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Author: John Hudson

ESPD – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW – European single procurement document

Posted on by John Hudson

ESPD – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW – European single procurement document

ESPD & Procurement policy – not the most known or thrilling of topics. We know that reviewing changes does not exactly make for riveting reading, so we have condensed this information into what you actually need to know.

Due to the European Public Procurement Reform which kicked off in April 2016, one of the key elements featured was the introduction of the ESPD (European Single Procurement Document).

What is an ESPD?

An ESPD is an online electronic form that any supplier can complete, download and submit as part of their bid for a growing number of public procurement agencies, both nationally and internationally.

Access to the form can be found HERE.

As part of the reform, this process simplifies cross-border procurement, cuts down on paperwork, and helps provide access to new opportunities for businesses of all sizes.

The procurement policy remains the same as a pre-qualification questionnaire stage (or PQQ for short), where buyers can assess your response to specific criteria to determine the capability of your delivery in order to be invited to tender (ITT).

CLICK HERE for further information about the PQQ process.

What does an ESPD include?

This contains all of the similar exclusion criteria and selection criteria that enables your company to subsequently be invited to tender (ITT), which remains from the prior PQQ document. It’s the YES/NO questions that ensure you are an upstanding member of the national business community and are not faulting in certain areas, such as criminal convictions, tax evasion, fraud etc.

The biggest new element is the idea of self-certification. During our team’s procurement careers, what happened in the past was that on a typical PQQ, you had to attach endless amounts of financial accounts and policies. Now, as per the reform and introduction of an ESPD, you must self-certify that you maintain all this documentation and provide the evidence later at any time. So, make sure you have your policies and financial documents in place, ready to attach when prompted by the buyer.

How does it affect you?

 This has been put in place to ensure that you don’t need to keep completing the same old questionnaire time and time again. Many buyers now will ask you if you have completed this generic document and you can attach this in order to save time (see example below).

Procurement Policy
ESPD & Procurement Policy

One thing to remember is the Technical & Professional Capability section as part of the PQQ (or Selection Questionnaire-SQ). You must adapt this for every contract, because no two contracts are the same and you’ll need to show off your technical capability and experience in different ways, for different previous contract examples. Make sure this is adjusted based on the new contract requirements at hand.

Other than this, this affects you minimally. If you have tendered before you’ll be used to the questions asked here – it’s purpose is merely to make it simpler and save you time.

We are here to help you SUCCEED

Get in touch with our Tender Consultants for more information

MAXIMISE YOUR MEMBERSHIP WITH AN ACCOUNT MANAGER – Tender portal tips

Posted on by John Hudson

TENDER PORTAL TIPS – MAXIMISE YOUR MEMBERSHIP WITH OUR ACCOUNT MANAGERS! – Tender portal tips

Wham, bam, thanks for your money – goodbye!

Does this sound familiar? After signing up to some online portals it is easy to feel forgotten about and quickly become disgruntled with the whole tendering debacle.

We know that tendering can be complicated and that not everyone is a bidding expert. That is why when you sign-up to one of our platforms, you will be assigned a dedicated Account Manager.

This is where you can really maximise your membership!

As part of your subscription, your Account Manager will ensure that you receive filtered daily bulletins, specific to your sector – as well as access to the online, member’s portal.

Your Account Manager is directly contactable five days a week, to deal with any queries you might have. This service is not only limited to tender portal tips, our Account Management Team can also assist you if you are needing to advertise a tender opportunity as a buyer.

For example, if you have work that needs to be put out to tender, but you don’t have a portal to take the submissions and host the clarification questions etc, this can all be done via our portal, with access to industry-specific suppliers. Simply contact one of our Account Managers and you’re on your way!

If it is the actual tendering process itself that is proving to be problematic, i.e. you are bidding but not winning or maybe you are new to tendering and don’t know where to begin. Our dedicated Account Managers will be able to refer you directly with one of our Tender Consultants, who are experts with all tender-related projects.

Your Account Manager is part of your subscription, so make sure that you utilise this service to the full potential!

We are here to help you DISCOVER!

