Have you ever bid for a Government contract?

[Hannah_J]

Have you ever made a bid for a Government contract? Would love to hear your experiences for an upcoming article if so…

What was the process like?
What could have been easier?
Did you win it?

The government has announced a number of initiatives to help small businesses bid for and win more government contracts.

It’s created this ‘Selling to Government’ guide which includes info on how to find government contract opportunities and how to bid for and win them:
https://assets.publishing.service.g...e/1036117/SME-Selling-to-Government-Guide.pdf

It's also running webinars to help small businesses.

Is this a welcome move for you? Would you use this guide?

If you haven’t ever made a bid like this, would you be more likely to if you thought you had more chance of winning it?

 

[Financial-Modeller]

Bidding for government work is tedious - partially through necessity, but a lot of it is not.

Bidding takes time, which needs to be priced into the work, which increases costs all round - ultimately to the taxpayer of course. Tenders are often poorly written, with errors and missing info, which can cause indexing problems and difficulty for potential bidders to identify tenders that are relevant to them.

With scale, organisations can maintain a bid team with the sole function of preparing bids for work.

Forming some kind of collaborative / collective bidding function to bid for work on behalf of SMEs seems like a sensible idea, but I suspect most SMEs would not see the value in paying for it.

 

[japancool]

Apparently, the most important factor in winning a bid for a contract from my local council is to be the second cheapest bidder.

 

[IanSuth]

The other issue is all the faf around it

Compulsory diversity questionnaires, filling in infinite bits of info that are just not quickly at hand for a small company - better they set a floor below which there was a simplified system, same as lesser accounts filing requirements for small companies

 

[Hannah_J]

Thanks for your replies @IanSuth and @Financial-Modeller - can I ask if either of you have bid for anything or has the process put you off?

 

[wesaving]

None of it makes sense to me. Half the contracts I see I think, "Doing what?" There is next to no detail on any of these listings so how do you even know what they entail?

 

[IanSuth]

Thanks for your replies @IanSuth and @Financial-Modeller - can I ask if either of you have bid for anything or has the process put you off?

Not direct with central govt but deal with several public bodies who tend to be funded via a council

 

[tony84]

I thought you just needed to know Boris or one of his mates?

 

[Financial-Modeller]

Thanks for your replies @IanSuth and @Financial-Modeller - can I ask if either of you have bid for anything or has the process put you off?

I have tendered for work directly and been unsuccessful and have tendered for work and been successfully added to a framework agreement which has then never produced any billable work.

I have worked on a couple of projects indirectly so an intermediary completed tendering and then engaged a team including me to do the work. This is the preferable route for me, although costs the taxpayer more.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

When we tendered to supply workwear, the main item was having to prove the company had traded for many years and you had to provide basically about three years accounts

There point as I understand it was not so much about the price quoted (although obviously important) but that once awarded you could basically prove you could stay in business to fulfil their requirements and not leave them in the lurch

You are also fighting with a supplier know to them already with a trading history

 

[Paul Norman]

A company I worked for did.

We were successful.

The procurement officer at the authority involved seemed to enjoy his holiday in the sunshine, too, which by coincidence he was suddenly able to afford.

I did think of bidding to write a track and trace app. Billions of quid, with no requirement for it to be that good.

Nope. It is a different world to the one in which I work.

 

[ChrisGoodfellow]

I have tendered for work directly and been unsuccessful and have tendered for work and been successfully added to a framework agreement which has then never produced any billable work.

I've had a similar experience. We've won one tender, but we were already a provider on smaller contracts. The rest of the work has been completed as a provider to companies that have won bids. Often it's more about having a winning track record than anything else.

 

[Office Mover]

Have you ever made a bid for a Government contract? Would love to hear your experiences for an upcoming article if so…

What was the process like?
What could have been easier?
Did you win it?

The government has announced a number of initiatives to help small businesses bid for and win more government contracts.

It’s created this ‘Selling to Government’ guide which includes info on how to find government contract opportunities and how to bid for and win them:
https://assets.publishing.service.g...e/1036117/SME-Selling-to-Government-Guide.pdf

It's also running webinars to help small businesses.

Is this a welcome move for you? Would you use this guide?

If you haven’t ever made a bid like this, would you be more likely to if you thought you had more chance of winning it?

Hi Hannah, As I work in commercial move development, over the years I have submitted hundreds of bids for Government contracts. I can only speak for our industry but during the past 20 year, more and more certification and standards are required which is very expensive for small businesses. As many have to be completed annually, it also takes up a great deal of time. In addition there seems to be a growing demand for evidence of LGBTQ, modern slavery policies and records required. In summary I would say that much of the demands from government tenders are more suited to large organisations who have the staff and budgets to address all this. They ask for all this and then you often find that 70% of the marks are down to price!

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

In my experience when they are desperate and time is limited. They will jump through hoops to get things moving.

 

[Mr D]

Have bid for small sums - £20k here, £30k there.
Nice and easy. Usually got them, a couple of times got something but less than expected due to demand.

Bigger contracts, £100K+ I've found to be harder. More commonly those I've seen are done by a consortium with one lead and others supporting.
Have done long hours putting together the stuff for a £100k contract - and then some idiot shuts it down and money has to be paid back.