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Stay Ahead: How to Track PR, Marketing, and Video Production Tenders in One Place

Posted on by John Hudson

Introduction

In the fast-paced world of PR, marketing, and video production, securing new contracts is essential for business growth. But with countless tenders released daily across multiple platforms, keeping track of the best opportunities can be overwhelming. Missing a tender could mean losing out on a lucrative project. So, how can creative professionals ensure they stay ahead of the competition?

Creative tenders are the ultimate solution. It simplifies tender tracking by bringing all PR, marketing, and video production opportunities into one convenient platform. Whether you’re a freelancer, agency, or in-house team looking to expand, this tool will help you stay organized and win more work.

The Challenge of Tracking Tenders

Tenders for creative services are published across various sources, including government websites, private sector listings, and industry-specific portals. However, tracking them manually presents several challenges:

  • Time-consuming process– Searching multiple websites daily eats into valuable working hours.
  • Missed opportunities– Without a structured tracking system, tenders can slip through the cracks.
  • Information overload– Sifting through irrelevant tenders is frustrating and inefficient.
  • Complex eligibility criteria– Understanding the requirements for each tender can be difficult without centralised insights.

With these obstacles, creative businesses often find it hard to consistently secure new contracts. That’s where an efficient, all-in-one tender tracking platform like Creative Tenders makes a significant difference.

How Creative Tenders Streamlines the Process

1. Centralised Tender Listings

Creative Tenders aggregates all relevant tenders into a single, easy-to-use platform. This eliminates the need to search multiple websites and ensures that you never miss a potential opportunity.

2. Industry-Specific Filtering

Unlike generic tender portals, Creative Tenders is tailored specifically for PR, marketing, and video production professionals. You won’t have to wade through irrelevant contracts—just the ones that match your expertise.

3. Real-Time Alerts

Imagine receiving instant notifications for tenders that align with your services. Creative Tenders sends timely alerts so you can act quickly and submit proposals before deadlines.

4. Detailed Tender Insights

Each listing provides clear eligibility criteria, deadlines, budget estimates, and submission guidelines. With this information at your fingertips, you can determine which tenders best suit your business.

5. Save Time and Boost Efficiency

By automating the search process, Creative Tenders frees up time for you to focus on crafting compelling proposals and delivering high-quality creative work.

Who Can Benefit from Creative Tenders?

Freelancers

If you’re an independent consultant in PR, marketing, or video production, Creative Tenders gives you access to projects that align with your expertise, helping you secure consistent work.

Creative Agencies

Agencies looking to expand their client base can quickly find and apply for lucrative contracts, giving them a competitive edge in the market.

In-House Marketing Teams

Businesses with internal marketing teams can leverage Creative Tenders to identify partnership opportunities and secure outsourced work.

Startups and SMEs

For smaller businesses, winning tenders is a great way to establish credibility and scale operations. Creative Tenders levels the playing field by providing equal access to opportunities.

Best Practices for Winning PR, Marketing, and Video Production Tenders

To maximise your success with tendering, follow these proven strategies:

1. Understand the Requirements

Before applying, carefully review the tender documentation to ensure you meet all requirements, from qualifications to budget constraints.

2. Showcase Your Experience

Highlight past projects, case studies, and client testimonials that demonstrate your expertise and success in similar work.

3. Provide a Clear, Tailored Proposal

Avoid generic responses. Instead, tailor each proposal to the client’s specific needs, outlining how your approach aligns with their objectives.

4. Be Competitive with Pricing

While pricing isn’t the only factor, a well-structured, competitive bid increases your chances of winning. Consider offering flexible pricing models or value-added services.

5. Submit Before the Deadline

Late submissions are automatically disqualified. With Creative Tenders’ real-time alerts, you’ll always have enough time to prepare and submit your proposal.

6. Follow Up

After submitting your bid, follow up with the client to express interest and address any questions. This proactive approach can set you apart from competitors.

Why Creative Tenders is the Best Choice for Your Business

Exclusive Focus on Creative Sectors

Unlike general tender portals, Creative Tenders is designed specifically for PR, marketing, and video production professionals. This means you get access to high-quality, relevant tenders.

User-Friendly Platform

The intuitive dashboard allows users to filter tenders, track deadlines, and manage applications seamlessly.

Time and Cost Efficiency

Instead of spending hours searching for tenders manually, Creative Tenders delivers the most relevant opportunities straight to your inbox, saving you time and effort.

Regularly Updated Listings

New tenders are added daily, ensuring you always have access to fresh opportunities.

Proven Track Record

Many businesses and freelancers have successfully secured contracts using Creative Tenders. It’s a trusted platform that delivers real results.

Final Thoughts

Staying ahead in the competitive world of PR, marketing, and video production requires a smart approach to tender tracking. Creative Tenders simplifies the process, giving you instant access to opportunities, real-time alerts, and a streamlined application system—all in one place.

If you’re serious about growing your creative business and winning more tenders, now is the time to take action. With Creative Tenders, you’ll never miss an opportunity again, ensuring your business thrives in a competitive marketplace.

Make tender tracking effortless—let Creative Tenders help you secure more contracts today!

Video Production Tenders

Posted on by John Hudson

Video Production Tenders

 

What are Video Production Tenders?

Do you want to grow your business in video production? Because tenders offer an effective means to secure contracts with new organisations. Tendering is therefore a vital strategy that many use to empower their business.

While different industries will have their own tendering processes the general idea is the same. Tendering is a formal process where an organisation (the ‘buyer’) posts an opportunity for a contract that others can ‘bid’ for. This makes your video production company the ‘supplier’ in this process. Both public and private sector organisations recognise the value of tendering as a fair and transparent procurement method. For the buyer, the goal is to secure the most economically advantageous tender, which you may see referred to as ‘MEAT’.

Understandably, this means that tendering presents you with many opportunities to bid for. This also means many others are bidding for the same opportunities. It is important then to not just focus on how amazing these contracts are but to ensure you are producing amazing proposals that meet buyer specifications. Most importantly, you need to show why you are the best video production company for the job!

 

A look at the Tendering Process

If you’ve never tendered before the process might look daunting. Here we will make it easier to digest by covering the more important parts. Video production tenders are creative tenders, meaning they will often be Requests for Proposals (RFPs). With RFPs the buyer provides a specification that you use to produce a creative project. The format is usually free form with few restrictions or word count limitations. Does this seem unusual? Consider that creative industries want to see the quality of your creativity! If you can grab their attention and show your talent off this early you are well on your way to winning the contract. If even your bid is amazingly presented, the buyer is assured that your video production skills are similarly skilful.

