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HUDSON PROCUREMENT GROUP UNDERGOES MAJOR MARKET RESEARCH PROJECT

Posted on by John Hudson

Procurement Policy – Major Market Research Project!

Hudson Procurement Group is currently undergoing a major research project into how businesses supply government and publicly funded bodies, in a bid to create an open, fair and transparent process by anyone spending public purse.

As part of our long-term growth strategy, we will be launching our Procure Smart platform. This research will be used to inform our knowledge as we move into our next venture – dispelling the myths and overcoming the misconceptions surrounding tendering and procurement, for all.

Whilst conducting this research we will be assessing how and where tender opportunities are published in the wider public domain. In our early stage investigations, we have discovered mass confusion amongst both buyers and suppliers regarding terminology and procurement policy, we want to eliminate this and produce these findings to advise both sides of the buy and supply table.

One of the main aims of this research project and long-term goal for Procure Smart is to gain clear insight into public spending. Through our own exploration, we have uncovered some confusion surrounding freedom of information policy requests, mainly what is available and what is not.

Our Growth Director, Jill said ‘During my 16 years’ experience working in public sector procurement, I have noticed major discrepancies between buyers and suppliers. As part of our long-term growth strategy, we are working towards complete transparency within the procurement sector by evoking a change in current government policy.

Submitting a tender response

‘We want suppliers to feel like they’re not wasting valuable time when submitting a tender response, and we want to ensure SMEs flourish by ensuring easy access of opportunities and a clear understanding of what is firstly available, and secondly what is right for their business’.

Our goal will ultimately help buyers and suppliers procure more effectively across the UK and beyond, as we lobby for smarter procurement practices to be embedded in certain legislation[s].

The launch of Procure Smart will drastically improve the way that procurement policy is conducted in the business to business industry, especially with the likes of a looming Brexit and the disconcert surrounding this.

For further information regarding this research please feel free to GET IN TOUCH!

To access information and training into tendering and procurement please see TENDER VLE!

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. 

ADVERTISE AND MANAGE PRIVATE SECTOR CREATIVE TENDERS

Posted on by John Hudson

ADVERTISE AND MANAGE PRIVATE SECTOR CREATIVE TENDERS

Private Sector Tenders are considered as such when a self-funded company advertises for a contractor to complete works for them by way of a contractual agreement.

Did you know that you can advertise a private opportunity such as this via our Creative Tenders portal? Whats more, you can manage, respond and receive submissions 100% free of charge regardless of whether you are an existing customer of one of our portals.

Too busy to manage the Creative project?

Let us take over! We will advertise and manage the tender opportunity on your behalf. This service includes uploading the opportunity, answering clarification questions and managing the submissions, all you need to do is choose a supplier!

Sound good? Here’s the best part. You can advertise your private sector tenders on any of our ten sector specific portals under Hudson Procurement Group!

For example, if you are a Marketing agency and you require a new piece of hardware, we would advise you to advertise this opportunity via our Technology Tenders portal. We already have Hardware-sector customers who are actively searching for opportunities on our site, put your opportunity in front of them and instantly access engaged suppliers.

One of our main goals across all of our group’s ten platforms is to encourage inter-trading to simplify the tender process from beginning to end.

This is where our Tender Connect platform comes in for phase two of our overarching business plan. This platform is built with the sole purpose of inter-trading and creating a go-to environment where both buyers and suppliers will benefit.

If you’re unsure about the stages of tendering mentioned in this blog, worry not! Our newest project, Tender VLE is here to help you understand the process. See our Clarification Questions and Breaking Down the Question videos.

We’re here to help you discover, succeed, procure and invest!

GDPR CERTIFIED – Creative Tenders

Posted on by John Hudson

Creative Tenders – GDPR certified!

In light of the recent GDPR changes in Europe, we have been ensuring that all Hudson Procurement Group’s companies are updated and follow the necessary procedures.

For the main part, we were already compliant with the standards set by the General Data Protection Regulation. We believe that businesses such as ourselves, should be completely transparent with how and why we use data – so here are just a few of the ways that we have accommodated our policy in response to these changes.

  • Policy Updates – We have updated all of our privacy updates so that they are clearly structured and simple to understand.
  • ICO Membership – We have been a member of the ICO for the past two years and recently renewed our membership in coherence with the GDPR legislation.
  • Reduced Access – We have limited the number of employees who are able to access personal information about our customers.
  • Insurance – We have always been insured in the unlikely event of a data breach – as all businesses should be.

