There are five major ways to supply to Government: The first step is to set yourself up as a subscriber. Simply go to your states tendering website and create an account. As part of the registration process, you will need to provide information about the nature of your business. All subscribers receive Free Tender Alerts. These alerts let you know about public tender opportunities suited to your industry. Not only does this save you time and money, it ensures you don’t miss business opportunities. To search for current opportunities, closed opportunities and recently awarded contracts, use the search bar in your state’s tendering website. State and Federal Government has a range of pre-qualification schemes covering a wide range of goods and services from various sectors. These schemes cover both whole of government and agency-specific schemes. This may provide opportunities for suppliers who register and pre-qualify, although pre-qualifying is not a guarantee of receiving any work. Agency specific schemes apply for some agencies that have a specific need that is not met by an existing whole-of-government contract and therefore require their own procurement contracts and schemes. When Government agencies need to buy goods or services, it can approach these pre-qualified suppliers in a number of ways – including via a request for tender (RFT), request for quote (RFQ) or request for proposal (RFP). It can sometimes also negotiate directly with suppliers - depending on the circumstances. The application process for schemes varies, depending on the nature of the goods and services covered by the scheme. Some schemes provide different levels of pre-qualification with fewer requirements for works up to certain values or thresholds. It is worth bearing in mind that applying to join a prequalification scheme can be time consuming, as there is a lot of information that needs to be provided in the process. Don’t rush into starting an application until you have read all the information about what is required and can dedicate the time and resources needed. Value for money is the primary objective. It is critical that you as a seller understand what value for money means, and you can show that what you are selling is value for money. Value for money is not the lowest price or the best bargain. Value for money is all the benefits over the life cycle of what is being purchased, minus all the costs. What you are selling can be the best on the market and the cheapest, but if the Government sees that it may fail or cost to adopt or maintain, your product may not be the best value for money. Public servants must encourage competition through their buying. Importantly, they are specifically required to encourage new businesses, including small businesses, to compete for government work. This objective gives your small business an opportunity to pitch for work. Public service buyers are told that they should: If you think your small business has missed out on an opportunity because it wasn’t notified or the opportunity was written in such a way that it made it impossible for your small business to win the work, please contact your State government. Public servants are told not to just keep buying the same things, over and over. They are specifically encouraged to consider innovative options when buying goods or services. Public servants are told to spend public money wisely. This means they should only buy only what they need and source sustainable alternatives wherever available. There are several rules, which all public servants must follow: The Supplier’s Code of Conduct also applies to buyers. When buying goods or services, public servants are required to: If you ever believe that a public servant has not complied with the Supplier’s Code of Conduct, you can make a complaint to your State Government’s Procurement Office. If you have registered for government tender alerts, you will start receiving email notifications alerting you to currently available tendering opportunities (see sourcing tenders and prequalification schemes for registering for tender alerts). At this stage, you should have either started or completed an application to become pre-qualified on a government scheme suitable to your business. Make sure you understand the applicable conditions to participate in the tender process. If you cannot answer yes to each and every condition, it is recommended you do not participate in this particular tender. When the Government puts out tenders, they are looking for businesses that can meet their requirements. If you are not in a position to meet the conditions set out, it will probably be a waste of your valuable time and effort to prepare a bid as your proposal will be unlikely to make it through the first round of the tender review process and will not be considered with the rest of the competitive field. Now that you have reviewed the conditions of tendering and have critically analysed the evaluation criteria, you are in the best position possible to decide whether to participate or to withdraw from the process. It is important to make the decision! If the decision is to withdraw from the process, leave it at that and give it no more thought. There will be other opportunities in the future. If the decision is to go for it, now is the time to undertake a thorough review of all the tender documentation and plan out the rest of the bid process. Government agencies are