Generally, there are a few core aspects of tendering that creative industries are recommended to focus on. These are:

 

Design

  • As we briefly mentioned, having your bid be well-designed is crucial. This is a step where you should consider if you have the skills in-house, as video production and document design require different approaches.

 

Cultural Alignment

  • Your proposal needs to show that you understand the company you are appealing to. A buyer will prefer a supplier that shows they know their organisation well.

 

Case Studies

  • These are fundamental in displaying your video production experience. Case studies are your chance to show relevant experience and what you learned from it. Being able to provide several clear examples of similar works completed effectively will look good to any buyer.

 

Creativity

  • Similarly to the point on design, creative tenders often give you the opportunity to be creative even at this stage. This means you should showcase your personal brand within your bid.

 

Delivery

  • Firstly, you need to consider how much detail the buyer wants from your delivery model. While more is usually better, some buyers will not need as much detail.
  • The aim here is to detail the delivery model for your video project. This might follow the approach of inception, production and post-production. Providing a timescale is also a good idea.

 

Is Tendering the right approach for Video Production Companies?

Finding the perfect contract is essential for any business. The creative sector constitutes a surprising amount of the UK workforce, with new jobs posted at a faster rate than other sectors. With so many opportunities it is important to know how to efficiently narrow down your options. In the ever-growing pool of video production opportunities, how can you know which will be the absolute best for your company?

Tendering can help. The process allows you to search tendering portals to find specific opportunities that appeal to your company. Additionally, opportunities to bid for work with major and well-respected organisations will arise. Not only will contracts like this be major earning opportunities but they will also improve your company image. Securing contracts will massively expand your professional portfolio, which in turn will help you secure more and more impressive contracts in the future! Overall, tendering does not simply provide a few chances to work, but an abundance of exposure to opportunities that will expand your video production company.

 

Finding Video Production Tenders

As we discussed earlier, tender portals are typically where you can find your opportunities. Here at Hudson Outsourcing, we have developed tender portals for a wide variety of sectors to ensure the most streamlined experience when searching. For video production, our Creative Tenders Portal is exactly what you need. Our procurement team searches through thousands of sources daily to tag every tender appropriately.

This means that when you come to search less time is spent combing through irrelevant tenders. Instead, you will find only the best tenders for you!

 

Here are some examples of previous Video Production Tenders Hudson sourced:

 

  • Advertising Services Framework Agreement

Buyer: University of Huddersfield e-Tendering

Location: Yorkshire

Budget: £3,000,000

 

  • Photochemical Film Laboratory Services

Buyer: BFI

Location: London

Budget: £250,000

 

  • University of East London – Digital Content

Buyer: London Universities Purchasing Consortium

Location: London

Budget: £99,000

 

  • EHRC 2021-20 Film and Video Production Services Framework

Buyer: Equality and Human Rights Commission

Location: North West

Budget: £180,000

 

  • Freelance Filmmaker, Blaze

Buyer: Arts Council England

Location: London

Budget: £3,000

 

If you would like to see even more video production bids we worked on, feel free to visit our Creative Tenders Portal.

 

Contract Winning Bids

After careful consideration, you might have decided that tendering is the right move for your video production business. However, you might run into issues with training someone in-house or finding time in a busy schedule to work on a quality bid.

As mentioned earlier, Hudson Outsourcing can assist you. Our Succeed Team is here to help when you lack the time or resources to produce your bids. Notably, our team holds an 87% success rate from bids produced from over 60 years of bid writing. Should you choose this path, we can guarantee quality.

Other services we can provide include advice on becoming Tender Ready, guidance for Improving your Tendering and even Tender Mentoring! If any of these interest you, we offer free consultations where we can discuss the best approach for your video production tenders. You can call us at 0203 051 2217 or email us at hi@tenderconsultants.co.uk. You can also try a free trial of our Creative Tenders site!

What is Required for a Video and Film Tender?

Posted on by John Hudson

Video and film tenders explained

If you’re in the creative industry, you may be wondering what’s required for a video or film tender. Tendering is a viable business stem to consider going down if you’re wanting to grow your business. However, the world of tendering and procurement can be a confusing one.

Luckily for you, we’re experts in tendering and bid writing. This blog will contain some useful information on what’s required for a video or film tender and what to expect.

A split between quality, cost and social value

The evaluation score of your video or film tender will be noted in the tender documents. Often, this will be split between three things:

  • Quality

The quality section of a video or film tender will often be weighted higher than the cost. The quality section of the tender is where you can respond to their requirements and questions. You need to persuade the buyer why you’re the best business for the job. What are your unique selling points? Here, you want to demonstrate your capabilities and detail how you will exceed delivering the contract.

  • Cost

You want to ensure that you keep your pricing competitive. However, you don’t want to undercut your competitors by too much. This could be a red flag to buyers if you price your services too low. What’s more, is that you don’t want to promise you can do the job then go over budget. The buyer won’t be best pleased, as I’m sure you can imagine!

  • Social value

Social value is a compulsory component when tendering in the public sector. There is a minimum weighting of 10%, but sometimes it can be as high as 30%. This means it is not something to gloss over. The promises you make within the social value section (and your tender response in general) are contractually binding. This means you should be making promises you can keep.

Your social value response should have a focus on the social, environmental, and economic aspects of the contract. It’s always worth doing some research on the buyer. This will enable you to align your social value promises to theirs.

Skills and Experience

Often the specification will detail the skills and experience expected. This could include, but is not limited to, the following:

  • Experience turning complex information into engaging and memorable video content
  • Experience in conducting filmed interviews
  • Knowledge and experience of audio, lighting and filming techniques
  • Skilled in Illustrator, Photoshop, Adobe CC etc
  • Experience in animated video content
  • Knowledge of live streaming on sites such as YouTube and Facebook

The specifics related to the video or film tender you are applying for will be detailed in that specification. Each buyer will be requiring something different, so it’s important to read the tender documents thoroughly.

Be expected to give a presentation

Once you have passed the initial tender stage (stage 1), you will likely be asked to do a presentation. Here, it is often expected for you to provide a showreel of your previous work. This will be marked in accordance with an interview. The interviewers will then score the presentation and add this to the interview score. This will then be combined for a total score for the stage 2 evaluation.

