Tendering

For many commercial organisations, revenue is dependent on the winning of tenders and the subsequent award of a contract to supply goods and/or services. Success in tendering operations is therefore the very lifeblood of many businesses, without success, the consequences can be ruinous.

The Tender Process

All Public and most Private Sector organisations procure goods and services through a tendering process. Whilst there will be variations to the tender process depending on the external and internal regulations and legislations that the procuring organisation must comply with, the 6 standard stages of a tender process are:

1) Advertising the Requirement

2) Selection Stage / Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ)

3) Evaluation of Selection Stage / PQQ and Shortlisting

4) Invitation to Tender (ITT)

5) Evaluation of the Tender Submission (Including Bid Presentation if Required)   

6) Negotiation and Award of Contract

As a business, you may or may not have a dedicated resource responsible for tender-related activities. Those businesses which do, often still depend upon senior executives to provide significant inputs to complete tender submissions. Whilst this can be an effective and successful method rarely is it efficient and in doing so, distracts those executives from their core roles and responsibilities.

In a recent poll we conducted with senior executives engaged in tendering activities, we asked them to summarise what tendering meant to them:

"burdensome", "time consuming", "frustrating", "disjointed", "confused and unfocused", and most damningly, "not a priority". 

Opinions and sentiments many who have completed tenders will relate to. But for any organisation whose financial viability depends upon successful tender operations, these opinions will be concerning.

This Is Where ATO Assists 

We have more than 20 years of experience tendering for both public and private sector opportunities, across multiple industries, and markets, domestic and international. To date, we have been instrumental in the submission of over 475 tenders, of which more than 70% were to provide a product or service to an international market.

These tenders resulted in the businesses we assisted being awarded contracts that ranged in value from less than £50,000 to greater than £50,000,000.

How We Add Value

For a tender to be successful, each stage of the process detailed above must be meticulously and strategically addressed by key stakeholders within your business. Buy-in to the process is critical. When your resources are finite, any expenditure (personnel, capital, and financial) must be focused from the outset. A tender process should never be conducted in hope. It should always be conducted in expectation of success.

We offer a comprehensive suite of tender support services, starting with opportunity identification and qualification, through to bid strategy and implementation, to technical and financial response preparation review and critique, bid pitch and presentations, and contract award negotiation.

Whether you choose to outsource the tender process entirely to ATO or to select an individual service from the suite of options, our objective remains the same:

To ensure your business is awarded the contract.