) has the incumbent been
performing?
Have the councillors expressed any particular concerns
which might affect the new contract?
Who else is bidding?
What do we know about them?
Analyse the ITT
Does it make sense?
List any areas of uncertainty
What are the key issues?
What are the time constraints?
Putting Yourselves in their
Shoes
If you were them, what sort of supplier would you want?
How would you want the supplier to behave?
What competences and track record would you want the
supplier to have?
What characteristics would you be looking for as you
analyse the bids?
Does your own organisation’s background and
reputation fit the above?
Develop a Technical
Solution
What are the client’s real problems
What are the client’s key issues?
What can we offer that meets the need and resolves the
problems?
How can we present it in a way that fits their needs?
Develop a Winning
Strategy
Why should they choose you?
Draft specific strategy statements that define both:
Why they should choose you
How you will prove it
Overall
Emphasize your strengths
Minimise your weakness
Play down your competitors’ strengths
Highlight competitors’ weakness
Winning Strategy
Example
What:
We will emphasise our ability to complete the project on
time and within budget
How:
Include photos of recent projects successfully
completed
Describe other projects we completed in the last 2
years, listing client, location, promised and actual
completion dates & budget
Organise The Bid Writing
Large companies have a bid team covering several
different roles
Small companies may only have one person to do
everything
If possible try to get at least one other person to help with
checking / proof reading
Whether you have one person or many – there are a
number of different tasks
Bid Writing Tasks
Managing the bid
Planning, scheduling, production and assembly
Dealing with commercial aspects
Estimating all internal costs for providing the service
Costing any bought-in resources (such as subcontractors)
Deciding the price to quote
Post tender negotiation
Dealing with legal aspects
Contractual terms and conditions
Agreements with any partners (if bidding in a consortium)
Agreements with any sub-contractors
Bid Writing Tasks
Writing the bid
Outlining the structure
Style and layout
Creating persuasive content
Assembling and submitting the bid
Preparation of binders, cover pages, dividers
Photocopying, printing & binding
Interface with printers
Production of final document, ready for submission
No tender is ever written correctly the first time. Numerous versions will be floating around the organisation and a single individual needs to have overall version control
Developing & Writing The Bid
Coffee Time Reading
Imagine you have to respond to the following tender
opportunity
What approach would you adopt ?
Storyboarding Exercise
The MPS seeks to procure a service provider for the delivery of high-risk conflict
resolution/management services in London with a service provider who is able to
demonstrate a proven track record of the provision of conflict management or a
similar field.
Conflict management is an intervention tactic that aims to reduce gang related
violence between individuals. The aim of the intervention is to reduce violence by
overseeing and assisting communication between one or more conflicting parties.
Conflict management is undertaken to remove threats of violence; in cases where
there is a Threat to Life and where serious group offending is known or suspected
to exist. Each case referred to the service provider will be unique; however an
example could be that a member of gang A has a disagreement with a member of
gang B. It comes to the attention of police or a local authority that the member of
gang A is actively seeking a violent outcome to the disagreement and that the
likely result is the use of serious violence. On receipt of this information, the MPS
will make a referral (via secure server email) to the conflict management service
provider who will subsequently mediate between the conflicting parties with a view
to achieving a reduction in hostilities. Another example could be where there has
been a threat of violence or an act of violence that comes to the attention of the
police in which the parties are known to each other but decline to support police
action. Again, the MPS would refer the situation to the mediation service provider
for resolution.
Planning the Solution
Two aspects
The technical solution
The bid-winning strategy
Step One
If you have a team of more than one – meet:
Review why you are bidding
Determine your strengths and weaknesses
Plan the tasks and deadlines needed
Agree areas of uncertainty which needed to be
researched
If you are on your own:
Still do all of the above!
Step Two
Areas of uncertainty – make a list
Any missing information (not unusual)?
Any missing requirements?
Simple errors, e.g. conflicting statements
Unusual requirements – why are they unusual?
Contact the client
Attend bidders’ meeting or ask for face-to-face meeting
Opportunity for both sides to learn more about each other
Find out whether alternatives are acceptable
Bid Essentials
A good proposal should make it easy for the customer
to choose you
It should clearly set out
What are they going to get?
When are they going to get it?
How much will it cost?
A Good Proposal
Easy to read
Indexed and clearly laid out
Written with reader in mind
Professional
Liberal use of diagrams, graphs and illustrations
Self-contained (with annexes if necessary)
Structuring your
Response
Develop your winning strategy
Strategy statement
Win themes
Ghosting
Document Structure
Outlining
Storyboarding
Develop a Solution
What is the client’s ‘real’ problem or need?
Why now?
What are the client’s key issues?
What can we offer that meets the need and resolves the
issues?