Need assistance when writing your next video or film tender?

You don’t always have the time or resources to write a winning response in house. Outsourcing to bid writing experts can help. Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, offer four levels of bid writing support. They boast an 87% success rate and have over 60 years of bid writing experience. The services on offer include:

Where can I find video and film tenders?

Finding the right tender for your business can take time. You already have enough on your plate. Luckily for you, we have a time-saving tool that can help you find the right tender for your business.

Creative Tenders is an easy-to-navigate, centralised portal hosting live tendering opportunities from across the UK. There’s no reliance on inaccurate CPV codes!

Our Opportunity Trackers manually search and upload private and public sector opportunities. You’re able to filter the results by keyword, budget, location and more! This streamlines the process when searching for video or film tenders.

Below are previous video and film tenders sourced on our portal:

GB-London: BTA1402 – Broadcast Agency

British Tourist Authority- London- Budget: £50,000

KS3 English – Video brief April 2021

BBC Bitesize- London- Budget: £90,000

The Good Business Festival – Videographers

Liverpool City Council- North West- Budget: Undisclosed

BBC Sport: Younger Audiences Short Form Commissioning Briefs April 2021 16 – 24 Year Olds

BBC Sport- North West- Budget: Undisclosed

Creation of unique works based on film and sound interviews

The National Library of Wales- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

A SUBSCRIPTION TO CREATIVE TENDERS CAN OFFER YOUR BUSINESS:

  • Access to all exclusive, public and private sector creative contracts in the UK.
  • An on-hand Account Manager is available to answer any questions you may have about a video or film tender. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free bid management consultancy each month.

WE SOURCE OPPORTUNITIES FOR SECTORS INCLUDING;

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

WANT TO SAVE EVEN MORE TIME?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to optimise your tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for video and film tenders.

THE ULTIMATE TIME SAVER PACKAGE OFFERS YOUR BUSINESS:

  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Creative and Technology, for example.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid.
  • Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable creative tendering opportunities.

THE BECOME A PRE-BID MASTER PACKAGE ALSO INCLUDES:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • A Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

3 Things to Note When Applying for BBC Tenders

Posted on by John Hudson

BBC tenders: what to expect

Winning BBC tenders can be a challenge if you’re not familiar with tendering practices. Supplying to the BBC is rife with competition and you should want your bid to stand out from the crowd.

The BBC have five top priorities when it comes to suppliers and procurement. It’s worth bearing in mind that their strategic priorities include:

  1. Supporting the supply of distinctive, British ideas to the BBC from across the UK.
  2. Strengthening production ecologies, talent and the creative pipeline outside London.
  3. Maintaining a range of supply in the UK enabling smaller producers to not only survive but grow.
  4. Strengthening progress on diversity and representation both on and off-screen.
  5. Strengthening progress towards environmentally sustainable production in the UK.

3 things to bear in mind when applying for BBC tenders

  1. Various methods of procurement

Open tendering procedure

BBC tenders may also be an open tendering procedure. This often involves an invitation to tender, known as an ITT. An ITT will usually include the following:

  • Specification of requirement
  • Service level agreement
  • Commercial, operational, corporate social responsibility
  • Pricing schedule.

Restricted procedure

A restricted tendering procedure will feature a two-stage bidding process. It will first have an initial pre-qualification questionnaire, known as a PQQ or SQ. This is a pass/fail stage and is often used when more complex goods or services are being procured. It’s to ensure potential suppliers meet a minimum eligibility criterion and have the necessary ability to fulfil the contract.  After a supplier passes the PQQ or SQ, they will then receive an ITT.

Framework agreements

BBC tenders are often procured via framework agreements. Framework agreements are multi-supplier agreements used by a buyer to procure goods, works and services. They often benefit SMEs as there are more places available to supply a good or service. Securing a place on a framework is a great way to grow your business.

Framework agreements divide work into lots. Each lot typically represents a specific good, service or location. This means a supplier can apply to the specific lot(s) they can deliver. They aren’t required to supply the whole contract.

The type of tendering procedure used will be specified in the tender documents.

  1. Value for money

The BBC are expected to achieve and deliver maximum value for money. In order to do this, they will award the bid to the most economically advantageous tender, known as the MEAT. A MEAT is assessed on multiple aspects, not just price. It’s important to note that the cheapest bid does not win. BBC tenders will be evaluated on a range of things including, but not limited to:

  • Innovation
  • Environmental considerations
  • Accessibility
  • Ability to deliver on time
  • Quality
  • Price
  • Technical merit
  • Sustainability

The award criteria will vary depending on the type of contract and will be noted in the tender documents.

  1. Diversity, representation and inclusion strategy

Diversity and inclusion are imperative for BBC tenders. The BBC has pledged to commit to hardwiring diversity into everything they do. They are committed to growing diversity across the board via the programmes they make and the people that make them. It’s important to note that there are two commitments that come into effect on 1st April 2021.

  • A commitment for the BBC to invest £100 million in diverse production and content.
  • A requirement for producers to have 20% off-screen diversity on new TV commissions.

The commitments are independent of each other, but both focus on underrepresented groups.

20% diversity in production teams

The BBC are looking for those:

  • From Black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds
  • With lived experience of a disability
  • From lower-income backgrounds i.e. social economic diversity (SED).

£100 million commissioning spend

Newly commissioned titles must have at least two of the following diverse characteristics:

  • Stories and portrayal on-screen
  • Production leadership
  • Company leadership

It’s worth bearing these new commitments in mind when applying for your next BBC tenders.

Need help writing your BBC tenders?

The BBC care about the quality of your written response for BBC tenders. We understand that writing isn’t everyone’s strong suit and that’s ok. Your business shouldn’t have to suffer as a result of this. Outsourcing a tender to a bid writing service can help you win your next bid and grow your business.

Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, have an 87% success rate and over 60 years of bid writing experience. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you win your next BBC tenders. Whether you’re completely new to tendering, or need your response proofread before you submit – we can help.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect BBC tender for your business, send it our way. Our Bid Writers can take care of it all for you and they’ll even submit it on your behalf. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready 4-week programme is perfect for those who have never tendered before. A Bid Writer will work with you to make sure you have everything you need in place to tender successfully. The Tender Ready programme offers your business:

  • A 12-month subscription to Creative Tenders
  • Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding professionals
  • An organisation-wide Bid Library, including 3 case studies, 5 CV’s and 8 policies
  • Additional flexible benefit options.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you aren’t seeing the desired results from your tendering efforts. The Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents, working with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to Creative Tenders and additional tendering development services.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own BBC tender response and need someone to double-check it for errors, Tender Mentor can help. Our Bid Team will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes. They’ll also ensure that it’s in line with the specification before you submit.