The long and short of it:

If you don’t have time to trawl through our entire privacy policy here is a condensed summary of what we use your data for;

  • In-house Analytics – We closely monitor our website analytics to ensure that we are constantly improving the user experience and to track the efforts of our team.
  • Cookie Tracking – Just as the majority of online businesses use cookies, we also track the user path of visitors to our site to further our knowledge of our customers. This allows us to create a personalised service for our customers and show the right people, the relevant information.

Group CEO, John Hudson said ‘We believe in maintaining the privacy of our customers and every visitor who uses our sites. This is why we feel it is very important to declare ourselves as GDPR certified. We implement company-wide policies to prevent data breaches however, we are thoroughly protected for extra security.’

As mentioned, we have always taken care of our customer’s personal data and abide by the new regulations.

For more information as to our GDPR compliance please get in touch HERE!

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. 

ONE WEEK UNTIL TENDER VLE! – Bid writing Course

Posted on by John Hudson

ONE WEEK UNTIL TENDER VLE! – Bid writing Course

Procurement training platform, Tender VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) will launch next week on 1st June 2018!

We have spoken about this new project in many of our recent blogs – but what can it do for you?

Who will benefit?

Tender VLE considers three tiers of experience when it comes to procurement training. We have modified our content to adhere to different levels of understanding that we have categorised as;

  • Start – Complete beginners guide when it comes to tendering and procurement.
  • Develop – Familiar with the processes and may have even undertaken a role in the procurement system previously.
  • Excel – This section refers to those who may already be working as Bid Writers or as part of a wider bid management team.

What is it?

 Tender VLE is an online procurement training platform. It’s the first of its kind as it is completely FREE TO USE! The site will contain video-led masterclasses, delivered by our, in-house, procurement experts, comprising of;

Daniel has multiple years’ bid writing experience, which is exemplified by his first-class degree in English and has never scored lower than 85% quality score during his Bid Writing career. He will be the first instructor to deliver expert-level content that covers the basics during our launch period and more advanced content throughout.

Director and Co-Founder, Jill has over 16 years of experience working as a Bid Writer. She has secured hundreds of contracts for suppliers across multiple industries including Creative industries, the Technology sector and Engineering firms.

At Tender VLE, our vast experience tells us that the presentation of the bid can be one of the deciding factors between a success and failure. Kathryn heads our, in-house, Creative Team, ensuring that our clients stand out through the responses’ presentation and brand-specific design, especially with the likes of Creative Tenders.

As Hudson Procurement Group’s Co-Founder, John will feature in Tender VLE’s investment masterclasses. John has experience in running multiple successful businesses and will offer first hand, long-term, strategy planning knowledge.

No time to watch the videos? Don’t worry! Each video will be accompanied by a fact sheet containing a condensed, bullet-point version, summarising each topic and a short blog that discusses the points clearly.

Why Tender VLE?

Whilst working at all levels and on both sides of the procurement industry, our experts noticed substantial knowledge gaps – leading to a complicated process. The aim of Tender VLE is to simplify the whole procedure for suppliers by clearing up any misconceptions when tendering for new work. There are many consultancies out there who provide this information and training at a cost and we know that if everyone is provided with this type of information freely, then this levels the playing field with all SME operators nationally.

Want to request a topic?

We will be adding videos to the procurement training site on a regular basis so please feel free to request a specific topic and our procurement experts will do their best to cover it in as much detail as possible.

Please send all requests or further queries via our Tender VLE LinkedIn forum.

Don’t have the time or resources to bid for work? We understand that it can be a lengthy process, get in touch with our Tender Consultants HERE to see how we can support your procurement efforts even further.

Tender VLE will launch on 1st June 2018 and can be accessed via
www.tendervle.co.uk completely FREE!

We’re here to help you SUCCEED!

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. 

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

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

Posted on by John Hudson

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.

♦

  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!

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. 

HAVE YOUR SAY! What do you want to know? Creative Tenders

Posted on by John Hudson

HAVE YOUR SAY! What do you want to know? Creative Tenders

Every month – we want to hear from YOU!

Creative Tenders wants to get to know you as a customer and understand your thoughts, processes, and problems when it comes to UK tendering.

