Bid Management
Managing the Tender Production
Someone must act as the project manager, to coordinate the actors, guide the development and monitor the production.
Tip #1
Keep a Bid Library
A bid library will save you valuable time each time you respond to a tender.
The bid library must be kept up to date, meaning each time a tender is completed and submitted, somebody must spend an hour or so “housekeeping” and updating the bid library.
Contents of the bid library should be updated as the information changes, including CVs, equipment registers, insurances, org chart and the like.
A checklist of what you should keep in your bid library can be found here.
Tip #2
Assign owners and ensure they understand their role
Somebody should “own”, as a minimum, each of the following:
- document master version. All other edits must be reflected in the master version.
- solution. Someone needs to “own” the details of what is being offered. They must coordinate regularly with the commercial owner.
- commercials, including pricing. These should not be developed in isolation of the rest of the bid, lest you get to the day before only to realise that the solution as proposed will be too expensive.
Tip #3
Use the right tools
Don’t try to write a tender on an iPad. You need good screen real-estate, plenty of computer grunt and an ergonomic setup.
Have redundant internet and good software. As a minimum, you will require:
- MsWord or other word processing software
- Acrobat Pro or similar (such as smallpdf.com)
- snipping tool
