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As a supplier of construction, repairs, maintenance and housing services, you can access a wide range of public projects that can substantially grow your business by becoming a South West Procurement Alliance Appointed Company. As part of LHCPG, over 250 Appointed Companies support our frameworks, supplying over £350m of works, goods and services to public projects throughout mainland UK.

Being an approved supplier on a framework has many benefits and at the South West Procurement Alliance we want to support suppliers to make bidding for our framework opportunities as straightforward as possible.

South West Procurement Alliance's Regional Procurement Manager, Heather Rowland, shares some top tips to help bidders when embarking on what can seem like a daunting challenge…

1. Technical Requirements are often a pass or fail criteria, so before you embark on completing the documentation, check that you meet the minimum requirements for things such as:

• Required qualifications
• Required accreditations including ISOs
• Minimum insurance levels

2. Familiarise yourself with the Invitation to Tender (ITT) Pack and documentation – there are often multiple appendices and schedules. It’s useful to have a clear understanding of what documents you are required to complete and return to help get organised.

• Consider delegation - within your organisation consider who is best placed to respond to particular questions or identify where you will need colleagues' input. For example, social value and technical requirements.
• Review the timetable – add calendar entries for clarification windows, site visits and submission deadlines. Be aware of the timings, some bid times can be at lunchtime for example.
• Check the word count and weightings against any quality criteria, and give higher weighted questions extra focus.
• Consider how your approach to social value can complement and enhance what the client is looking for.
• Review previous feedback provided to tenders to ensure you are starting off on the right track.

3. Clarifications are an important part of a procurement process. Put any questions, queries or observations through the procurement portal if being used. Any clarifications will be treated in confidence and although the responses will likely be shared with all bidders, no one knows who is asking the questions.

• There is usually a clarification window so make sure you add your question within this time frame.
• Try to make your questions succinct and state the document and reference if appropriate, as this will make for a clear response.

4. Submissions need to be on time, organisations will not accept late bids, so double check the date and time of submission.

• Be wary of using ‘copy and paste’ as it can sometimes catch bidders out if the wrong information is included.
• Use evidence wherever possible, structure responses around why, how and outcomes. If you don’t have specific examples, use scenarios to explain how you would tackle something.
• Check any information is up to date, if you are asked to provide an organogram or qualifications, double check this is current as well.
• Shout about achievements; starting to collect case studies, awards, nominations and successes can help to make a great submission.
• Don’t forget any accreditations you may hold that may just be part of your everyday operation, these could really support your application.
• Check through the submission list to make sure you have included everything required.
• Make sure all boxes are completed and are correct, and where required include things such as anti-collusion statements and contractual undertakings.
• If you are using attachments as part of your response, provide the precise location of what you are referencing so evaluators know where to look.

5. Be prepared to provide additional information after the bid date, you may sometimes be asked post-tender clarifications, so be prepared to submit responses timely to avoid delaying the process.

• Award decisions will be disappointing for some and a celebration for others, evaluators are aware of the work that goes in to tendering for opportunities so don’t lose faith when you are unsuccessful. The new Procurement Act 2023 does put an emphasis on how public sector buyers will provide thorough feedback to enable bidders to compare their bids against the highest scorer. Use this feedback for future opportunities and if you are not offered feedback, ask for it.

For more information about the frameworks South West Procurement Alliance offer, use this link.

For all current bidding opportunities visit our portal.