Issue 3#

Tenders Direct in 2013…………………..…………………………………….…2 Tendering expert fuels new business wins ………………………………4 Interview with Ronan Heffernan………………………………….….………7 Q&A - Framework Agreement…………………………………..…………..…9 Millstream Training and Consultancy ………………………….…..………12

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http://training.millstream.eu

In 2013, Tenders Direct continues to hold a strong position in the market place with our unique selling points keeping us ahead of our competitors. Our profiling team and powerful tender matching system will ensure you get the tenders you want and will give you the edge to win new business.

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I am new to the post of Tenders Direct Manager and am delighted to have been asked to lead such an enthusiastic and dedicated team. Within any successful company your people are your greatest asset and they hold the key to delivering an outstanding service. It has been an exciting few months and we now have a new customer care strategy in place for 2013.The one thing we all agreed on is we will be listening to our customers opinions , engaging with them and adopting a “customer first attitude”.

Tenders Direct in 2013 By Karen Bothwell

Customer service is the cornerstone of any successful company and my first task was to build a team “fit to face the future” that are committed to providing an excellent level of customer service. As a team we had to ask ourselves many difficult questions Are our customers being looked after from the beginning to the end? Do we know what the customers need today and tomorrow? These questions and many more prompted us take a fresh approach to everything we do.

Customer service is the cornerstone of any successful company. “ ”

Tenders Direct – Unique Category System

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We are very keen to hear what you think of the service, feedback is what drives the development of a good product. The Tenders Direct Customer Support Team are looking forward to working with you to source the contracts that will help you win new business, more satisfied customers means greater future prospects for us all.

We have been working with some of our customers for over 20 years and during this period we have sent out over 28 million tender alerts. As part of our current commitment to improving customer service, we will be increasing our efforts to communicate with every single one of you. You will be assigned an account manager who understands your business sector. If you have been receiving tenders from us for some time now, we want to know if your company has changed or if you have expanded your product range or services. There may be a need to widen your search or indeed refine it. Are we sending you the tenders that are most relevant to your business? Do you have a success story to share with us? “ ” The Tenders Direct Customer Support Team are looking forward to working with you to source the contracts that will help you win new business.

Karen Bothwell Tenders Direct Manager

Sitting in a university library in the early 1990s, trawling through a copy of the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) in search of potential business, Tim Williams realised the information on tender opportunities was valuable not only to his own company, but to thousands of others. Having turned his back on his plans to become a natural history filmmaker in favour of a global career as a diver and then project manager in the 80s oil boom,

Tim set up Millstream, now a leading electronic tendering specialist which runs myTenders and Tenders Direct. It also operates the national procurement portals for Scotland and Norway, and until recently operated a similar website for the Irish Government. When the Irish contract came to an end after nine very successful years, Millstream launched an Irish version of its popular myTenders site. myTenders has been in operation since 2002, with more than 1,500 UK public sector organisations – from local and central government, NHS trusts and housing associations to the emergency services and armed forces – using the website to publish all of their new business opportunities on the website and to fulfil their legal obligation to publish in the OJEU. Tenders Direct and its bespoke alert system allows private companies from all sectors throughout Europe who are seeking new business to identify these opportunities from the public sector. More than 4,000 clients, from sole traders to SMEs to multinationals, now use Tenders Direct to ensure that they receive regular updates on tender opportunities, specifically tailored to their individual preferences. These include low value tenders, which offer particularly lucrative opportunities for SMEs.

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Tendering expert fuels new business wins by Tim Williams – Managing Director

Tim’s background as a diver led to a move into the oil and gas industry in Aberdeen and Millstream was born in 1989, with just three staff and a team of 30 contractors. “We started out project managing underwater contracts and we were initially very successful in both the UK and Norway. During those early years the oil industry restructured and the opportunities for a niche business like ours were becoming harder to find, so we decided to diversify,” he said.

“At that time, the European single market was being launched and legislation for public contracts was being developed. Contracts were being published in the printed version of the OJEU five days a week so I used to spend hours every day at the library, looking for suitable business opportunities. “We used the information for our own purposes but then realised it was useful to other people too, so we started up Tenders Direct, which sends targeted alerts to subscribers’ inboxes. We started with about 200 subscribers in year one and now have more than 4,000.” Unlike the other tender alert services on the market, Millstream does not use the European Commission codes as they are are too inaccurate to identify business opportunities. Instead it has evolved its own system, which very closely reflects the range of products and services purchased by the public sector. Millstream’s staff read and manually categorise every contract notice to ensure that .their customers get all of the relevant opportunities without the distraction of irrelevant information. Tenders Direct also has a dedicated tender sourcing team which is responsible for finding the contracts, which aren’t published in the Official Journal, that is those with a value generally less than £100,000.

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Although lower

value tenders don’t have to be published in the OJEU, there is still a legislative requirement for them to be openly advertised.

