Bidding for tenders and contracts is an integral part of any organization looking for business in the government domain. Companies spend a lot of money in training of their employees for bidding in public tenders. Yet, there are critical errors that are made in the entire tender process. The advent of electronic procurement has made it even more complex for individuals to understand the intricacies of procurement and put forward a compelling presentation that is difficult to refuse for the authorities. For this to happen, companies and individuals must consider and avoid certain mistakes. In this article we shall highlight the common mistakes that tenderers might make in bidding for government contracts for tender and the ways to avoid them.
- In accurate Take-offs:
The essence of a successful bid is to take an accurate take-off of the estimated work to be done. Through a thorough estimation of the technical specifications, calculating all measurements of work and related effects on costs, companies must accurately estimate their pricing based on the assessment of the total work. In most cases, the unsuccessful bids are the ones who cannot estimate the exact scope of work and hence miscalculate the pricing and or expected job. Therefore, it is important that bid managers use intelligent tools that can estimate the job work to make their quote smart during the tender process.
- Estimates in Project Costs:
Similar to the take-off issue the project costs is another major mistake that bidders are likely to make while bidding for government contracts. Bidding for large projects is complex since it requires astute planning of the variety of the costs that is to be incurred. Therefore, companies dedicate manpower, software and even artificial intelligence to detect the various costs that can incur in a particular project before quoting or bidding in the project. The use of sub-contractors, project managers and ad-hoc external service providers may cause insufficient resource allocation and coordination challenges. Therefore, it is important to estimate the overall costs involved in a project before quoting the final price. Cost estimation is thus an integral part of the tender process.
- Finding Relevant Bids:
It is very important to understand that government bids must be participated when all the conditions of the bid are met. For this to happen, companies must have an overview of all the bids happening in their area of interest. A tender aggregator service like Tender Impulse can help identify the relevant bids for companies to participate in. Such a service can help companies monitor the bids in their area of interest while also evaluating past information such as contract awards and estimated bids. It also helps in saving time and energy in sifting through bids and most importantly in finding the relevant bid that matches with the profile of the business. Subscribing to such portals is indeed a very important part of the tender process and must not be ignored for smooth functioning in tenders.
- Timely Submission of Bids:
All government tenders come with a stipulated deadline. It is important for companies to honour this deadline as authorities will not allow late submissions. In fact it is always a good idea to bid early and not wait for end moment submissions to avoid the risk of technical difficulties taking up the bid. To ensure timely submission of bids, companies must use tools that can save time and effort in leg work activities. They can also rely on a tender monitoring service to deliver them timely information so that the resources can be used in fulfilling the criterion of the bid rather than searching for them. Having a language translator for foreign bids is also a good option as most bids are to be submitted in their home language. For cross border trade, it is important that the company is acquainted with local business culture to make a collaborative effort with the authorities.
- Lack of Team Effort:
A Government tender is no different than any other business deal where the aim must be to improve the current position to something better. For public contracts too, it must be understood that collaborative team effort is required to win a contract. The business must convince the authorities that they exist to make a difference to the existing system and must not merely be a transactional relationship approach. Understanding the customer and navigating the complexities of the process is important rather than only focussing on the end result. Being proactive with the government authorities can go a long way in attaining the business and creating a sustainable business partnership with the authorities for future contracts.
- Incomplete Documentation:
With the advent of electronic procurement, documentation has become streamlined and simplified. However, inadequate documentation still remains a huge part of the failure in winning government contracts. Companies must often ask questions, attend pre-bid conferences and be in regular contact with the authorities for any documentation they might require. It is also important to furnish all documents at time of presentation for complete authenticity and transparency. Companies that fail to comply with the documentation part are often rejected in spite of scoring high on technical and/or commercial terms. Therefore, documentation is a key component of tendering and must not be ignored. Having a legal team in the business can help in overcoming this issue.
- Managing Risk:
Since government bids are attached to financial risks, companies must vary in which bids they participate in. A detailed risk management must be conducted that includes all stakeholders to decide whether the bid is worth participating in. Companies must ensure they fully comply with all financial aspects too so that the business runs beyond one particular bid. It is important that companies focus on targeted bids rather than bidding on too many projects at a time to manage the financial exposure.
The above points are some of the biggest mistakes that deter a company from their success in government bids. If the above errors are managed, companies can stand a fair chance at succeeding in government tenders.