Be Guided by the
Evaluation Criteria
Usually the evaluation criteria will give you a steer
Make sure you provide the information needed
Match your response against the criteria listed
Improve your Score
Tailored case studies or references
Relevant to the project in question
Tailored organisation history or description
Relevant to the project in question
Dealing with the
Competition Don’t mention the competition by name
If you know areas where they are weak then one
technique is to indirectly reference that area to improve
your position. This is known as “ghosting”
For example
Competitor (or incumbent) known to regularly over run
time deadlines
emphasise your excellent record of coming in on time and on
budget
emphasise your excellent project management disciplines
Outlining
There are only two acceptable ways to organise your bid:
Exactly as your customer requested, or
In the order that's most important to your customer
(if they haven’t indicated a specific order)
If at all possible follow the ITT structure and mimic the numbering
system, naming conventions and order given in the ITT
Use informative headings
Allocate pages according to relative importance
Explain any deviation from the bid request
Develop Theme
Statements
A theme is a key message which you want to get across
Theme statements link a benefit to the features in your
offer
Themes tell readers why they should select you
The most powerful themes contain unique statements
(i.e. something only you can offer)
Theme Statements
The strongest themes are linked to issues that are most
key to the client:
We will support your economic regeneration objectives by
recruiting operators from within the district
Sub-themes are linked to particular aspects
Planned operator training will focus on social awareness and
caring
Theme Statements could
be
Complete managed service capability
Least-risk business transition based on track record
Extensive experience - TUPE transfer (public to private
sector)
Individual staff welfare and approach to staff management
The specific technical solution
The team (including sub contractors)
Commitment to service delivery date
Value for money
Case Studies
All tenders will require you to write about your previous
clients
Try to choose pieces of work that were close to the
specifications of the tender and any public sector work
you have done should be referenced
Always remember to include the contact details
Case Studies
Areas to include:
Description of the job
How you carried out the work
How successful was your delivery of the contract
What added value did you bring
Bid Writing – Style
Guidelines
Use short paragraphs and short sentences
Use 10-point to 12-point font size
Use section headings as theme statements
Use visuals and graphics
Use white space and emphasis techniques
Leave white space in your proposal between paragraphs, lists, and sections
Use bold text for strong emphasis
Visuals And Graphics
Winning proposals tell a story and provide proof that
your solution is the best one
Graphics add an element of credibility for the evaluator
Effective proposal graphics can include lists, charts,
graphs, photographs, diagrams, and sketches
All graphics and visuals should include a descriptive
caption to support the message
Use the 10-second rule for visuals — the reader should
be able to understand the message in 10 seconds or
less
Use Charts
Impact
Clarity
Persuasive
Facts never lie
Or do they?
Projected Commodity Spend as
% of Total Project Costs
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Per
ce
nt
Projected Commodity Spend as
% of Total Project Costs
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
2008 2010 2012 2014 2016
Per
cent
Savings 2004-2013 (£ million)
Cumulative Savings (£ million)
Use Pictures
Which of the following has more impact?
We have carried out similar projects for:
• Portsmouth City Council
• Hampshire County Council
• Essex County Council
• London Borough of Southwark
We have carried out similar projects for:
• Portsmouth City Council
• Hampshire County Council
• Essex County Council
• London Borough of Southwark
We have carried out similar projects for:
We have carried out similar projects for:
Key Factors
Clarity – Plain English (www.plainenglish.co.uk)
Minimise personal interpretation
Tailor to suit your audience
Put yourself in their shoes – how will they react?
Get to the point quickly
Establish goals, milestones, success criteria
Plan contingency procedures
Communicate, communicate, communicate
Bid Style Sheet
Consider creating a house style for bids
Can provide consistency in the appearance of your
organisation's proposals
Can make developing proposals easier and quicker
Promotes consistency in font size, page layout, body
text, and graphics
Can help you be more customer focused and
responsive
Do you need a graphic designer ?
Bid Structure Summary
Match your structure to their ITT
Same numbering
Same headings
Same sequence
Make sure you cover each of the evaluation criteria
Include a delivery schedule (even for services)
“When I am going to get my stuff?”
Include a visual showing some type of work, or process
flow, demonstrating that you, as the bidder, really know
how to accomplish this work
Review the Bid
The ladder of bid reviews
Review and validate the strategy (early on)
Review and validate the solution
Does it meet their needs
Can we deliver what we say we will?
Review the offer from the customer’s perspective
Does our tender proposal deliver what the client asked us to
deliver?
Review the flow and sense of the document
Bid Essentials
Make customer’s job easy
What are they going to get
When are they going to get it
How much will it cost
Easy to read
Indexed and clearly laid out
Written with reader in mind
Professional
Liberal use of diagrams, graphs & illustrations
Self-contained (with annexes if necessary)
Bid Assembly and
Submission
Ensure your documentation is the latest version
Present the proposal in ring binders with all annexes included and
have:
Opening letter
Contents page
Ensure your proposal goes off in the plain envelope provided and
that no franking machine logos appear on the envelope
If you use a courier, make sure they do not announce who the
tender is from when they deliver it to the client’s premises
If electronic , allow 1-2 days for systems glitches
Evaluation
Normally carried out by a working group
Finance, users and buyers
Multiple copies of ITT may be requested
Cost and non-cost aspects scored separately and then combined in a pre-determined ratio
Sometimes separate scoring matrixes are produced for tender response, presentations and site visits
If you put in pictures of proposed team members make sure the people are still around at the evaluation stage
Bid Clarification
A process for dealing with queries
It allows the purchaser to explore any aspects of the
bids received that are unclear or contain errors
It can be with one or more of the bidders
It is aimed at clarifying and correcting the bids so that
the purchaser thoroughly understands the content of
each, and all are without error
It may be a euphemism for post tender negotiation
Post Tender Negotiation
Practice varies throughout the public sector
Not permitted under open and restricted procedures, but
some still do it under the cloak of “bid clarification”
May occur more often below EU thresholds
“You are favourably placed if we can sort out some
outstanding issues”
De-brief
Ask for a debriefing
If you won does that mean your bid was perfect?
How did we do, how close was it?
What next, how can you help?
Start planning for the relationship
Review the process
Plan for the next tendering exercise
Tips for Success
Read the documents!!
Understand the requirement before beginning
Treat the tendering exercise as a project
Plan the process of information gathering and
completing the documents
Work as a team not a group of individuals
Think what the client / buyer wants
Tips for Success
Do you have the present contract, do you know
anything about it?
Are you competitive?
Can you deliver the quality required? Will you over
specify?
Is the contract for you?
If the answer is no
Do not go for it!
Questions?