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“This part of the service is of particular interest to smaller companies as we provide them with business opportunities that they have a realistic chance of winning” said Tim. ‘Our target is to ensure that if a tender is published anywhere, then we will have that information available for our subscribers, so that they don’t have to worry about missing any opportunities.’ “We developed myTenders to collect notice information. Around 700 public authorities now use the website to post their tender notices, from councils to NHS trusts to the emergency services and Government departments. “MyTenders is particularly good for smaller councils and housing associations

who don’t have dedicated procurement departments as we have a very good telephone support service. With more than 25 years experience, our team of 42 has extensive knowledge and considerable experience in providing a range of electronic tendering services to purchasers in the public sector.” With an increasing number of European governments and public authorities now handling procurement electronically to save money, time and comply with the latest EU regulations, Millstream works hard to ensure its websites are as user friendly as possible. “In the near future procurement processes will all be conducted entirely online and the

Government’s target is for procurement to be completely electronic by 2016, so harnessing technology and keeping on top of legislation changes will allow us to continue to grow the company and continue to provide a very high quality service. “We already develop applications and add new features in response to demands from customers of the myTenders and Tenders Direct websites, as well as the national portals we run for several governments, including Public Contracts Scotland,” said Tim. “As with everything we do, our aim is to make it as easy as possible for purchasers in the public sector to advertise their tenders and to help small and medium sized companies to identify new business opportunities and crucially to give them the best chance of winning that business.”

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Tim Williams Managing Director of Millstream

myTenders Service – www.mytenders.org

As senior customer advisor I am part of the team that services our customers accounts. From the beginning where we discuss the customer’s needs to get the best search criteria to make sure their profile is as accurate as possible, dealing with incoming customer queries and requests to daily administrative tasks to ensure effective delivery of the service.

The Tenders Direct customer support team is hugely experienced and knowledgeable and we are very passionate about what we do. We are always available to help out where and when we can and every customer has a dedicated account manager on hand to answer any questions you may have.

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Meet the staff – Interview with Ronan Heffernan

Q1: Describe your role in the company

Q3: Tell us more about Tender Direct customer support.

Ronan Heffernan Senior Customer Advisor

Q2: What do you enjoy about your role?

I love the variety. Our customers range from family run micro companies through SMEs to large multi nationals across all industries from many parts of the world so no two customers are the same which makes every day different. They say you learn something new every day, it is particularly true of this job, from speaking to our customers I've already learned so much about products and services I never thought existed.

My favourite part of the job is when a customer tells me they have won a tender they wouldn’t have known about if it wasn’t for us. These days, particularly for small and medium sized companies, every little competitive advantage is important so to know we are making a difference to these companies is a good feeling.

Q4: What do you like about working with Tenders Direct?

We’ve recently expanded our customer service department and as a result we are able to pro actively contact our customers more often to make sure their profile is up to date and they are making the most of the service.

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Q5: How has the customer service changed since you’ve started

6 interesting things about Ronan

1. What’s your favourite word? Discombobulate – it sounds nice and you don’t get to hear it very often. 2. What’s your least favourite word? Literally. Not so much the word, more the way it’s used. Or over used. It literally makes my

blood boil. 3. What sound do you love? I love music but I'm useless with any instruments (I've tried loads!) so my favourite sound

would be the acoustic guitar. 4. What sound do you hate? My alarm clock, it seems to sound particularly bad on a Monday morning. 5. What profession other than yours would you like to attempt? At 32 my hopes of making it as a professional footballer/model/rockstar are probably gone

but I like to cook so maybe a chef. 6. What profession would you not like to do? Probably politics, it’s a difficult job and because even with the best intentions you can never

please everyone so you're probably unpopular with at least half the people you work for.

Find out more about Millstream Associates here.

What is a framework agreement? A framework agreement is an ‘umbrella agreement’ that sets out the terms (particularly relating to price, quality and quantity) under which individual contracts (call-offs) can be made throughout the period of the agreement (normally a maximum of 4 years). Do framework agreements need to be advertised in OJEU? If the procurement is being paid for out of the public purse and the value of all the potential call-offs is estimated to exceed the EU thresholds (and it is not excluded by part B of the regulations) then yes, the framework agreement should be advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). However, the individual call-offs do not then need to be re-advertised.

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Q&A – Framework Agreements

What is commonly procured using framework agreements? Framework agreements are typically used where the authority knows they are likely to have a need for particular products or services, but are unsure of the extent or schedule. So framework agreements are commonly set up to cover things like office supplies, IT equipment, consultancy services, repair and maintenance services etc. Who can use a framework agreement? Many framework agreements can be utilised by more than one authority. If this is the case, the purchasing authorities need to be identified in the relevant OJEU notice. An example of frameworks available to a wide range of purchasing authorities are those formed by Buying Solutions (an Executive Agency of the Office of Government Commerce), a central purchasing body who create framework agreements for use across the whole of the UK public sector. How can I get onto a framework agreement? If the framework agreement has been advertised in OJEU, you can only be considered for inclusion on the framework agreement if you respond to the OJEU notice by the stated deadline. The procurement process for awarding the framework agreement will then follow all the usual EU procedures and rules and be awarded according to how well suppliers satisfy the selection criteria.

