Is Your Tender Support Agreement Fair?

There are a number of factors that affect the fairness of tender support agreements. Essentially they are in place to help business respond to Invitations to Tender (ITTs) or Pre-Qualification Questionnaires (PQQs).

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The reasons a business might want tender support can vary considerably;

  • They may want to improve their chances of winning
  • They may be looking for someone to take on the burden of the task
  • They may want to reduce stress levels by having someone else manage the process
  • They may be looking for support on one particular tender
  • They may be looking for continuing support to support a stream of tenders
  • They may be looking for support to address their general readiness to tender, and to create an easy to use and effective tender library

Ultimately the amount that a Tender Consultant will charge will be determined by the amount of time they need to spend on the task. If they spend an equitable amount of time on the tender the agreement is probably fair. Circumstances in which an agreement may not be fair is one where an original agreement may have been based on the amount of material the Tender Consultant has had to create, and the amount of information they have had to gather for the first couple of tenders. As time passes, and more and more tenders are handled, the easier, and less time consuming this task becomes. If the same level of charge continues, the agreement is probably no longer fair.

Another example of an unfair tender support agreement may be if a Tender Consultant takes on an assignment without having the time available to give the tender the attention it merits. They may have too much work on,  in which case they won’t be as focussed as necessary, or they may not be able to get to work on it straightaway – and a live tender is a ticking clock.

It is worth thinking carefully about how your tender support agreement might work. If not you might just be defeating the object of the exercise – and increasing stress levels.

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