Get in touch today

CREATIVE TENDERING OPPORTUNITIES – THE SOURCING PROCESS MADE EASY

Posted on by John Hudson

CREATIVE TENDERING OPPORTUNITIES – THE SOURCING PROCESS MADE EASY

So, you have decided to venture down the tendering route. You wish to grow your business and deliver new creative projects.

Tendering opportunities can be difficult to source and even more difficult to filter. How can we eliminate the confusion and speed up the overall process to allow you to effectively grow?

First things first, sourcing an opportunity. Type in ‘tendering opportunities’ into any search engine and you’ll be instantly confronted with hundreds of platforms and thousands of vast and irrelevant tenders. At this stage, you could either begin trawling through the search results or spend time and money recruiting an in-house procurement team to do the rigorous sourcing on your behalf.

If this is the route that you decide to take, your team will spend hours searching for relevant opportunities, via complicated methods such as CPV codes. See our What Are CPV Codes blog for more information about this chaotic process.

This is where our portals step in.

Our portals are categorised into the top national industry sectors and then re-categorised into more bespoke sub-sectors to ensure that customers can easily access tendering opportunities RELEVANT to them. This narrows down and smartens up the process of sourcing an opportunity so that more focus can be spent actually developing your tender response.

For example, if a PR and Marketing agency wished to find a buyer seeking advertising services, they could simply login to Creative Tenders, filter the keywords such as ‘PR’, ‘Marketing,’ ‘Advertising’ and instantly view hundreds of specific opportunities in those sectors.

But why stop there?

Don’t buyers also deserve the same, easy, time-saving process?

Welcome Tender Connect, our procurement platform, with buyers in mind.

How does it work?

Let’s say a hotel is in need of contents insurance, the company could advertise this opportunity on our Professional Tenders platform and target those in the Insurance sector. The buyer then has instant access to potential suppliers who are actively seeking to deliver work.

Don’t waste time sourcing opportunities any longer! CLICK HERE to speak to an Account Manager today about how your business can benefit from our sector-specific platforms.

We’re here to HELP YOU DISCOVER!

WE’RE MOVING! RAPID EXPANSION AND LARGER PREMISES – DURHAM BASED JOBS

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WE’RE MOVING! RAPID EXPANSION AND LARGER PREMISES – DURHAM BASED JOBS

Durham based jobs become available due to our significantly rapid growth and our move into our larger premise.

In the first two years of business, we have doubled our turnover and are close to doing the same with our staff intake.

Currently, our head office houses 20 staff members whereas our new premises can hold 40 individuals and we intend to fill it! We will remain based in Durham as our team continues to grow, with the added intention of opening our first international office in Boston, later this year.

With a growing customer base, comes the need for a larger team and we believe in hiring locally, opening up Durham based jobs.

We are always looking for exceptional talent to join our team. Most recently we have hired a new account manager as well as a videographer to join the in-house creative team. Alongside these new roles we are also seeking to recruit;

We are a long way from our billion-pound goal, but we are focused on achieving it. To do this we require the best resources and space to continue to grow. WATCH THIS SPACE!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Durham County Council and Durham Works who have worked with us to identify office space and potential recruits to support our growth vision.

So, if you know anyone who fits the roles mentioned and would like to be part of our rapidly growing team and aspirational company, then please get in touch, we’d like to hear from you.

Get in touch by emailing your CV and covering letter to jill@hudsonprocurementgroup.co.uk

WE SOURCE CREATIVE CONTRACT OPPORTUNITIES FOR SECTORS INCLUDING;

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see how we can help your business grow. 

TENDERS & BUYER PRESENTATIONS – TOP 3 BENEFITS OF ATTENDING A SITE VISIT

Posted on by John Hudson

TENDERS & BUYER PRESENTATIONS – TOP 3 BENEFITS OF ATTENDING A SITE VISIT

It’s an obvious analogy: The bigger tenders are – the more effort that is required from both the supplier and buyer!

We’ve been to hundreds of site visits and buyer presentations to know that this is a crucial part of tenders and how they are developed.

