Bid Management

Bid Management Team: Bid Managers and the Bid Team Explained

5 minutes of reading

One of the elements of great bid management is a good bid team. Teamwork really helps improve your chances of winning tenders.

Bid Management Team Organisation Chart

Larger business will often have bid writing departments and bid managers. They will also be used to assembling bid teams to tackle complex tenders. But smaller businesses often overlook how important teamwork is in winning tenders. In our work as Tender Consultants we often find that SMEs only have one person dealing with tenders. This is potentially limiting their chances of success.

Forming a Bid Team and nominating a Bid Manager will help you to produce higher quality tender responses.  The diagram below shows the key elements of a Bid Team:

What is Bid Management?

It is the process of project managing a tender, sales proposal or pitch from start to finish.

It includes completion of the all aspects detailed below, managing people and ensuring everything is completed in a timely manner.

Ideally, bid management starts before before the issue of a tender. That way, the team is better prepared to compete. It ends sometime post-award. That ensures the hand-over to the team running the contract is seamless. And everything agreed in the bid (from the supplier and customer) is covered.

The Bid Manager

The Bid Manager has overall responsibility for the tender or PQQ and leading the Bid Team. He or she will undertake project or ‘Bid Management’ of the tender. This involves pulling together a Bid Team and coordinating the team to ensure that everything is completed properly and on time.

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Understanding Public Sector Tenders

4 minutes of reading

Understanding public sector tenders follows on from Why do Companies Tender – so do read that first to get to grips with the reasons for tendering.

The Dynamics of Public Sector Tenders

Councils, central government, NHS, housing associations and the rest of the public sector (or publicly funded organisations) will all go to tender for the same reasons set out in Why Companies Tender. However, there are two drivers that are specific to public sector tenders:

  1. They are spending public money
  2. Government wants to ensure that laws, policies and initiatives are met
Understanding Public Sector Tenders

They are Spending Our Money

It must be remembered that public sector tenders are used to make purchases using our money. As tax payers we all want to see that our money is spent wisely, therefore  the public sector use a robust tendering process to help ensure that good procurement procedures are used.

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Understanding Public Sector Tenders Read More »

Why do Companies Tender?

3 minutes of reading

Why Do Public Sector Organisations & Private Companies Tender Contracts?

The tendering process can be very frustrating. Sometimes, you may feel that companies use tenders just to annoy you! However, there are some simple reasons and it is very useful to understand why companies tender.

The previous post Tender Procurement Process explains the various steps that form a typical tender. It helps put the following points into perspective.

Why do Companies Tender?

Best Performer Wins

Tendering involves a competition where several potential suppliers compete against a set of criteria including:

  • Specification or requirement
  • Quality
  • Price

These are measured so the best scoring bidder(s) wins the contract.

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Why do Companies Tender?Read More »

Why do Companies Tender? Read More »

Tender Process & Procurement – Tendering Process Explained

5 minutes of reading

This guide to the tender process and procurement draws together many previous posts to provide a full understanding of the tendering process. Hopefully, it will help you to be more successful with your tender bids!

The Stages of the Tender Process

The chart below shows the various steps that form a typical tendering process for a large contract. Smaller value contracts may be simpler.

Tender Process & Procurement - Tendering Process Explained

Form Procurement Team

The procurement team will typically involve:

  • Procurement
  • The budget holder
  • Others involved in managing the contract
  • Possibly representatives from health and safety, human resources, quality management etc.

TIP: The higher the value of the contract, the bigger the procurement team – often involving senior management. Also, the tendering process becomes more drawn out. The same applies to high-profile purchases.

For example, a very high-value contract, or one that involves contracting out for the first time, will often involve a large team (including directors). And it will have a full tender process (as shown in the chart). Conversely, smaller contracts may have a much simpler tender procurement process. You see this in the public sector. Higher value contracts must be advertised. Smaller jobs can be let via a mini-tender.

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Tender Process & Procurement – Tendering Process Explained Read More »

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