How are call-offs awarded under a framework agreement? If the framework agreement is awarded to one provider, then the purchasing authority can simply call-off the requirement from the successful supplier as and when it is needed. Where the framework is awarded to several suppliers, there are two ways in which call-offs might be made: 1) Where the terms laid out in the framework agreement are detailed enough for the purchasing authority to be able to identify the best supplier for that particular requirement, then the authority can award the contract without re-opening competition. 2) If the terms laid out in the framework agreement are not specific enough for the purchasing authority to be able to identify which supplier could offer them best value for money for that particular requirement, a further mini-competition would be held between all the suppliers on the framework agreement who are capable of meeting the need.

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Q&A – Framework Agreements

What are the advantages of framework agreements? The main advantage to a purchasing authority of using a framework agreement is that they do not have to go through the full OJEU process every time the requirements arise. Having to go through the tender procedure once rather than several times, will obviously reduce tendering costs. It also means there is less downtime between identifying the need and fulfilling it, which considering how lengthy the OJEU process can be, could be a considerable benefit. There are also further potential savings to the purchasing body because of economies of scale, which may prompt suppliers to offer more competitive prices. -

The reduction to tendering costs will also apply to suppliers, as going through the tender procedure is costly and time-consuming for suppliers too. Obviously, the main advantage to suppliers of being on a framework agreement is the chance of being awarded valuable business opportunities. What are the disadvantages of framework agreements? A disadvantage of a framework agreement for a purchasing authority is that they are relatively unresponsive to change – there may be new suppliers and/or new solutions within the market that were not included when the framework agreement was initially set up. Furthermore, framework agreements tend to apply a ‘one size fits all’ approach, which might make it difficult for authorities to satisfy their own procurement objectives. However, most framework agreements do not place any obligation on the purchasers to actually buy anything. Therefore, if the requirement doesn’t fit into the framework agreement or they think they can achieve better value for money not using it, then they can go elsewhere. This in turn is a disadvantage for suppliers under the framework agreement; most frameworks do not guarantee that suppliers will get any business from them. Therefore, you may spend a lot of time, effort, and resources getting included on a framework agreement and never get any business as a result. However, you are still in with a chance, whereas suppliers not included on the framework (whether they were unsuccessful or were not aware of it when it was tendered) are likely to find it more difficult to secure business for the requirements covered by the framework agreement. It is therefore a good idea for suppliers to investigate what framework agreements already exist and when they might be up for retender. And for those suppliers included on frameworks, don’t take the business for granted – continue to market your products or services to the purchasing authorities !

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Q&A – Framework Agreements

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Visit our Tenders Direct Blog for more http://blog.tendersdirect.co.uk/

Millstream Training

Are you new to public sector tendering and need

help getting started?

Or maybe you are looking to apply best practice to

bid management and writing.

Whatever your training needs we have two

courses which could help.

Course 1 – A Striking PQQ - A start to finish guide

to completing PQQs including:

Understand OJEU notices

Make go/no go decisions

Understand PQQs and how they're evaluated

Look at key policies needed and determine if

your business is tender ready

Answer questions to score the best marks

Format and submit your finished PQQ

Course 2 – A Compelling Bid – An end to end

review of the tender process including:

Understand the tender documentation

Plan your bid strategy, resources and skills

Use an executive summary to maximum

effect

Answer questions with greatest impact

Format and submit the final documents

Review post-bid activities

Millstream Consultancy

Do you need help writing your pre-qualification

questionnaire or tender?

Or maybe we could critique your documents before

submission.

Our consultancy service is designed to give you the

support you need at all stages of the tendering

process.

Examples of the service we offer include the below

but we would be happy to provide a consultancy

service tailored to your specific business needs:

Critique and Coaching:

Act as a critical friend for written documents.

Review and analyse previously written

documents.

Tender Writing:

Write your PQQ or tender.

Compile supporting documents and policies.

Provide model answers tailored to your

business for future tender submissions.

Tender Management:

Provide support to manage the tender

process and tender submission.

Manage the entire tender process to tender

submission.

“Friendly, professional, detailed and all very keen to ensure that we all derived maximum benefit from the day.

Thoroughly productive and enjoyable day.” Drew Davidson, Cooperative Travel Management

“An excellent grounding in the nightmare that is tendering.” Graham North, Fully Furnished

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Millstream Training and Consultancy Check out our new look website on http://training.millstream.eu or call 0844 561 0675 if you would like more information