Bidding for public sector work

In my previous life as a CIPS-qualified You need actively to seek the right customers for public procurement professional, with a your business. 9-year career spanning both government It is a good idea to target individual public bodies and the NHS, I awarded around £500m or a group of public bodies, and research their of public contracts to suppliers – but I contract status for your offering to determine when never awarded a contract to a business I and if they will be commencing the procurement. had not previously met or heard of. Surprising? All public procurement and contract information is Then read on. This article is for companies that in the public domain – this is a requirement under have had little or no success with public sector EU procurement law. Up until Brexit, the Official bidding so far, or that are thinking about bidding Journal of the European Union (OJEU) and its online for the first time. I hope to shed some light on the version, TED (Tenders Electronic Daily), is where bidding process and show you how you need to start all new public sector invitations to tender are thinking if you are going to be in with a decent published. Current UK regulations on procurement chance of winning. – which implement EU directives – will continue STEPS TO SUCCESS service for UK-only opportunities in the event of a Public sector bidding is shrouded in mystery and no deal. UK domestic portals will operate as before, many companies believe that winning public including Contracts Finder (England), MOD contracts is just about the bid and getting this right. Defence Contracts Online, Public Contracts Of course, this is an Scotland, Sell2Wales and important aspect of the “I awarded around £500m of eTendersNI. bidding process, but the bid is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot more to it. public contracts to suppliers – but never to a business I had not previously met or heard of” Contracts Finder lists historical contract awards, with the contract duration highlighted

Winning public sector within the published contracts is first and foremost about identifying the contract award notice – you can get your hands on most appropriate potential buyer of your goods this information at any time. This will allow you to and services and then forming a long-standing work out exactly when the contract is due to end, relationship with them. Only then is it really worth who the incumbent supplier is, the value of the spending time putting your bid together. contract, and the name and contact details of the

I will suggest some simple steps to first research buyer – all valuable information that can be fed into which public bodies to pursue. I will then explain a your pipeline. Once you have this information, your bit about why you need to engage and influence the sales strategy can kick in and the engage and buyer and how this can be done effectively. Many influence process can begin. potential bidders believe that this is against public after Brexit, but there will be a new notifications sector procurement rules, but that is a myth. ENGAGE: GET IN TOUCH

I hope to help you look at your bidding WITH THE BUYER techniques in a different way and challenge the way The public tender process is designed to be fair for you approach the public sector contract. all bidders, even those that speculatively submit a tender response, so how does engaging with the RESEARCH: DEVELOP A PIPELINE buyers increase your chances of winning? First, if your approach is to sit and wait for a Most people bidding for public sector work know “suitable opportunity”, your chances of success are that EU rules dictate that a public tender process is the same as nearly everyone else bidding, ie. small. operated on a level playing field for all

CASE STUDY: POSTAL SERVICES

For hundreds of years the UK had only one postal services supplier – Royal Mail. Then, in 2008, the market was liberalised, creating a fantastic opportunity for new postal services companies. One such operator had a great offering that had the potential to deliver significant savings for the public sector. The problem it faced, however, was that it had no existing relationships with public sector buyers, and no management information. As a result of these weaknesses, when it participated in the tender process – and in spite of making a reasonably competent and competitive bid – it lost out (and this was always to Royal Mail).

To address this problem, we undertook a research project on behalf of the company, obtaining key information on selected public bodies (covering areas such as spend, contract status, value, likely tender pipeline etc). This provided the intelligence to start to influence individual public bodies to ensure any future tender project gave our client the chance to tender successfully. The company began to engage effectively with the big UK public procurement organisations to inform their procurement strategies, ensuring that it was a key influencer in the development of these.

The outcome was that, over subsequent months and years, our client won numerous contracts and became a genuine competitor to Royal Mail in delivering postal services to many public bodies in the UK.

participants. There is a pre-published evaluation process and criteria, so everyone knows how the tenders will be evaluated, and on what basis the contract will be awarded.

Before I continue, I do need to stress that what I am about to say here is not as a result of underhand procurement practices or a deliberate approach... But the fact of the matter is that to deliver the most effective procurement in a short space of time, public sector procurement professionals quickly have to understand the product or service and the market. In order to do this, they typically engage with “subject matter experts” both internally and externally. And, you do not get greater expert knowledge than the suppliers themselves, who operate within their respective markets on a full-time basis. If you are a supplier who has been in touch with the buyer prior to them looking to increase their knowledge in your market, they will remember you and may well call on you when they need some help and advice about your market. Make yourself known to them and, if you have made the right impression, they will remember you when the time is right. INFLUENCE: BUILD A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE BUYER You must play a long game. If you bid on an opportunity without any previous relationship development with the buyer, your chances of success are considerably reduced.

When I worked as a public sector procurement professional, I would engage those suppliers that had been savvy enough to harness a relationship with me. I extracted their knowledge and, in turn, developed a procurement strategy that reflected the market and delivered the procurement objectives. These suppliers would assist in developing the procurement strategy and, in some cases, the specification too.

