Sue Findlay: Tender Writer, Procurement Specialist, and Founder of BidBuddy

Sue Findlay has been writing and evaluating tenders since 2001. Before founding BidBuddy, she spent years inside the WA Government. She was a Director. Her role covered whole-of-government ICT procurement. It spanned hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts. She sat on evaluation panels. She scored the submissions. She watched businesses lose tenders they should have won. She knew exactly why.

When she left government in 2003, those same businesses came to her for help. Eventually she formalised that into BidBuddy, a boutique tender writing consultancy. It is built on one principle: tenders written the way evaluators want to read them. Sue used to be one of them.

Today BidBuddy maintains an ~80% win rate with regular clients across 23+ years and more than 2,300 completed tenders.

Where the expertise comes from

Government procurement, from the inside

From 1998 to 2003, Sue worked at the WA Department of Contract and Management Services. She then moved to the Department of Industry and Technology, and rose to Director of State Telecommunications Services at Treasury and Finance. Her role: lead whole-of-government ICT procurement strategy across contracts totalling $200+ million. She managed procurement processes. She sat on evaluation panels. She advised Government Ministers and Cabinet. And she designed the frameworks that agencies used to buy.

She was the person on the other side of the table. Every business that submitted a tender to WA Government during that period dealt with her.

Most tender writers do not have this background. Most come from sales, copywriting or marketing. Sue comes from procurement. That distinction matters. It is the difference between writing that sounds good and writing that scores.

ICT and technology

Sue's government career was built in ICT procurement. She managed whole-of-government telecommunications contracts. She led technology procurement strategy too. She advised agencies on specification development and contract management. During that time she co-developed an automated telecommunications cost management tool. It was adopted by 60% of WA government agencies. It reduced agency costs by 21 to 56%. It saved government at least $8 million a year. It won a Premier's Award in 2000 and a WAITTA Award for Telecoms Project.

From 2014 to 2020 she served as a Director of Ninja Software, a WA-based software development company. She contributed to strategy, governance, and business direction.

For nearly two decades, Sue served on the committee of WAITTA, the WA IT and Telecommunications Alliance. It is now known as the INCITE Awards. She served as Judge, Chief Judge, and Chair. Under her leadership, the annual dinner grew from 230 to 500 attendees. Entries doubled too. Winners gained a pathway to national and Asia-Pacific recognition. She created the Game Changer Awards, a school STEM program that continues today.

This ICT background means Sue brings genuine sector knowledge to technology tenders. She understands the language and the procurement frameworks. She understands the evaluation criteria that government and corporate buyers apply to ICT submissions, too.

Oil, gas, and resources

Before her government career, Sue spent 3.5 years as a Contract Specialist at Woodside Energy. She worked in technical analysis, contract management, and business process redesign. She worked with Supply Chain Services Australia as a Senior Associate Consultant. Her major clients there included BHP Billiton and Woodside Petroleum. This grounding in the resources sector shows in BidBuddy's track record. It spans mining, oil and gas, and industrial tenders.

Academic career

From 2001 to 2019, Sue lectured at Curtin University at Masters level. She covered Strategic Procurement, Marketing Management, Business Performance, and Business Processes. From 2006 to 2008 she lectured Supply Chain Management at Murdoch University at Masters level. For eighteen years, she translated complex procurement concepts into clear, assessable language. That habit shapes how BidBuddy writes today. Every tender response is built to be read by an evaluator. That evaluator may be an expert in their field, but not in yours.

Qualifications and credentials

• Master of Leadership and Management (with Distinction) - Curtin University, 2002. Majoring in procurement and marketing.
• GAICD - Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, 2024.
• Bachelor of Applied Science - WA Institute of Technology, 1981.
• Post Graduate Diploma of Applied Science - WA Institute of Technology, 1986.
• Master Practitioner, Neurolinguistic Programming - Chris Howard Academy, 2013.
• Executive Coach - Integral Development.
• Tender Specification Development - AIM (certified).
• Introduction to Contract Law - AIM (certified).

Why she built BidBuddy

When Sue worked as a Director in government procurement, she saw it again and again: businesses submitted tenders that undersold them. Businesses spent weeks writing tenders, then lost anyway. Their services were not inferior. Their submissions simply failed to show value the way evaluators were trained to assess it.

She would tell them. They would say it was the pricing. It wasn't the pricing.

When she left government in 2003, the same businesses found her. She started helping them informally, then more formally. She formalised the business as BidBuddy in 2013. The name reflects the working style: a partner, not a vendor. BidBuddy steps into your business during a high-pressure, time-critical process. It handles the complexity. That way, you keep running your business while the tender gets written.

One non-negotiable has never changed. BidBuddy will not write a tender it does not believe can win. If the opportunity is not winnable as it stands, Sue will tell you clearly. She will tell you what it would take to change that, too.

NLP and the science of persuasion

Sue is a Master Practitioner of Neurolinguistic Programming. This is not a front-facing credential. It is an active methodology applied to how BidBuddy writes.

NLP informs how tender responses are structured. It aligns with how evaluators read and process information under time pressure. It informs the language choices too. Those choices reduce evaluator anxiety and build confidence in the respondent. And it informs how win themes are woven throughout a document. The goal is for the evaluator to reach the right conclusion before the end, not after it.

Government evaluators are not neutral readers. They are risk managers. They look for reasons to be confident, and reasons to be worried. BidBuddy writes to the former and removes the latter.

What clients say

Ready to talk about your next tender?

Sue reviews every opportunity before quoting. If your tender is not winnable as it stands, she will tell you. She will tell you what it would take to change that, too. If it is winnable, you will get a fixed fee and a clear process. You will get a team that has been doing this for 23+ years, too.

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