Buyer presentations are delivered usually halfway through the Tender exercise and they provide all tenderers/suppliers the opportunity to get to know the buyer’s environment and culture, as well as a more detailed outlook on the requirements at hand.

This is usually for large-scale public-sector contracts. 

The buyer invites all suppliers to a site visit, which may include a group tour or a group presentation. This is to provide suppliers with a better opportunity to comprehend what’s expected of them during delivery and with developing their tender response.

We’ve provided our top 3 benefits in attending a buyer presentation/site visit.

  1. To comprehend – sometimes it takes more than a specification document to truly understand what’s expected – especially in a large, multi-million-pound contract that spans multiple regions. As you can expect, with undergoing these types of visits, online clarification questions are often decreased as all aspects will be clarified on the day. Yes – the buyer should make this public to all tenderers, but we’ve found that you’ll tend to grasp more out of the day rather than on a paper-reflected document. Whole conversations aren’t recorded and provided, so there will always be something (possibly crucial) that may be missed on paper, but clear on the day.

♦

  1. To introduce yourself – by getting your face in front of the buyer[s] – this not only introduces yourself to them but if you display strong professionalism, knowledge and decorum – this will also stick in their minds. If you send your administrator on the day who’s clueless about your operations – and this is clearly projected – the buyer will consider your organisation less committed to the project and you don’t want to be remembered for that. Choose your most knowledgeable staff to attend who you know will act professionally and come back with a steered view of how better to develop your tender response and leave a lasting impression on the buyer.

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  1. To stay ahead of your competitors – now we aren’t one for shaming our competitors – no matter how subtle. However, if you attend grouped discussions you’ll see exactly who your competition is. This provides in many ways a more competitive Tender process as you should be trying to enhance your response based on advantages over your counterparts. For example: If Company X is present and they deliver a certain way – you can always state how your delivery model provides much more added value to the buyer. Don’t go naming and shaming in your response – keep it classy and always have the buyer’s needs in mind!

♦

These are just some of the things that make attendance at a site visit crucial when developing your tender response.

If you require any support at all with the development of your tenders – please get in touch with our Tender Consultants who’ll be happy to assist you in your efforts.

CLICK HERE for a FREE Consultation.

We’re here to help you succeed!

ECONOMIC FINANCIAL STANDING – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Posted on by John Hudson

ECONOMIC FINANCIAL STANDING – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Economic financial standing is primarily established through annual turnover, financial ratios and their level of insurances.

This is typically assessed on a PQQ but can easily translate to more formal tender procedures.

CLICK HERE for an overview of the basics to a PQQ.

This is one of the two ways to assess the suitability of the supplier and to pursue a specific activity/contract – the other being the technical and professional capability.

Your economic financial standing reflects multiple financial aspects of your business. Three being:

  • Annual turnover – you need to usually attach your most recent audited/unaudited accounts
  • Financial ratios – this is usually found in your full financial accounts and can include the ratio of your assets to liabilities (acid-tests / quick ratios)
  • Your insurance[s] – you usually need to attach your Insurance documents and commit to potentially increasing your amounts before contract commencement.

One of the key things a lot of our clients assume when they start tendering is their ambitions will become reality almost immediately, especially in terms of finance. You cannot have your turnover increase within the first year to that 7-figure amount we all desire. This is as rare as blood diamonds on a blue moon.

As per a new requirement introduced in the 2014 Public Procurement Directive, “the minimum yearly turnover that economic operators are required to have may not exceed twice the estimated contract value unless there are specific circumstances which justify a higher level.” This means if you’re turning over £100,000 per year, the most you can typically bid for, based on your economic financial standing, will be £50,000, unless there are specific circumstances which may justify this – going over this amount, we’ve found, is extremely rare and will only increase slightly – not massively. We encourage you to aim for opportunities that are half your turnover or lower.

In a nutshell, make sure your finance is in order, so the above attachments maximise your chances to passing to the subsequent stage, not hinder your overall efforts!

Need further advice in filling out PQQs? Get in touch with our Tender Consultants.

We’re here to help you succeed!

PQQ BASICS – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Posted on by John Hudson

PQQ BASICS – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

PQQ is something you’ll hear most often in the tendering and procurement world.