Where can I find BBC tenders?

BBC tenders are published on the BBC website, but why limit and stop yourself there? There are hundreds of creative tendering opportunities going live every day with a variety of buyers. By limiting yourself to just the BBC you could be missing out on the perfect creative contracts in the UK for your business.

You may think that searching for creative tenders can take up a lot of your time, and you would be right. Wouldn’t it be great if you could use a time-saving tool that alerted you when new tendering opportunities are published?

Creative Tenders is one, easy-to-navigate centralised portal that hosts all live creative tendering opportunities from across the Creative Industry. There’s no reliance on inaccurate CPV codes!

Our Opportunity Trackers manually search and upload unique, private and public sector opportunities. You’re able to filter and search the results by keyword, budget, location and more. This streamlines the process, allowing you to find the perfect BBC tenders for your business.

Previous BBC tenders sourced on our portal:

BBC Audiences – Social Media Listening Services

BBC- London- Budget: £350,000

BBC Bitesize Scotland – 2nd Level Curriculum for Excellence

BBC Bitesize- Scotland- Budget: Undisclosed

Factual Commissioning Opportunity for Welsh Suppliers

BBC Wales- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

BBC Wales New Documentary Directors’ Initiative

BBC Cymru Wales- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

Culture in Quarantine Commissioning Strand – Disabled Artists Commissioning Opportunity

BBC Arts- Northern Ireland- Budget: Undisclosed

We also source opportunities for sectors including;

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

A subscription to Creative Tenders offers your business: 

  • Access to all unique, private and public sector opportunities across the Creative Industry.
  • An on-hand Account Manager to answer any questions you may have about finding BBC tenders.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new creative tenders are uploaded that day.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free bid management consultancy each month.

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you identify tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for BBC tenders for your business.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Creative and Technology, for example.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid
  • Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable creative tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • A Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

Opportunities for Creative Contracts UK

Posted on by John Hudson

5 Expert Tips for Winning Creative Contracts in the UK.

Are you looking for creative contracts in the UK? Whether you’re a marketer or website developer, you may be wondering, what creative opportunities are currently available, locally and nation-wide? And how is the industry rebuilding itself going forward, after such a devastating year?

We’ve compiled some industry insight, with tips from tendering experts and bid writers, to support creative contractors. Discover how you can boost your chances of winning creative contracts to grow your business as we head into 2021.

The creative industries: a workforce like no other!

Creative jobs make up a significant portion of the UK workforce! Did you know, more than 2 million UK jobs are in creative industries? The Creative Industries Council (CIC) reports an estimate of 2,040,000 jobs – with 75 per cent of them falling outside London. A further 1 million creative jobs are based in organisations outside the creative industries, such as technology and digital services. This takes the total number of UK jobs in the wider creative economy to 3.2 million. (That’s 9.6 per cent of all UK jobs!)

Creative jobs are added to the UK economy at a much faster rate than jobs in the economy as a whole. In fact, new jobs are developed at two to five times the rate of jobs in other sectors. Creative employment between 2011 and 2018 increased by 30.6 per cent. Average growth across the UK was only 10.1 per cent during that period.

Evidently, creative contracts in the UK cover a vast range of services. Such a versatile and everchanging industry requires a well-adapted and streamlined approach to sourcing business. At Creative Tenders, we’re experienced in sourcing creative contracts. We host tenders for sectors including:

Creative contractors need time to be creative! That’s why our priority is saving clients time and money when they’re searching for business opportunities. We source new tenders using our skilled procurement team, who categorise sector-specific tenders all in one place using industry-driven keywords. Opportunity tracking has never been so efficient! Book a free live demo to see how we can help your business grow.

How is the UK currently investing in new creative contracts?

There’s no doubt 2020 has been a tough year for the creative sector. The pandemic has stunted a rapidly growing industry and forced many creative businesses to close their doors, or drastically adapt. Music venues are now providing socially distanced concerts, for instance. Some businesses, such as theatre companies, have remained closed with workers furloughed since March, with little or no respite.

It continues to be an uncertain time, heading towards 2021. However, major investments are now being made throughout the creative industries.

Here are some key examples of grants, schemes and programmes currently in place to revive the creative sector:

  • £1.57 billion – Culture Recovery Fund.

This is the government’s overall rescue package for the cultural and heritage sector. Thousands of organisations across a range of sectors can benefit from grants and loans. This includes the performing arts and theatres, heritage, historic palaces, museums, galleries, live music and independent cinema. For example, venues and organisations currently benefiting include:

    • Military Wives Choirs
    • The Hepworth Wakefield
    • Night and Day in Manchester
    • Whitby’s Tomorrow’s Ghosts
    • Gothic Festival
    • London’s Somerset House
    • Kneehigh Theatre in Cornwall.

  • £500 million – Film and TV Production Restart Scheme.

The scheme supports 40,000 UK jobs by covering Covid-19 related insurance costs. The scheme will provide financial compensation for costs incurred due to Covid-related issues.

  • £150 million – The Sector Deal.

The Government has agreed a Sector Deal with the creative industries sector, through the Creative Industries Council (CIC). This investment will unlock growth and a longer lifecycle for creative businesses in the following ways:

    • funding leading creative clusters to compete globally.
    • by funding technologies and content via research into augmented reality and virtual reality.
    • funding creative skills of the future via a careers programme that will open up creative jobs.

  • £75 million – National Lottery Project Grants.

Recently re-opened by the Arts Council with an increased budget, funding is available to creative individuals, communities and cultural organisations.

  • £18 million – Developing Your Creative Practice Programme.

Also re-opened in Autumn 2020 by the Arts Council with an increased budget. This programme helps creatives step up their work in new ways.

  • £3.36 million – Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund.

This is an investment in 135 venues at risk of imminent closure due to the coronavirus.

  • £3 million – Festival UK 2022 Research and Development Programme.

Research and development for 10 major creative projects began in November 2020. The 2022 festival aims to reach millions, bring people together and showcase the UK’s creativity and innovation globally. 30 creative teams will be drawn together from over 500 organisations and individuals, including freelancers, across the UK.