Our vision has remained the same since DAY 1:

We want to help businesses effectively discover contract opportunities that are out there, help them to succeed with their tendering efforts. We love to support like-minded organisations to procure through guided support and innovative inter-trading, and help deliver crucial economic results that helps conglomerates invest in what’s best.

As part of our impending launch for Tender VLE, we are wanting to find out your ‘pains of procurement’. So, we can deliver you FREE training and support in order to maximise your chances of tendering success.

This questionnaire features 5 short questions, which takes around 2 minutes to complete.

This is your chance to be heard and tell us your opinions on procurement, what you want to know and/or what you want to understand better!

If something doesn’t make sense – tell us!

We will try and get this across in a simple yet effective fashion!

CLICK HERE to take part!

WE SOURCE CREATIVE CONTRACT OPPORTUNITIES FOR AREAS INCLUDING;

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

Why Choose Hudson Procurement Group?

Posted on by John Hudson

 Why Choose Hudson Procurement Group?

  • What do you do exactly?
  • How does it all work?
  • Why should I choose you?

Although these questions are being asked less and less due to our growing presence online and current position in the procurement sector. We still want to show you some key traits of our provision and how we work FOR YOU!

We have recognised that across all businesses nationally, contract/tender opportunities are spread so wide that it takes time and unnecessary hassle to source the right prospects for your company. Even if the right ones come through from your many subscriptions on a range of procurement portals, this may be delayed by up to 5-10 days, along with some (if not all) opportunities having zero relevance to your organisation. This is because CPV codes* are being used incorrectly on a major scale by both buyers and suppliers. Some portals don’t offer the full range of CPV codes available and/or delay the release of key opportunities due to automatic processes.

*CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) Codes are used to differentiate, segment and classify contract opportunities so that your company can search and receive notifications about the opportunities aligned to your provision/offering.

With over 25 years’ experience and extensive knowledge of tender management and opportunity tracking, the creative and innovative specialists at Hudson Procurement Group is doing something that no other company is doing. We are MANUALLY tracking all opportunities that are released daily from the majority of procurement portals across the UK. We take this information to MANUALLY publish daily bulletins that are not only sector-specific, but specific to your actual service. We do not rely on CPV codes, which ensures no mistake, or irrelevant opportunity will ever be sent. Every opportunity posted by public AND private buyers will be provided to you promptly, clearly and consistently on a specific platform dedicated to your sector.

We currently operate 11 industry-specific platforms including:

We offer free demos with a dedicated Account Manager, who also provides live support with our platforms. However, due to the intuitive and user-friendly design, we guarantee minimal support needed.

screenshot of creative tenders portal
screenshot of creative tenders portal

Customers are guaranteed to have every opportunity at their fingertips, including the value, location and brief description to what’s required. Their procurement practices are effectively improved, eliminating excess time spent on sourcing opportunities and more time on developing their procurement strategies.

However, it doesn’t stop there! Due to our combined knowledge and experience, we also offer Tender Consultancy.This platform supports clients to better understand and maximise procurement practices within their organisation. This includes impartial advice, bid writing, tender training, tender reviews and holistic support with procurement.

We have upcoming systems to support clients EVEN FURTHER in the upcoming years, which include:

Tender VLE

A virtual learning environment dedicated to offering FREE tender and procurement training on a range of educational levels (beginner, intermediate & advanced etc.) all in VIDEO & BLOG format;

Hudson Discover

A one-stop-shop for buyers and suppliers to use an inter-trading platform. This is to identify buying opportunities for our group of subscribers, making our portals more specific to the needs of our customers. This is already in development as per our ways of working above;

Tender Bank

An online platform where customers can obtain multiple documents that will support their tendering efforts, including policies, matrices, methodology templates and written response templates in line with sector-specific objectives;

Procure Smart

A user-friendly collaborative platform for buyers and suppliers where they will be able to upload, communicate and submit tender documents online.

 We are Hudson Procurement Group and we are here to ensure we help suppliers, buyers and the overall economy. We want to maintain access to procurement best practices and most importantly GROW, DEVELOP & STANDOUT!

Why choose Hudson Procurement Group? – I think by now you already know!

Creative Tenders ‘In Conversation with Jill Hudson’ – Creative Tenders Website

Posted on by John Hudson

‘In Conversation with Jill Hudson’ –  The founder of the Creative Tenders website

What is your role at Creative Tenders?