The term can take many forms including SQ (Selection Questionnaire), Stage 1 Tender and the recently established ESPD (European Single Procurement Document).

PQQ stands for Pre-qualification questionnaire and it does exactly what it says on the tin!

This is typically the first stage of a tender process and helps the buyer filter through organisations that are more suited to deliver upon their requirements and needs. This allows a select few to be invited to tender (ITT) and making it easier to narrow down competent suppliers. It also ensures any previous convictions or misconduct is declared as per procurement regulations.

A lot of people assume that this is the easy part of the tender process. If you have all of your business affairs in order, then you’d be right! Think of it as an application form. It doesn’t necessarily win you the contract, but it’ll get you to the next stage!

The image below represents what’s featured in a typical PQQ – where you, as the supplier, would complete all relevant fields, including basic company information and registrations etc.

PQQ
PQQ

The PQQ is predominantly a ‘tick-box’ exercise, where you and your organisation state compliance with key legislative requirements in order to do business.

This includes:

  • Legal Compliance
  • Financial Standing
  • Insurance Cover
  • Modern Slavery
  • Equality & Diversity
  • Health & Safety Regulations
  • and Environmental Standards etc.

One of the most important aspects of a PQQ is your response regarding technical and professional capabilities. This is where you must list [usually 3] references/contract examples to show the buyer of your capabilities to undergo the required works based on your past experience (see extract below).

Response
Response

Most questions throughout a PQQ are quite clearly ‘pass and fail’. If you don’t commit to providing the correct insurance cover (for example) – you fail and that’s that!

However, the technical and professional capability is one of the few questions that is scored based on the quality of what is provided.

See our ‘Importance of Relevant Case Studies’ blog to make sure you are ahead of yourself when it comes to contract examples and case studies.

How to tackle PQQ information…

You’ll find PQQ information is quite repetitive. As long as you aren’t breaking the law in any way or have been found guilty of any misconduct, you’ll find you are answering the same information over and over. The more PQQs you complete, the easier they are to submit.

In 2017, the Crown Commercial Service wanted all procurement bodies/suppliers to stop using the typical PQQ and now use an SQ (Selection Questionnaire). This is nothing to worry be concerned about. The bulk of the PQQ questions still remain, with just a few tiny amendments, such as the inclusion of Modern Slavery compliance.

Also, the European Public Procurement Reform kicked off in April 2016. One of the key elements to this was the introduction of the ESPD (European Single Procurement Document).  This is an online electronic form that any supplier can complete, download and submit. Mainly as part of their bid for a growing number of public procurement agencies, both nationally and internationally.

In a nutshell, a PQQ is a document you complete to show you are both capable of delivery and compliance with specific regulations. Once you’ve passed this point. You’ll then move onto the core part of a tender process – the Invitation To Tender (ITT).

Need further support with your PQQs? Get in touch now with our Tender Consultants!

Start by receiving those all-important opportunities today by receiving a free demo from one of our 10-industry-specific portals. We are dedicated to helping you DISCOVER the right tender opportunities to bid for!

CLICK HERE to arrange a free demo!

CREATIVE TENDERING OPPORTUNITIES | WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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CREATIVE TENDERING OPPORTUNITIES – THAT’S WHAT WE DO! WHETHER YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE, HERE IS YOUR CHANCE TO HAVE YOUR SAY! 

If you are a customer on one of our platforms, please help us by having your say. Highlight what does work for you and what doesn’t, when it comes to your subscription against one of our many platforms.

We take customer feedback very seriously. We do so to ensure that every business engaging with our services is treated with the utmost professionalism and care.

We welcome any comments and feedback continually and deliver the means by which to capture this data on a monthly basis.

Every month we send a brief survey. This looks at various aspects of our offerings, with the aim of receiving as much feedback as possible to serve our continuous improvement measures.

We constantly work on ways to improve and we rely heavily on our customer’s voice to ensure specific needs are met both efficiently and effectively.

The survey will only take a couple of minutes and features 5 questions to answer at your leisure.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE PART!

