The Xplor View - July 2008 - (Page 15)

Growing your business through tendering One of the key factors in enabling a business to develop and grow is, in many cases, an ability to write successful proposal documents. Simple quotations are easy enough but the time required to tackle a hefty Invitation to Tender (ITT) sometimes presents a dilemma for some small and medium-size enterprises — a ‘catch 22’ scenario. Should they invest time and effort in a tender or not? Put simply, their larger rivals have in-house bid teams able to submit tender documents — thus greatly increasing their chances of winning contracts in this way. In smaller businesses, it is often the sales director or managing director who must set time aside to prepare. It can be a calculated risk; not a gamble. Eventually we all have to submit a proposal document when trying to win business. The proposal may take the form of an estimate or quotation or it may be a more comprehensive proposal, setting out the credentials of your company. These proposals establish the credentials for providing professional print/document services to a higher standard and more cost-effectively than your competitors. Where there is a formal tendering procedure involved, you will be responding to a very specific set of criteria that provides less scope for the promotional approach; indeed, marketing materials are usually specifically excluded. Tenders are a subject of contention for many. One hears comments such as "There's no point in doing a tender: it takes too much time and, anyway, they've already decided who they're going to give the contract to so it's a waste of effort." True or False? As with many things in life, both answers can be right; that is, there will be instances where it may indeed be a waste of time to do a tender. Equally, there will be occasions where you have no alternative but to respond to a lengthy ITT, spending hours getting it right, but where your efforts may eventually be rewarded by a lucrative contract that could take your business into a different league. Tender exercises can be a true and fair competition or, less often, they may be just a market testing exercise. The ideal situation is where you are known to the customer beforehand: you can take steps to do that and improve your chances of success by finding out when, for example, local authority, NHS trust, or even major Plc contracts in your area are coming up for tender. You can request automatic alerts so that you are notified by email when a contract of interest is to be tendered; some services are free and others, such as Tenders Direct, charge a subscription. Supply2gov is free for lower-value (under £100,000) tenders in your locality, and there is a scale of charges for tenders for other locations and higher-value ones (£100,000+). Tenders relevant to our industry As this article is written, the following examples are current: management of an IT that will • ‘The development and customised marketingbased system electronically produce personalized, collateral, in published and hard copy digital formats utilising variable data supplied by the university.’ This contract is valued at c. £250,000. Storage, • ‘Storage and Distribution (Printed Materials), Production, Print, and Transportation for Conference Materials, Print, Design for Freelance Marketing, and Communication.’ This is a health service related print framework contract; no value is given but it is clearly substantial. • ‘The provision of customer communications services for the council to cover large volume mailings including council tax billing and electoral registration, voting communication and potentially benefit notices, and other regular large volume customer mailing.’ Similar contracts are coming up for tender all the time so it is important that someone in your organisation is aware so that you are ready to respond. Ideally you should already be in touch with the relevant contact in your local authority, NHS trust, university, and major companies in your area so that you are already aware of forthcoming tenders. The best possible situation is where you develop an understanding of their requirements and help frame the tender specification; Xerox were always very good at doing this for high-volume print equipment. Tender websites The government is keen to increase the amount of public sector business that is awarded to SMEs; hence the Supply2gov website (www.supply2.gov.uk) which is designed specifically to give companies easy access to lower-value contract opportunities (typically worth under £100,000) offered by the public sector. Then there is the EU tender website (www.ted.europa.eu); all larger contracts across the EU must be advertised there and you can narrow your search down to UK only and then to your line of business. There are a number of other sites too, such as www.publictenders.net and www.mytenders.com. The information is presented differently but they all seem to interrogate the EU tender website. The matter of which website is best to use is really a matter of personal taste and preference. To bid or not to bid? Doing a tender should not be an out-and-out gamble; it should be a calculated risk. If you already have a relationship with the client and are interested in the opportunity, then clearly you will want to bid. If the first you know about it is when the tender notice appears, that is less clear-cut. Get the details and be ready to submit an expression of interest (often abbreviated to EOI); this may take the form of submiting a prequalification questionnaire (PQQ) or, where this is not required, merely to confirm that you will be submitting a bid once you have decided to do so. 15 Issue 5 July 2008 The VIEW Journal Xplor European Edition http://www.supply2.gov.uk http://www.ted.europa.eu http://www.publictenders.net http://www.mytenders.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Xplor View - July 2008

The Xplor View - July 2008 Contents Cover Story: Drupa 2008: The Highlights Review New Technology: Inkjet Technologies Moving Forward New Technology: QR Codes: Leading Edge but not Bleeding Edge A Fresh Look at Electronic Document Delivery Management: Growing Your Business Through Tendering The Experts Versus the Amateurs News: Xplor UK & Ireland Supports Total Print! Expo� Part Two: The Latest Developments in Knowledge Management Xplor Europe News: Short News Items for the Xplor UK Programme and Europe News

The Xplor View - July 2008

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