Which areas have been identified for further industry improvement?

In addition to these major investments supporting the creative industries, areas for further research have been flagged up. Research will be another key avenue in reviving the industry and creating a more sustainable sector, going forward.

The Creative Industries Council (CIC) has identified nine core areas to improve through further research and development. These are:

  • Job Quality: While there is growing data on the number and growth of creative industries jobs, however, more insight is needed into job quality.
  • Strategic skills: The industry needs an accurate, refined future vision for which careers and skills are in highest demand, especially with the changes to the industry.
  • Creative education: There needs to be a stronger system for capturing and reporting the value of creative education.
  • Pipeline of talent: Better visibility into the talent pipeline and into career progression is required.
  • Creative professional development: the industry needs a better understanding of opportunities for professional development and learning.
  • Productivity and management practices: Compared to other industries, there’s a lack of evidence about productivity in the creative industries.
  • Tackling the diversity challenge: Better evidence is needed on the representation of all minority groups, and for data that goes beyond participation to explore the quality of work.
  • Local talent pools: The UK is lacking evidence on local skills and talent pipelines and how these meet the needs of local businesses.

Looking forward to the future of the creative industry, improvements in these areas will be significant for advancing the industry. This will, in turn, improve the jobs of the large percentage of the UK workforce in the creative sector.

How can you win creative contracts in the UK right now?

Securing creative contracts that are the perfect fit for your services is essential for growing your business – especially now. Finding the right contracts through effective portals like Creative Tenders is a great place to start. But how can you ensure you’ll see success throughout the tendering process?

Tenders for creative contracts are most often Requests for Proposals (RFPs), which can require a long and complex tender response. An RFP essentially means the proposal will be free-flowing, rather than comprised of short and simple text box answers. An RFP must encompass the entirety of the project, including a statement of work, along with a specified timescale and plan. The buyer may require a specific format. Due to these requirements, becoming a successful RFP writer can be challenging.

A successful RFP writer must ensure all elements of what the buyer is looking for are covered. If you need support, the bid writing experts at Hudson Succeed have extensive experience in writing successful creative contracts. They have secured a range of creative bids for UK clients, from marketing to videography, helping creative businesses to grow.

What do our experts recommend when bidding for creative contracts?

Here are 5 features our bid writers recommend focusing on when it comes to bidding for creative contracts:

  1. Design is an important element of a creative bid; a well-designed and clear proposal is often a requirement. Do you have the skills to create a well-designed bid in-house, or is this something you should outsource?

 

  1. Cultural alignment. Ensure you fully understand the buying organisation and reflect this in your proposal. Can you demonstrate your cultural alignment to the buyer and job at hand? For instance, consider how their work ethic and brand vision aligns with your own.

 

  1. Experience and case studies. Case studies are essential. Can you demonstrate your company’s relevant experiences and lessons learned in detail? How have you analysed and improved upon past projects?

 

  1. Creative bids tend to be more conceptually driven than other industries. Construction bids, for example, contain highly detailed specifications with little room for abstraction. With a creative bid, there is usually much more freedom to showcase your brand and vision. Can you demonstrate your brand’s personality alongside the concept of the bid?

 

  1. Delivery model. Can you comprehensively set out each phase of your delivery model, i.e. inception, production, post-production? The evaluation criteria of a creative bid will consider the quality of each of these stages. Detail is important here. Since the proposal is likely free-flowing, however, you should evaluate what level of detail is required.

Get in touch with Hudson Succeed for further support with writing proposals for creative contracts. Access expert support through the following bid writing packages:

Below are some tenders we’ve sourced on our Creative Tenders portal:

COVID Public Information Campaign

CPD – Supplies and Services Division- Northern Ireland- Budget: Undisclosed

Provision of Video Production – Provision of Video Production and Broadcasting services.

Abbey Theatre Amharclann na Mainistreach- Northern Ireland- Budget: Undisclosed

Tender for Website Design, Build & Host

Believe housing- North East- Budget: Undisclosed

Procurement of Services for Artwork, Design, Layout and Formatting of a Series of Knowledge Products to be Ready for Printing for EVAW Pacific Partnership Project

UN WOMEN- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Specialist Curator for the Good Business Festival

Liverpool City Council- North West- Budget: £20,000

Still looking for creative contracts in the UK?

Start finding creative contracts in the UK with Creative Tenders – it’s simple! Book a free, live demo with one of our team members today. We’ll walk you through the unique features of our portal and how they can help grow your creative business.

But don’t just take it from us! What do our clients say?

The following feedback is from clients of Creative Tenders:

  1. “I get an overview of relevant tenders in the sectors I have chosen, summarised in one bulletin that arrives at the end of the day, leaving me to focus on other activities. We actually won our first tender we applied for using the site which was amazing. Any queries I have are always swiftly responded to by Marie and the team. A great service we would highly recommend.” –

    Kyle Gray, Head of Business Development, Regency Creative.

 

  1. “Creative Tenders has been an amazing resource for us. We’ve found the daily discover updates invaluable, allowing us to uncover opportunities we wouldn’t have previously seen without this resource. The Succeed service was brilliant at giving us the tools and guidance to confidently submit winning tender responses.” –

    Laura Dearden, Head of Client Services, Unwritten Group.

  

  1. “We use Creative Tenders to source opportunities like bespoke development, website design and build projects, and apps. Creative Tenders has become central to our daily operations – the platform is easy to use and the regular updates regarding new tenders and business opportunities are invaluable.” –

    Sarah Luther, Sales Director, 6B Digital.

£500million Scheme Opens for the Film and TV industry

Posted on by Charlotte Jarvis

The Film and TV Production Restart Scheme

It was recently confirmed that the £500million Film and TV Restart Scheme had officially opened. The scheme covers Covid-related insurance costs and is set to support 40,000 UK jobs.

The scheme will provide financial compensation to productions that have been able to restart but incurred additional costs due to Covid-related delays. In order to be eligible for the scheme, at least half of the production budget needs to be spent in the UK.

The Culture Secretary and Chancellor announced that eligible productions could be onboarded within days. They also added that claims could be backdated to the 28th of July, when the scheme was announced.

This Film and TV Production Restart Scheme will be a temporary measure to help the industry kickstart their recovery. However, the original deadline of December 2020 has now been extended to February 2021.

The support has been described as a “crucial greenlight” and “a brilliant initiative” by those in the industry.