If you’re not a customer, but want to experience first-hand how we can provide you with creative tendering opportunities including Marketing Tenders and Printing Tenders. Please click the following link to book a FREE demo with one of our dedicated Account Managers. They will guide you through the most relevant Tender Platform that remains specific to your provision.

 BOOK YOUR FREE DEMO FOR CREATIVE TENDERS NOW!

Want to find out more about our overall services, please visit our group website HERE to find out more.

WE SOURCE CREATIVE CONTRACT OPPORTUNITIES FOR SECTORS INCLUDING;

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see how we can help your business grow. 

WRITING BIDS – TOP 4 TIPS FOR TIME MANAGEMENT

Posted on by John Hudson

WHEN WRITING BIDS, TIME IS A PRECIOUS THING!

Not only is there an imminent deadline, but if you don’t give it your all and put everything you have into the bid, then it’s not only time you’re wasting – it’s money!

We’ve provided a few best practice principles to make sure you don’t create unnecessary panic at the last minute and can time-manage your bids more effectively.

1. Know your deadlines

There will have been times in the past, especially if you’re handling more than one tender at a time, where a date may have been mixed up and you’ve realised that the bid is due in 24 minutes and not 24 hours as thought. Read the tender timetable carefully – this will enable you to start planning effectively. Tender Timetables are featured in the instructions to tender and look something like this:

Example Date

 Example Milestone

02-July-2018

Opportunity published

12-July-2018

 Site Visits

23-July-2018

 Clarification Deadline

27-July-2018

 Submission Deadline

30-July-2018

 Presentation Date

31-July-2018 – 03-Aug-2018

Evaluation

03-Aug-2018

Notice to Award / Alcatel commence
13-Aug-2018

Contract Start Date


2. Assess & Digest

Make sure you assess whether or not the opportunity is the best option for you. We have been behind many projects in the past, working tirelessly on content and writing bids on behalf of our clients, when 2 days before submission, they decided it’s not right for them. Don’t waste your time and money – make sure it is right for you by closely digesting ALL of the information at hand. Yes – it may be a 100-page document you have to read through but believe us – it’ll be worth it in the long run.

Check out our ‘To Bid or not to Bid’ for further information.

3. Gantt Chart is life

Once you know the buyer’s timescales, now it’s time to get yours in order. This is where you create a plan for the tender at hand. No matter the size of the opportunity, whether it’s £10,000 or £10million, it’s very important to make sure you’re not winging it and have a structured plan in place to manage your time and approach effectively. A Gantt Chart is typically used in project management cases for longer periods, detailing responsibilities, activities and timescales. We love a good Gantt Chart and feel this is a clear-cut process for managing those all-important milestones when developing and submitting a tender.

4. Know your portal

We’ve liaised with many customers, who have never used a specific online portal before and the submission of their tender documents have been delayed due to their lack of understanding or inability to navigate. We recommend you get to know your portal in the early stages. Have a click around and know your procedures for submission.

 

One of the key things that our group of companies can offer you is the chance of receiving the opportunity from the get-go, meaning you won’t be days behind other competitors – if anything, you’ll be days in front: –

Our Tender Connect service is the home of our industry-specific platforms that enables you to receive both public and private opportunities all in one place, that is specific not only to your sector but your service within that sector. Get those all-important opportunities from when they are published, allowing more time to focus on your time management when developing your response[s].

Need further help with writing bids? – just get in touch with our Tender Consultants!

We’re always here to help!

BID SUPPORT – BREAKING DOWN THE QUESTION

Posted on by John Hudson

Bid Support – Breaking down the question

If you do not know what the question is asking – this is your first hurdle.

In order to jump that hurdle, carefully examine what kind of question it is.

Although there are hundreds of question variations out there, our bid support allows you to tackle every question you get through a very simple breakdown technique.

Does the question have (what it seems like) 10 questions in one? Does it look something like this:

EXAMPLE 1:

Please explain your risk management procedures, including what risks you feel are vital to overcome as part of this contract, as well as monitoring and mitigation approaches you would use. Please detail who will manage said risks and provide examples of where you have overcome similar risks.