looking for an innovative, customer-oriented supplier who stands out from the competition. This is about being a business that is focused directly on providing solutions to their customers and meeting their needs. Have a copy of the applicable conditions of tendering and the evaluation criteria with you before you start writing. Set tasks and timelines. This is essential in the tendering process, as you will need to place other work on hold to find the time to prepare your bid. It is easy to underestimate the amount of time it will take to prepare a fully conforming, quality bid. Make sure you allocate sufficient time to give yourself the best chance of winning the work. If you have more than one person working on a tender response, it is critical everyone knows what they are accountable for delivering and the associated deadline. It is important you collect all the data that is requested in the tender and have it easily accessible. During the tender analysis phase, you should have a list of all the data requirements in the tender including the additional information the Government agency has requested you to provide with your response. These additional attachments could include: If this is your first-time tendering, be sure to set up appropriately titled folders in your company’s shared drive so your tendering information is always easily accessible. This way, you will always have the necessary documentation and right information at the ready for any future tenders you participate in - being organised will save you a lot of time. To produce a compelling and conforming tender, it is vital to meet the three P’s of positioning your business to stand out, to persuade the tender evaluation committee and to be competitive on price. To achieve this, the following steps will guide you in producing a highly competitive tender response that makes your business stand out. Address each criteria point as a heading in your response - or use a template if it is supplied by the agency. This is usually called a Returnable Schedule. Use simple English to ensure your tender is easily and clearly understood. It is best to avoid using too many technical and industry jargon terms. However, if the main tender document uses certain keywords, ensure to use these in your response. For example, if the words “value for money” or “quality assurance” are repeatedly used, be sure you use them wherever it is relevant. If you are discussing your management systems, part of the value could be the fact your systems enable value for money and your business is continuously improving its processes through your quality management approach. Provide examples of how you have previously met the same criteria in similar jobs you have successfully completed. This is your opportunity to sell yourself. A written reference from a client will add additional weight to this. Make sure you identify areas within your response where you have specific and highly competitive expertise. You may come across certain response requirements, which you don’t understand or are unclear. It is acceptable, within reason, to ask a clarification question of the Government agency. In the tender notification you received, there will be details of a tender contact. All questions will need to be addressed to the tender contact or as specified in the main tender document. The tender document will also advise when questions will no longer be accepted, which is usually a few days before tender closing time. This is because answering questions goes out in the form of an Amendment or Addendum . These responses can take some time to formulate and are communicated to the whole group of tenderers. Keeping track of amendments is particularly important because this could change the way you respond to the tender. Government purchasers often amend the tender documentation during a tender period and call them Addenda or Amendments. These are usually issued because of clarification questions being asked by respondents. In the returnable schedule document, there would normally be a section an “Addenda Acknowledgement” table. In this table you will list all the “Addenda” or “Amendments” issued throughout the tender period. This table is important because it satisfies the evaluation panel or committee that you have received, understood and acknowledged any material changes to the tender scope. You will need to ensure your price is in the ballpark to be competitive. A way to ensure your pricing is likely to be competitive, is by conducting a Competitor Analysis on Bidio’s platform https://bidio.ai/drills . Here is where you can see how your competitors have been pricing previous contracts. You also need to take into account any additional requirements and costs that may apply in some circumstances when supplying to Government, such as ongoing reporting requirements, and ensure that you have included these costs in your quote. At this point, you would have produced all the content required for your tender response. Now it is time to put it all together as a final draft, ready for a critical internal and/or external review. The following tips are important to ensure that you have produced a conforming tender response: The last step before you are ready to lodge your tender is to have it reviewed by a fresh set of eyes such as a colleague, partner, friend or third party and to evaluate your tender against the weighted criteria to ensure your response will be