“The UK television industry is getting back to work, but has been waiting for the insurance roadblock to be cleared to end the uncertainty over future funding. We welcome today’s announcement from the Government which helps to remove this hurdle and provides us with the greenlight to kickstart our sector and build on the fantastic global success we achieved in 2019.” – Sara Geater, Chair of Pact, and Chief Operating Officer at All3Media.

The UK Film and TV industry

Along with numerous other creative industries, those in the film and TV sector were some of the hardest hit by the pandemic.

In the UK, the industry is responsible for over 180,000 jobs and contributes more than £12billion to the UK economy.

Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, said:

“Our film and TV production sector is respected the world over, filled with talented people. I am delighted that this half a billion-pound scheme will get cast and crews back to doing what they do best. This move will help support tens of thousands of jobs, provide work for creative freelancers and get cameras rolling across the country.”

Other industry professionals have expressed relief as the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme means that the industry can begin to look to its future strategies.

“It is an understatement to say how pleased we are that the Production Restart Scheme is in place giving life back to the film and television industry to provide jobs for freelance cast and crew, turnover for suppliers and ultimately great stories to be seen in our cinemas and on our screens. Without this backing from the Government’s scheme, our industry, which is held in such high regard throughout the world, would have been under serious threat. We have started our own project Mothering Sunday working with the best of UK talent now to secure in their jobs. It is an enormous relief to us and to many people who have been working tirelessly to keep projects alive over the past few months. We would like to thank those who have given their support and to those who have played a hand in reaching this vital and welcome decision.” – Elizabeth Karlsen, Number 9 Films.

New business opportunities for the film & TV industry  

Hudson has been supporting businesses in the creative industry for almost two decades. We understand how the sector operates and how to grow a business within this industry.

That’s why we developed our Creative Tenders portal. The tender tracking system is dedicated specifically to the creative sector.

Our portal is unique because you don’t need to have experience or even knowledge of CPV codes to operate it. We don’t use them. Instead, we use people to find tenders. Our team of manual Opportunity Trackers search thousands of sources to ensure that our clients never miss a tendering opportunity. We also liaise with the private sector, proactively sourcing exclusive opportunities for our subscribers.

Once the tenders have been sourced, they are then uploaded to the system and tagged with industry-led keywords. This means that you can simply log in, search ‘Video Production’ and instantly find all the latest tenders in the UK.

Book a free live demo to take a tour of the system. This will allow you to browse current opportunities and understand how the portal can help your creative business.

Previous tender examples

Below, you will find examples of the tenders we have previously sourced for video, film, animation and production services.

Filmmaker needed
The Anne Frank Trust UK – London – Budget: £10,000

Video Production
Money and Pensions Service – London – Budget: £740,000

Freelance film maker, Portsmouth City Council Library and Archive Service
Portsmouth City Council – South East – Budget: £2,000

New website including corporate video content
Akona Concepts Limited – North West – Budget: £24,999

Provision of Video Production Services
Health Education England – Yorkshire – Budget: £180,000

General Animation Brief
BBC – London – Budget: £40,000

Tender for the provision of Custom Videography Services to the Institute of Technology Tralee
Institute of Technology Tralee – International – Budget: Undisclosed

Photography and Videography
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council – South East – Budget: Undisclosed

Tender for Two Documentary Films
The Playhouse – Northern Ireland – Budget: £50,00

Graphic Design and Animation Services, for City of Glasgow College
City of Glasgow College – Scotland – Budget: £27,000

BBC BITESIZE Starting Primary School
BBC – London – Budget: £4,000

Filming for Dementia Services
The University of Worcester – West Midlands – Budget: Undisclosed

Find examples of our live tenders.

Bid writing for the creative sector  

Our extensive experience in the creative industry allows us to support a multitude of businesses with their bid writing efforts.

Once you have found the perfect tender for your business, it’s time to write the response. We understand that this might not be your forte, that’s why we developed our Hudson Succeed offering.

Hudson Succeed is our bid writing division. Our team currently supports over 700 businesses, globally, and proudly hold an 87% bid success rate.

To ensure that they can support businesses of varying sizes, they provide four dedicated services.

  1. Tender Writing

This is their ad-hoc bid writing service. Tender Writing was designed for businesses who need to write a reactive bid but lack time or resources. Simply send the tender specification to our team and they will take care of the written responses and the submission.

  1. Tender Ready

They know that tendering might be a new avenue for your business, that’s why they created Tender Ready. The package involves the creation of the documents you will need to tender as well as three days of consultancy support. They can write and submit your first bid on your behalf or guide you through two. A 12-month subscription to Creative Tenders is included in the package.

  1. Tender Improvement

Are you already tendering for work but not seeing success? The Tender Improvement package was designed to help you increase your win rate. The service includes a full analysis of your previous tender responses as well as three days of bespoke consultancy. As part of the package, you will also have access to Creative Tenders for a full year. This means that you can continue to source new opportunities and apply your new winning strategy.

  1. Tender Mentor

Tender Mentor is the perfect solution to prevent losing marks due to errors in your content. Our Bid Writers will proofread your tender responses and ensure that you submit an error-free bid that answers the specification and impresses the buyer.

Please get in touch with the Hudson Succeed team for more information or to book a free consultation.

WE SOURCE CREATIVE CONTRACT OPPORTUNITIES IN THE UK FOR SECTORS INCLUDING;

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

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!

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!

I’M IN COMPETITION WITH MYSELF AND I’M LOSING! – Tender Basics!

Posted on by John Hudson

I’M IN COMPETITION WITH MYSELF AND I’M LOSING! – Tender Basics!

Tender Basics are the foundation of your bid writing success. Our Growth Director, Jill Hudson, has over 16 years’ experience with Tender Writing, so she knows how lonely it can get when you see rejection in the early days.

“I quite quickly went from a success record of <15% in my very early days of tender writing to >70% just by spending the time needed to digest feedback and eliminate silly mistakes.  Mistakes I seemed to be making all the time without evening realising I was doing it.”

The thing you need to realise very early on is that feedback is the route to success.

No one really likes reading the feedback of how they’ve missed the point of the tender document, the response didn’t hit the mark – at all, or you’ve forgotten to proofread and your response to a question is littered with mistakes. Queue – kick yourself under the table and put the kettle on. It’s important to get back to the ‘Tender Basics’ every time you’re writing a bid.