This question asks for a lot of information and the first step to jump this hurdle, is to tackle it bit by bit. We break this question down into more manageable chunks, allowing clear-cut focus on every aspect of the question, making it easier for the evaluator to mark us against their evaluation criteria. We have pinpointed these out and, as part of our bid support, always encourage you to write out sub-headings to manage this effectively. Such as:

General Risk Management Procedures

Contract-specific risks

  • Risks
  • Monitoring
  • Mitigation

Risk Lead

Risk Management Experience

Under each subheading, you can then start to write your content.

Sometimes, however, the question is not that easy to break down and maybe a lot smaller, making the whole manageable chunks scenario more difficult.

Does the question ask you to explain, describe, or provide detail of a process and/or situation? If so, this is a useful way of the buyer seeing how well you respond to this and how you’re reacting to their requirements.

Open questioning allows the buyer to ask for a lot of information with a short question.

EXAMPLE 2:

Describe how you manage risks?

This question is 5 words long; however, your response limit can be in excess of 5,000 words, dependent on your offering and sector.

The management of risks may have reams of information attached to it. The important thing to do is break this down into smaller subheadings and further questioning.

Sometimes the buyer can be quite extensive in their evaluation guidance and based on this, you may already have your subheadings laid out for you, dependent on what the buyer is looking for/marking during the evaluation stage.

If the evaluation guidance doesn’t provide much detail – then look at the specification and make sure you fully understand what the client is looking for, so you can start breaking your response down into further discussion points.

For example: Your subheadings for the above example may be;

  • Recognising Risks– detailing how you identify/assess risks?
  • Monitoring Risks– what system you use to track these risks?
  • Risk Responsibilities– who maintains responsibility for managing risks?
  • Mitigating Risks– what do you do to mitigate said risks?
  • Risk Reviews– how often do you review these to adapt to change?
  • Contract Risks– what you feel are the top risks for this particular contract?
  • Compliance– what national standards/best practice do you comply with?

These are merely seven subheadings you can write about when drafting your response.

Depending on what the contract is for and the specification included – there could be a whole load of various points you need to discuss.

This is merely a small step with Bid Support when looking at a tender response, but a very important one. We are by no means English teachers, but when it comes to developing a response to accommodate buyer’s needs and requirements, we know what we are talking about!

Need further bid support? Get in touch now with our Tender Consultants!

Start by receiving those all-important opportunities today by booking a free demo from one of our 10-industry-specific portals, dedicated to helping you DISCOVER the right tender opportunities to bid for!

BEST NEW BUSINESS – HUDSON PROCUREMENT GROUP RECEIVES 3 NOMINATIONS

Posted on by John Hudson

BEST NEW BUSINESS – HUDSON PROCUREMENT GROUP RECEIVES 3 NOMINATIONS

We are over the moon to announce that we have been shortlisted for not one, not two, but three awards at this year’s National Best New Business Awards! The awards will be held at Kensington, London, this coming June!

Hudson Procurement Group has been shortlisted as a finalist for Business Innovation and Service Industry of the Year. Our Growth Director, Jill Hudson, has been shortlisted as Woman of the Year!

What an achievement!

“We are ecstatic with our nominations for these national awards. This is a credit to our fantastic team who constantly push the boundaries, allowing us to help our customers in the best possible way and to see continuous organisational growth!” says Jill.

Our organisation has seen massive business growth since our inception in 2016. Working toward 4 key strands of service to our customers. This includes:

Discover Succeed Procure Invest
This is where customers can receive both private and public tender opportunities daily to their inbox and search for tender and business opportunities. These are not only specific to their sector but specific to their actual service! Buyers are able to publish opportunities for free and stay connected to industry-specific suppliers! This involves a team of formidable Bid Managers / Bid Writers, who make up our Tender Consultants.  They support customers to succeed with their tendering efforts through various services. This also includes bid writing, guide and reviews, tender readiness and improvement programmes. Alongside this, our all-new Tender VLE, a virtual learning environment dedicated to helping businesses understand the tendering world. Similar to our Tender Consultants, we have recently launched our Procure Consult offering, where our procurement experts support buyers in helping develop tender documents that make it easier for them to evaluate and procure more effectively, including developing specifications and minimising ‘scope creep’. We are also launching an all-in-one tendering platform that will ensure efficiency when it comes to future tendering! This is where our billion-pound goal comes into effect, utilising the data that we have received for our digital platforms and capitalising on our Spend Trends offering. This will evaluate both national and international procurement spend to help deliver upon economic changes and forecasts around the world. Procurement will not only be easier to digest, but help large companies invest … in what’s best! Coming Soon!