My role is quite vast, on a weekly basis I work with agencies who are struggling to see results from their tendering efforts, delivering tender training and tender writing services, as well as driving forward product innovation to ensure our group of businesses are constantly developing.

Why you think the Creative Tenders website was an instant success.

Creative Tenders was our flagship product and I thought about this business whist working in agencies and often thinking ‘there has got to be an easier way to get this information’.  I knew that if I had this trouble thousands of others would too, so I wrote a technical specification for a product which would make my job easier.

Because I knew the industry so well, having worked in it for over 15 years that the product instantly screamed success.  On the day we launched the ‘coming soon’ campaigns the phone literally rang off the hook.  We had 5 staff at the time and they were all on the phone taking calls.  As all phone lines were busy other agencies were messaging us on Facebook and email saying they couldn’t get through and wanted to speak about the product as soon as possible.  I knew then that this product would be a success.

Then when we launched, within minutes’ agencies were signing up.

What do you see changing in the world of procurement over the next 3 years?

Procurement is changing but slowly. With the growing use of technology and technical capabilities procurement portals will hopefully become more user friendly.  Most portals, in my opinion need simplifying to make it easier for agencies to navigate.  I think this is starting to get better for digital agencies with the use of Digital Market Place.

Brexit will play a huge role in procurement changes, even those who don’t realise it, a lot of money spent on creative tendering opportunities has come from Europe, either directly or indirectly so we won’t see any more opportunities which are funded by ERDF or ESF for example.  I believe it will take a while to steady the ship once we leave the EU, so I am hoping and praying that the transition won’t affect SMEs too much.

Lastly, the government plan on spending £1 in every £3 with an SME by 2020, they currently spend £1 in over £5 either directly or through a supply chain. It will be interesting to see the impact Brexit has on this goal.

What’s your thoughts on the current procurement practices of our government?

It’s quite clear that it isn’t 100% right, nor do I believe that the government think it is.  I know it’s very frustrating for our customers that they need to register on many different portals to access tender documents, each system with a completely different interface and user requirements. I won’t be the first to say that this needs to be addressed to move forward procurement in general.

Having tendered for over 15 years, I see the frustrations of our customers and have personally seen some horror stories in regards to client selection processes but all we can do is unite and work with procurement departments to educate them on how much effort we put into our tender documents to ensure fair procurement practices are addressed.

What is your hope for the UKs creative sector?

The sector is flying, there is no doubt about that.  We want our agencies to feel confident stepping outside of their comfort zone and looking at International business.  We’re opening our US office in 2018 to support and encourage buyers to use our UK based creative agencies.  This will be a core focus for us during 2018 and any interested agencies should contact me direct so we can chat about how we will support agencies with this development.

You’ve chosen Boston as your first US office, why is this?

There is a number of reasons really, firstly it’s the shortest flight from the UK now that they’ve opened direct flights from the North, it is also only a short 50-minute flight from New York.  Secondly, we’ve visited Boston attending conferences, events, hosted meetings with businesses and government bodies and we feel the support on offer and the welcoming nature of the business community, that Boston is ideal for us to dip our toe in the water and start making some waves in the US.

What’s the future for the Creative Tenders Website?

The sky’s limit. No really. We’ve made significant progress in the year and a half we’ve been in business. I dare say 90% of all UK agencies know who we are, we have over 500 customers which grows daily and we have an exceptional retention rate for agencies choosing to stay with us year on year.  Now that we’ve launched another 9-sector specific tender portals, we’re working on Hudson Discover which is an online inter-trading portal, allowing businesses to buy and supply directly to one another from our system.

The next 12 months sees us focusing on opening the US office, launching Tender Bank to support agencies through simplifying tendering, ensure Hudson Discover is up and running and operating successfully and generally working hard to double the number of tenders we upload daily.  We’re currently uploading about 10-30 every day, we want to make that a minimum of 50 new opportunities every single day by the end of 2018.

What can agencies expect when working with Creative Tenders?

Consistency.  We will ensure you get your daily bulletins so you don’t miss any opportunities.  We will guarantee that if you log a support query someone will call within 1 working hour maximum, and we ensure our customers that we are constantly flying the flag for the creative sector and encouraging fair procurement practices.

We won’t become stale either, we are constantly in development and constantly generating new products that benefit UK agencies during their tendering journey.

If you could explain Creative Tenders in one sentence what would you say?

An innovative product that ensures timesaving for busy agencies, making it a business-critical tool for agency growth.