Tender Basics
Tender Basics

However, without this feedback, you will continue to make these mistakes. The most common mistake you will make is not understanding the time it takes to respond to a bid correctly. Assuming you’ll write a winning submission in 2-hours is unrealistic, whilst ABC Ltd. are throwing all their resource at this competitive contract to ensure they will win it.

You need to quickly realise that the only way you will start to win is to get back to the Tender Basics:

  1. Believe you can win it – ensuring you have the right credentials.
  2. Do your homework – research is key.
  3. Spend the time needed to write a winning submission.
  4. Don’t leave it until the last minute – this is how mistakes happen.
  5. Ensure you understand the point scoring mechanisms to ensure you are maximising your answers to the questions asked.
  6. Answer the question with the information they have requested, not the information you believe they should know about your business.

We’re sure you’ve established that our main piece of advice over the many blogs we have written, is to be sensible with your expectations.  If you turnover around £100,000 per annum, you’re not going to win a £2,000,000 contract. Nor should you want to put all your eggs in one basket like that. So, if this is the course of action you’re taking you will continue to receive the rejection letters.

Tender writing is an art form, it isn’t for everyone but you will reap the rewards if you spend the time learning, building knowledge and correctly assessing what you need to do to allow you to win.

Jill states “I’m a firm believer that the only person you should ever be in competition with is yourself. That way you will always get better.”

Eliminate the noise and … focus!

If all else fails, give our Tender Consultants a call, we’re here to help you discover, succeed, procure and invest!

“THEY ALREADY KNOW WHO THEY WANT TO USE!” – The Tendering Process

Posted on by John Hudson

“THEY ALREADY KNOW WHO THEY WANT TO USE!” – The Tendering Process

We’ve all heard stories about backhanded business deals and brown paper envelopes passed under the table for the decision making to go in favour of a specific business on a particular contract/opportunity.

This is drastically changing for the better, having analysed tender processes now compared to where they were 10 years ago.  We’re not saying this doesn’t happen! We do still live in a world of human interaction (for now).  However, things are getting better and we’re super confident that this will continue.

Here at Hudson Procurement Group we are focused on creating a fair bidding process for all. We’re working hard to make headway with government organisations. Especially into how and why decisions are made when marking tender documents. And also, how buyers issue tender notifications and how to produce a fair Invitation to Tender and Specification document.

"THEY ALREADY KNOW WHO THEY WANT TO USE!" - The Tendering Process
“THEY ALREADY KNOW WHO THEY WANT TO USE!” – The Tendering Process

We like to advise our customers on how they can question the result of a tender notification and the tendering process if they believe they have been incorrectly scored. This does not mean that we’re going to back sore losers and encourage those who think they should have won when in actual fact the right company was awarded the contract.  On occasion, we’re simply pipped at the post and the best man won and we need to take it on the chin and learn from it.

If you truly believe you were not given a good shot, there are a couple of things you can do:

  1. Ask for thorough feedback, and if they don’t provide it then you can question ‘why not?’. If they’re spending public purse, they should spend the time needed to give you feedback against the winning submission.
  2. If they will not provide feedback ask the process for putting in a freedom of information request, this should prompt them into giving you feedback.
  3. If you are still feeling like you’re getting no response, you can contest the decision based on lack of feedback. This means that spending public-purse will be required to complete a thorough internal investigation into how they have purchased the required services/products.

The most important aspect of any ‘rejection letter’ is to look at it logically and ask for feedback, learn from it and make sensible decisions on how to move forward.

Things truly are changing in the world of procurement. We’re going to be central to making sure our customers are given a fair shot when investing the time needed to respond to an ITT.

We’re only ever a phone call away, and we would welcome your feedback on how you believe the procurement process should change to suit SMEs.  If we hear your feedback, we can help shape policy for the better.

See our ‘Rules & Regulations when Tendering’ Blog for additional regulations that buyers must adhere to.

 Want to learn more about the tendering process? We’re here to help you Discover, Succeed, Procure and Invest.

DON’T WORRY ABOUT DISTANCE: We live in a Digital World! – International Tendering!

Posted on by John Hudson

DON’T WORRY ABOUT DISTANCE: We live in a Digital World! – International Tendering!

This is an age-old debate here at Hudson Procurement Group. We’re constantly telling our customers to spread their wings when it comes to bidding for new business and succumb to International Tendering.

Historically, we used to take as much business as we could from our doorstep. It was, after all, deemed easier to deliver logistically and support with brand recognition. It was a major achievement to be a leading regional vendor.

But, things have changed drastically over the years and the government throws hundreds of millions into helping us SMEs to trade internationally. The world and its major cities are so much more accessible and connected with daily direct flights from the UK to the US, Dubai, Australia, China etc., especially for service and product-based enterprises.

We encourage our clients to eliminate any geographical fear when looking for business. We advise you to look at where the work is and look at the logistics of delivery. If it deems possible, then don’t put in place unnecessary barriers that will hinder your company growth.  An international business development strategy should be a core activity for your executive/director team until you’ve established there isn’t any profit in trading overseas.

Here at Hudson Procurement Group, we have over 1,000 clients all over the world. None of which we’ve met face to face, but it’s not important to meet them. We speak with them daily over the telephone, Skype and email. We still deliver the same value-added service regardless if they’re UK based, operate in the US or have their headquarters in India. We too revel in International Tendering!

Our advice when looking at which tendering opportunities are right for you is:

  1. Don’t eliminate any opportunity until you’ve assessed it properly.
  2. Ensure you can make a profit, taking into consideration traveling and shipping costs if this is a required part of the work.
  3. Take a risk! Sometimes these risks pay huge dividends. Just because you’re not based on their doorstep, doesn’t mean you’re not the right provider.
  4. Don’t assume you won’t be chosen just because you can’t pop to their office for a cup of tea. You’ll find that more and more people try to eliminate the number of meetings they have, not increase them.
  5. Seek advice and guidance from your local Department of International Trade. We’ve found them super useful during our research phase of opening our US office.
  6. Give us a call, we’re happy to help and to answer any questions you may have about bidding for work overseas.

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

Common Trends in Public Sector Tendering!

Posted on by John Hudson

Common Trends in Public Sector Tendering!