Our Group CEO, John Hudson has commented saying, ‘to be recognised for our efforts on a national scale is fantastic news and for being a new organisation, this demonstrates that Hudson Procurement Group has already established a strong foothold in the UK market today!”

For a list of this year’s award’s finalists – CLICK HERE!

The winner of each category will be revealed at the Awards on Friday 29th June.

WE SOURCE CREATIVE CONTRACT OPPORTUNITIES FOR SECTORS INCLUDING;

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see how we can help your business grow. 

TUPE – WHAT IS IT & HOW DOES IT AFFECT YOU?

Posted on by John Hudson

TUPE – WHAT IS IT & HOW DOES IT AFFECT YOU?

I know what some of you are thinking – what on earth is TUPE?

One thing we are not here to do, is provide you a whole lot of legal jargon surrounding compliance and adherence to specific laws. This blog focuses on the basics of TUPE and how this applies to suppliers who are tendering!

TUPE is an abbreviation of Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment.

This is commonly used in a range of industries and rarely used in others, however we still think this is useful to comprehend, as this is widely considered across many UK tenders.

Let’s give you an example:

So, Bill, Bob and Ben are all IT Technicians for a local council on behalf of Company X.

Company Y has just won the tender to provide the IT Technical Solutions Contract over a 5-year period for this local council, meaning Company X will no longer provide the services.

To ensure Bill, Bob and Ben are not made redundant or out of work due to supplier changeover, the local council has stipulated that TUPE will apply as part of Company Y’s contract win.

Company Y must then liaise with Bill, Bob and Ben and ensure their transfer from Company X over to Company Y goes without a hitch. They undergo company consultations and inductions and ensure a fair and transparent process is followed, which complies with regulations.

Make sense? – it’s basically a procedure, governed by law, to move employees and any liabilities associated with them from an old employer to a new employer, and when it comes to procurement and supplier changeover, TUPE can be rife!

How does it affect you?

Again, this is used dominantly in some sectors, whilst rarely used in others. You may find you may never have to deal with TUPE. But it’s always good to be aware of what to expect.

The likes of Engineering, Technology, Construction, Utilities, Manufacturing and Logistics, where continuous delivery/support is required with certain buyers from grass-root operatives, means TUPE majorly applies to ensure employees of Company A can continue to work on contracts when Company B takes over.

If TUPE does apply and you have to inherit one or more employees as part of the contract-win, you’ll have to consider multiple things regarding the management of TUPE as per your tender response.

What you should do:

  • Assess the TUPE database! – this may be on a spreadsheet or a similar information sheet – make sure full assessment is made on this. This should detail employee liabilities, such as sick pay, holiday pay, etc. This is where the most basic details of the employee come to light, so you can ensure you can afford the staff you may potentially inherit.
  • Price Correctly! – use the details of all TUPE staff (acquired from the database/information sheet) to ensure you are taking into account clear variances in your pricing model. You, as Company 2 may pay your staff a specific amount, but Company 1 may pay them a lot differently. Take this into consideration.
  • Understand your responsibilities! – do you need to contact the new employees directly or will the buyer bridge this relationship initially? – Understand what you need to do when it comes to managing TUPE staff.
  • Get Help! – in your tender response, if there are any questions on TUPE management, state how you’ll use a reputable and fully qualified legal service for support, advice and guidance to ensure full complicity against the regulations.

If you’re struggling with the mind field that can be TUPE regulations and require some support with your tender management approach, GET IN TOUCH TODAY! Our Tender Consultants are always here to help you understand, prepare and succeed!