The net result of this approach was that a handful of suppliers contributed to the development of the tender requirement, so when the tender

CHECKLIST OF DO’S AND DON’TS

Do… ✔ Complete the tender in full

and do exactly what is asked of you

✔ Complete the tender in a

particular format, if asked

✔ Hire a consultant to help

you complete your bid if you do not have the time or experience

✔ Enter into dialogue with

the buyer if you are unclear of any aspects of the tender. The tender will provide instructions for communication

✔ Be creative – work out

your unique selling point and make your response relevant to the requirement

✔ Price at a point that

is sustainable for your business

✔ Send your tender in

24 hours prior to the deadline

Don’t… ✘ Go for contracts that you

cannot fulfill, or you will be wasting your own time and that of the public sector – and buyers can have long memories

✘ Confuse the pre-

qualification questionnaire (PQQ) and invitation to tender (ITT) phases (see “jargon buster” box opposite), where both of these stages are used in a process. The PQQ is about selection criteria and shortlisting. The focus is always backward-looking, so you need to demonstrate your credentials as a company before getting the chance to actually bid for the work on offer. The bidding is through an ITT, which is forward-looking and focuses on how you will seek to perform the contract

✘ Ignore the word count or

fail to fill in any part of the tender document

✘ Submit stock corporate

sales material and standard boilerplate copy

✘ Include bold statements

that cannot be backed up with the appropriate evidence

✘ Introduce inappropriate or

ill-prepared people. If you are invited to undertake or receive a presentation, your representatives should all be well versed in the requirement and in your company, and of course, be presentable and affable

✘ Submit your tender late,

even by a minute

✘ Forget to inform your

nominated referees, as this gives a poor impression and you may even end up with a bad reference

AWARD CRITERIA – evaluation criteria used to inform and justify the decision-making on which candidate supplier(s) can be awarded contract(s) CLARIFICATIONS – written discussions with candidates or bidders for the purpose of clarifying or supplementing the content of tenders – the clarification must be circulated to all relevant parties CONTRACT NOTICE – a notice published to inform the market of a contract opportunity

CONTRACT AWARD NOTICE

– a notice to inform the market which contract was awarded to which supplier CONTRACTS FINDER – the system where all contract opportunities in England can be found (other UK countries have their own system)

EVALUATION CRITERIA

– high level selection criteria and award criteria found in

JARGON BUSTER

the PQQ and/or the ITT (see below). May be broken down into more detailed sub-criteria

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

(EOI) – a formal notice to potential suppliers that a prospective buyer is planning to acquire goods or services and inviting interested suppliers to register their interest

FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT

– a general term for agreements with one or a number of providers that set out terms and conditions under which specific purchases can be made throughout the term of the agreement (usually 4 years)

INVITATION TO TENDER

(ITT) – a special procedure for generating competing offers from different bidders looking to obtain an award of business activity in works, supply, or service contracts. This is sometimes preceded by a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) where allowed (see below)

MOST ECONOMICALLY ADVANTAGEOUS TENDER

(MEAT) – factors other than, or in addition to, price, such as quality, technical merit and running costs can be taken into account in evaluating bids. This is an alternative evaluation option to lowest price

PRE-QUALIFICATION

QUESTIONNAIRE (PQQ) – a tool used as the first part of a two-stage procurement process to enable public sector procurers to identify the most suitable suppliers to invite to tender (or quote) for contracts in the second part of the process

SELECTION CRITERIA

– evaluation criteria and sub-criteria used to inform and justify decision-making on reducing the quantity of candidate supplier(s) to pass through to next selection stage, which will be based on award criteria SPECIFICATION – a document contained within a contract setting out clearly the client’s specific requirements for the goods, services or works in question

STANDSTILL PERIOD (OR

“ALCATEL PERIOD”) – a 10 calendar-day period (15 days where not electronic) prior to the award stage to permit unsuccessful bidders to seek further information about the award decision and take action in the courts where they have sufficient grounds

WHOLE-LIFE COST (WLC)

– the total cost of investing in an asset, evaluated by taking into account not only the initial outlay but also all the costs of owning, operating and disposing of that asset

landed on their desks they knew exactly what they were bidding for. Because of this, they had a head start and more often than not won the contract because they had been willing to play a long game with the buyer when other suppliers were not.

One of the first questions we ask any prospective client is, “What is your relationship with the buyer,” ie. to what degree do they know you? If it is clear there is no relationship or the buyer does not know them, then we highlight this as a key point of consideration in the bid/no-bid decision process for pursuing tender opportunities, and in some cases even advise them not to pursue the opportunity. THE BID: DEVELOP YOUR TENDER RESPONSE Because you have developed the relationship and played a long game by being a trusted subject matter expert, the subsequent tender will not turn up any surprises and, in fact, might even allow you to enjoy the tender process.

Ahead of time, you can undertake several further activities that will enhance your internal bid development process. All bids require key contributors from within your business, or external experts (such as bid writers or specialist consultants) that will add value to the final submission. Ensure these people are primed and ready – the tender timelines are notoriously tight.

Make sure you are registered on the relevant tender portals. Imagine going to all that effort just to miss the opportunity or receive it later than your competitors. As soon as a notice is published the buyer will disappear for the duration of the tender process, so do not expect them to notify you. The instructions as to how your bid will be evaluated will be clear and this must form the backbone of your bid development process. Hopefully I don’t need to say this, but if your bid is not positively evaluable, then the initial investment in research, engagement and influence will be wasted, as the bid will most likely fail in its objective.

PHILIP NORMAN is founder and managing director of Bidbetter, a consultancy set up in 2013 to help businesses, both large and small, win public sector contracts. He was previously a CIPS-qualified public procurement professional. Call 01202 237506, email philip.norman@bid-better. co.uk or visit www.bid-better.co.uk