We think it’s safe to say that every year, something new happens in the world of procurement. This is due to the ever-changing landscape that buyers and suppliers constantly find themselves in. Here are, in our opinion, a small collection of common trends across UK Public Sector Tendering as of late:

1. BREXIT

The word coined to fill the hearts of many with either progressiveness or ultimate decline. The word in our opinion is met with uncertainty, especially in the way procurement will be running long-term. It has been recorded that “since Brexit, the total value of tenders has risen”.  This implies that there is more work than ever before up for grabs. However, how long will it last? Well, there are no immediate changes due to the EU regulations being merged with primary UK legislation. However, we can expect a lot more focus on cost-effective supply chains that are held locally, given our potential departures from European partners. Risk assessments and the holistic management of contracts will surely be examined a lot more in technical questions based on the happenings of BREXIT.

2. Modern Slavery

Have you come across it yet? The question on an increasing amount of PQQs which ask if you abide by Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015? What you may not know is that the act contains a clause on ‘Transparency in Supply Chains’, which addresses the role of businesses and what they do to prevent modern slavery from occurring in their supply chains and organisation[s]. As per Section 54, it states that if your organisation has a turnover of over £36 million or more you must confirm adherence. You will then have to publish a ‘slavery and human trafficking’ statement annually on your company’s website. Mainly, to state what you are doing to prevent this. We find that SME’s tend not to worry about this, as it remains non-applicable 99% of the time, but still, it is something that is commonly being asked across the board.

3. Social Value

What are you doing for your community? what environmental aims does your company have? do you work with apprentices? – these are just a few of the questions that are becoming increasingly asked in public-sector tenders. Even if you are the smallest company around, we advise you to think of your corporate and social responsibility and how this is positively changing the world … or at least your local area. Every little helps! – we advise you do liaise with charities, apprenticeship providers, assess long-term goals and ensure that social value (aligned with a local authority and government initiatives) crops up one way or another, as this is becoming a key contribution to finalising scores in ongoing tenders.

4. SME Focus

By 2020, the UK government has promised “big opportunities for small firms” as they are set to spend £1 in every £3 with small businesses/SMEs. One thing a lot of SMEs DO NOT have that bigger companies DO HAVE is experienced and well-educated internal Bid Writing professionals. This means SMEs will see a surge of utilising external support functions to ensure their tenders are of the highest quality. We are one of those companies! Our aim is not to just write high-quality bids, but support you with understanding the procurement world. We’ll support you with:

  •  opportunity tracking (using our elite and secure Hudson Discover platforms, related to each UK industry) tender training (using our upcoming FREE virtual learning environment with regular VLOGs) eventually
  • maintaining/developing your ongoing content for tendering (using Tender Bank).

The increased use of Framework Agreements and Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS) and getting onto these, require rapid and high-quality responses to ensure longstanding work is won and sustained.

These are just a small list of current trends that are recognised as of late. If you need help with writing bids or anything further feel free to get in touch!

We are Hudson Procurement Group and we are here to help you grow, develop and standout!

Understanding & Implementing Tender Feedback

Posted on by John Hudson

Understanding & Implementing Tender Feedback

Understanding and Implementing Tender Feedback – we all dread it, don’t we?

When the doomed ‘Contract Award’ notification hits our inbox with an attached letter titled ‘unsuccessful’ or ‘regret letter’. This can be one of the very few things that make our business-fueled hearts completely shatter!

To put it simply- we have never met a company who hasn’t had some sort of failure whilst tendering. It is very unlikely that you will win every tender you bid for – in fact – around 98% of well-established companies will tell you about a time they failed at tendering.

This could be down to a whole range of things that contribute to the evaluation of a typical tender. Bidding for a job is not just about putting your fingers on a keyboard and writing some profound content (or getting specialist support to do this for you)- there are other key factors that could let you down which you need to take control of and act upon, ready for the next tender!

Buying organisations (especially in the public sector) are now obliged to provide a decent amount of tender feedback as part of their evaluations. This is to support the supplier organisations better their chances next time.

How we approach it…

We are always advising clients to use this to their advantage and encourage them to receive as much detailed feedback as possible. If you only receive scores out of 100, ask for qualitative feedback to how the winner was successful and you weren’t. As mentioned, this is becoming increasingly provided as part of the Contract Award process.

Below is an example of what you should do when receiving the feedback and using this to your advantage towards future efforts.

EXAMPLE Maximum Score Available Your Score Winners Score
Quality 60% 32% 52%
Costing 40% 40% 30%
Total 100% 72% 82%

Our 4 steps:

  1. Understand the key area[s] to why you were unsuccessful- this will be translated clearly in numerical scores using a ratio of Quality & Pricing (and in some added cases, Interview/Presentation)- this will be your main focus to implement improvements;
    e.g. if you score 32% out of 60% for quality but 40% out of 40% for cost – this shows you were the cheapest supplier but lacked in your technical responses. It turns out you were only 11% away from beating the winner in total.
  1. Once quantitative data is identified, source the qualitative feedback provided (if none has been provided- ask for further detail)- this should be broken down clearly on the contract award notification to enable stringent focus on where to improve;
    e.g. out of the 60% maximum score for quality, a major section of this was a ‘Contract Management’ question, which accounts for 30%- the score and feedback provided suggests your contract management arrangements lack innovation and fundamental traits compared to those of the winner (incl. lack of efficient MI system etc.)
  1. Make sure an internal meeting is held with key members of your staff, in order to collaborate and discuss improvements where necessary;
    e.g. Assess all traits regarding Contract Management that was provided as feedback – research best practice – due to the lack of an effective management information (MI) system, it is best to find out which is the most affordable systems on the market- ask yourselves what are your competitors using? What was the winner using? – Companywide Idea generation sessions help massively to ensure a firm approach and wider understanding of what’s needed.
  1. Undergo regular sustainability reviews to ensure improvements are fully established across your organisation;
    e.g. ask yourselves – do we have an effective MI system now? Have we implemented innovative approaches? How do we compare to our competitors? Can we write a better response to Contract management now?

One of the biggest things you SHOULD NOT do is operate a ‘blame culture’ within your organisation when trying to understand tender feedback. Not only will that upset staff and ignite resentment but will likely damage your efforts of improvements going forward. We are strict believers that when tendering, if you win together, you have to lose together also. One of the most important things about tendering is making sure your colleagues are proofreading and checking EVERYTHING before submission. The more eyes, the better! If you find that a mistake was made by a member of your team which had huge effects on your succession of the work, then this should be an issue that was missed by the whole team and treated with solidarity, to effectively improve.

Remember- we offer a Tender Consultancy service to support the development and even review your work prior to submission.
Get in touch if you need further support with managing those all-important opportunities!