How about discovering those all-important opportunities where TUPE may or may not apply? Our Tender Connect service, offers 10-industry-specific platforms providing you will both Public AND Private opportunities across your sector.

Framework Agreement – Top 4 questions to ask yourself!

Posted on by John Hudson

FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT – TOP 4 THINGS TO ASK YOURSELF

You’re most likely to see the term ‘Framework Agreement’ scattered across our tendering portals, asking for multiple suppliers to deliver/supply either one or more services/goods across various locations. Sounds pretty broad, right?

Well, through utilising a Framework Agreement, this is a much smarter way of working for a lot of buyers and procurement agencies. Although it may be a contractual headache at times, the long-term aspects to delivery remain progressive and are more and more often used across the UK procurement sector.

See our ‘TENDERING DOESN’T NEED TO BE COMPLICATED’ blog for other terms you may see!

Multi-provider Framework Agreements are quite simply, contracts or agreements between one or more organisations. There is such a thing as a Single Provider Framework, where one provider is utilised for ad-hoc call-off requests for particular services/goods, however, that is a story for another day.

Multi-provider frameworks can be exhibited via the following example:

London-based Council seeks up to 8 Creative Agencies / Freelancers (per LOT) to undergo multiple creative services. This includes:

  • LOT 1: – Digital Design & Branding
  • LOT 2: – Website Development & Build
  • LOT 3: – PR & Marketing
  • LOT 4: – Managed Print Services

As you can see here, the buyer is asking for 8 suppliers per LOT (service), meaning there will be a total of 24 suppliers as part of this contract. Although you may have to share the spotlight with your competitors, it’s a fantastic way of getting your company heard across the Creative Sector and to show your position in the market alongside your competitors. Plus, there’s work and money involved.

The majority of companies argue that if you don’t score the highest tender, then your impending work is decreased by a long shot. Sometimes, you may be right, but a lot of the time you may be wrong.

Here are the 4 crucial questions you must ask yourself when tendering for a framework agreement:

1. How many suppliers is the opportunity open to?

Remember, the more suppliers the opportunity is open to, the more chance of securing a place on the Framework.

2. Do you have a good chance of winning it?

Obvious question you might say, but you’d be surprised at how many organisations go for work that (at the time of tendering) they could potentially deliver but haven’t got the corporate literature or writing skills to make them stand out on paper. Look at our ‘To Bid or not to Bid’ blog to look at what you can do to ensure your success is maximised! 

3. Are you going for multiple LOTs?

Do you have to submit a response per service/LOT? Does this mean you have to submit 4 or more tender responses? – if so, always make sure you have the resource and time to do this. Never replicate your answers, always give as much time to each individual tender/LOT to ensure increased chances of success. It is better to focus more of your time with something that you can deliver better in, than going for all LOTs where other competitors may have the upper-hand. Go for the LOT where you know you can be number one! If you don’t think you’ve got the upper-hand, then should you be wasting time on it.

4. What is the process of contract award?

One of the most important aspects of a Framework Agreement is to understand the process that you undergo when you’re in the framework and how is work dished out? This could work in multiple ways, so remember to read the instructions carefully. Some examples include:

  • Mini-competition – this is where the buyer asks all suppliers on the framework to quote them a price for a specific job at hand. This may include a quality aspect also. The cheapest quote wins!
  • First Supplier wins all – this is where the supplier who scored the highest via the tender process, will be guaranteed all work. If they can’t deliver a specific element, then it will go down the chain to the supplier who scored second. If they can’t deliver, then the supplier who came third and so on – all the more reason to be completely focused on the service you work best in and become number one!
  • Drop down effect – some buyers take it in turns to disperse work. In this case, the highest-ranking supplier would receive the first job, the second highest ranking supplier the second job and so on.

All decisions to how the framework is managed are declared by the buyer in the ITT (invitation to tender) stage. It’s usually transparent from the get go!

Find out how you can receive various framework opportunities straight to your inbox, by BOOKING A FREE DEMO TODAY!

Frameworks can be extremely complex when tendering for works. Remember our Tender Consultants are here to help!