competitive. Getting a third-party such as your business advisor, an industry professional, Business Connect advisor, or someone with experience in winning tenders is not necessary but can help to ensure your tender complies with the agency’s requirements and the claims you have made about your business. The nature of preparing tenders means you may be under pressure to deliver a high-quality document in a tight timeframe – regardless of whether it is a small or large tender. An independent peer review of your tender, before it is submitted, can help improve the quality of your response and puts you in the best position to win the bid. Ideally this should be someone who understands tendering requirements as well as the subject matter. They can provide valuable feedback on ways to improve the content and the structure of your response. Having a new perspective can offer new insights with ideas that you may not have thought of. A peer reviewer can help you by: The final step at this stage is to review your tender submission against the weighted criteria to make sure you have ticked all the boxes. While a peer review will help to ensure you have not overlooked anything, it is a good idea to do a final check to ensure everything has been addressed. Make sure you do this with plenty of time before the lodgement deadline in case there is additional information you need to chase up. Review the weighted criteria to ensure you have addressed each one appropriately and have provided sufficient detail. This is essential to ensuring you have a compelling case to win the work. This will increase your chance of being the successful tenderer as the better your bid scores on each criteria, the better your overall score in the evaluation process compared to other bids. Government agencies must inform all tender participants of the outcome of a tender. Depending on the type of tender, agencies may offer a debrief to all tender participants in the tender process. This guidance describes factors to consider when you are receiving a debrief from an agency or asking for feedback about your bid. Win or lose, always obtain feedback from the tender evaluation committee to help you to understand your strengths and weaknesses and make you more competitive for future bids. Debriefing is the process by which a Government agency provides participants with feedback on their tender submission. A debrief is generally available to both successful and unsuccessful participants. The debrief process helps to identify areas where participants can improve. It gives participants the chance to ask questions to improve their knowledge and understanding of the agency and the Government procurement process. Debriefs provide the agency with the opportunity to be fully accountable and transparent and demonstrate that the procurement was conducted fairly. Debriefs also provide the opportunity for Government agencies to receive feedback from participants. A debrief generally occurs at the end of the tender process - that is, after the contract has been executed with the successful participant. During the debrief, the agency will explain the decision-making process that led to the tender outcome. They won’t be able to discuss specifics in the final contract or bid, such as the pricing or exact contract terms, as these are considered to be confidential. Debriefs can be held in person, via invitations to virtual meetings or via email depending on the agency and the nature of the tender. Advising unsuccessful participants of the outcome of the procurement is different from a debrief. Advising the outcome is specifically about letting participants know they were unsuccessful, rather than providing a more detailed debrief about the reasons. The opportunity to receive a debrief is usually included in the Tender documentation. You should take this opportunity up as the feedback may assist you to be successful next time. In addition to receiving feedback from the agency in the debrief, it is good practice to debrief with your internal tender team to reflect on and capture insights on what worked well and what can be improved in the future. This will help your business with opportunities for continuous improvement.
Sourcing Tenders and Pre-Qualification Schemes
Sourcing Tenders
Step 1 – Create an account
Step 2 – Tender alert systems
Step 3 – Searching opportunities
Step 4 – Apply for Prequalification Scheme
Understanding Government Buyers
Five things all buyers must think about when buying.
1. Value for money
2. Fair and open competition
3. Easy to do business
4. Seek innovative products and services
5. Buying sustainably
Other rules applying to public servants buying
Review Tender Opportunities
Getting organised
Step 1 – Conditions of tendering
Step 2 – Review the evaluation criteria
Step 3 – Go or No-Go decision making
Preparing your Bid
Before you start writing
Step 1 – Before your start writing
Step 2 – Confirm the tender plan
Step 3 – Data collection
Creating a compelling story, the three P's: Position, Persuasion and Price
Step 1 – Addressing the criteria
Step 2 – Use simple English
Step 3 – Provide relevant examples
Step 4 – Communicate and ask for help if you are stuck
Step 5 – Tracking amendments to the tender
Step 6 – Pricing
Step 7 – Putting it all together
Evaluation and Peer Review of your Bid
Peer review (optional)
Evaluate your tender
Bid feedback from the Purchaser
The debrief process
Internal debrief
