BIP Solutions - Preparing Perfect Tenders 27th February 2024

 We've swapped a couple of events round, and I shall now be presenting Preparing Perfect Tenders online on Tuesday 27th February 2024.

This is one of our events tailored for suppliers to the public sector, and will of course talk about the new Procurement Act 2023 as well as tried and tested ways to make your bids and proposals stand out.

Full details here (the date might still say 7th March, but it WILL be on 27th Feb - we've just agreed)

Find a Tender Service (UK public sector tenders)

 The new Find a Tender Service is up and online - you can find it here.  This replaces the OJEU website for tenders with a value above the relevant threshold, i.e. the larger public sector tenders.  Note that any tender process that started on OJEU will be completed on OJEU and follow EU procurement rules.  Just a reminder - the threshold values themselves have not changed this year - the current levels apply for 2020/1.

They appear to be calling it FTS, not FATS (as I rather hoped).  It is not the easiest thing to find, but hopefully will be further up the listings on Google when it is bedded in a bit.

I have registered, and the process is fairly painless (not completely), and it IS linked to Contract Finder  - which makes a lot of sense but was not guaranteed.

EU Procurement and Blue Passports

For once Public Procurement is big news.  The big news is that a French/Dutch company with facilities in the UK has won the contract to print the new Blue British passports over a British company with some assets in Malta.

My TLDR verdict: Delarue should have written a better bid.  (particularly if they are actually £120m more expensive has been indicated)

Procurex South - now onto Procurex North in Manchester 24th April 2018

Had a really good time at Procurex South.  Thanks to Twitter posters for the photos. Lots of questions from delegates, which I hope I managed to answer.  Good buzz around the place.  Got to get away from the stand to hear very interesting bit from Professor Sue Arrowsmith on Public Procurement implications of Brexit.  Her paper for the European Parliament last year is still the state of the art.  Current situation is wait and see but don't expect major changes in the near future.

And so onto Procurex North in Manchester on 24th April 2018 - full details here.  I am again running the Winning Tenders training zone.  Hopefully with new insights, or at least new jokes.

Hope to see you there.

Writing a Tender Specification - Course, Manchester 29th November 2016

I'm stepping in for Eddie Regan, who has another course at short notice, to present Writing a Tender Specification in Manchester on Tuesday 29th November 2016.  Fuller details are here.

Usually a very interesting event - throws up quite a few questions, and of course the main issue is that if we don't have the right specification the procurement almost certainly fails to deliver the right outcome.

It might be my last UK course in 2016 - should be a good one.

Course: Effective Purchasing, Tendering and Supplier Selection, 18-22 December 2016, Dubai

Last course of 2016 for me is in Dubai, and I hope that we shall give a good send off to what has been a rather dramatic year (to say the least).  I rather hope that 2017 will be less dramatic.  Let's be optimistic about it, anyway.

This might be my last Dubai course for some time (we are still looking at 2017 dates) so I hope that I shall see you there.
The course title rather says it all, but there is a full description and book form here.

After that is Christmas in the UK, and then 2017.  Bring it on.  Hope you have a good one.

Course: Tendering Procurement and Negotiation skills, Dubai 4-8 December 2016

I am currently in damp old London Town, but in a couple of weeks I shall be off to Dubai to run Tendering, Procurement and Negotiation skills.

We have run this a couple of times already this year and the reception has been good - well I know I would say that but it has.

It is a bit of a "Ronseal" course - it does what it says on the tin.

Dubai is great in December - particularly the shopping.  Even if the exchange rate has not been in favour of sterling recently.  Hopefully the course content will help get over the shock.  Hope to see you there.

Preparing Perfect Tenders - Leeds, 4th November 2015

Been on holiday, and so not much notice for this one.http://www.passprocurement.co.uk/topics/preparing-perfect-tenders/

Ideal for me because it is just around the corner in Leeds.  And about one of my favourite topic - how to win tenders.

Bit late but still room for any latecomers.

Tender Evaluation and moderation

Stephen Ashcroft of AECOM, and Spend Matters have highlighted a recent case between Bristol Missing Link (BMLL) and Bristol City Council.  They have fuller details but in short BMLL are the incumbents and have challenged the award of a contract to a new supplier after a tender process.  The decision was close, and the court has suspended the implementation of the contract until a full hearing of the challenge.

It will be interesting to hear what the verdict is in the full case, but in the meantime there are a couple of points to remind ourselves about when evaluating tendering.

The case hinges on the scoring process, and the subsequent moderation of those scores.  Bristol's case appears to be hampered by the lack of evidence (either written at the time or subsequently to the court) about those processes. 

The names of most of the individual evaluators have been redacted, as I would expect (at least in initial stages of the case).  Their initial scores have been significantly changed during the moderation stage because they were initially not in compliance with the published scoring regime - these changes were significant enough to change the award of the contract.

So the key points I take from this are;
- firstly, the (external) chair of the moderating panel should have emphasised before marking began that the published scoring regime must be used.  If they (she) did then the panel did not listen. 
- second, that instruction could/should have been documented to demonstrate compliance to process
- third, those scoring sheets are a matter of public record and available under the Freedom of Information Act for precisely this sort of situation
- fourth, moderation of scores is allowed and this was stated by the court
- fifth, they were correct to moderate rather than take a simple average
- sixth, they were correct to re-score at moderation to ensure the correct scoring process was adhered to, but
- seven, they should have documented that process including the instructions to evaluators, the process followed, and the consequences.  I am surprised that when the consequence of the re-scoring was a change in the successful bidder that this was not checked, re-checked, documented and reported in detail.  That is what I would have done.
- eight, there seems to have been no report on the tender process, which should be a matter of routine but particularly so when the decision is close or is in any way subject to re-evaluation
- nine, the evaluation panel are either unwilling to give evidence or have been instructed not to give evidence to the court, which does not help their claim to be acting in an open, honest and transparent manner (regardless of whether they actually are doing so, which I expect they are).

What do I take from this?  Well as chair of the panel, do instruct your evaluators and make a note of doing so.  Document the moderation process.  When bids have to be re-scored, then ensure that all bids are scored using the same regime and all the individual evaluators are fully committed to their scores for each bid.  When bids are close, get evaluators to double check their scoring and document the responses.  Do write a tender report detailing the process, the scores, any issues, and comment on the overall result.  Do create an evidence trail, and do expect that trail to be public knowledge (though in practice most times it will not, or will not matter).  Be prepared to defend your process and your decision.

This is at the heart of the tendering process.  If bidders do not trust you to evaluate their proposals fairly and in line with what you have published, then there is no point in bidding.

Preparing Perfect Tenders - Birmingham 25th March 2015

I am taking over the Preparing Perfect Tenders course in Birmingham from my colleague Eddie, and so I have the opportunity to repeat the event I ran last month in Manchester.  Hopefully with new jokes.

 

Of course, since then the new EU procurement regulations have come into force in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  How does this change things?  Why not come along to the Novotel and find out?  (Ideally having booked first of course)

 

 

Preparing Perfect Tenders, Manchester 25th February 2015

Another course I am running in February 2015 for PASS Procurement is Preparing Perfect Tenders - also in Manchester at the Mercure Piccadilly.  The next day is Procurex North at GMex if you want to make a trip of it.

Details are here

Contract Management training 19th February/10th March 2015

I am running a Contract Management course for PASS (part of BIP Solutions), and they asked me to write a few word about it for their blog.  Here it is - Essential Contract Management.

I am running the course 19th February in Liverpool, and 10th March 2015 in Southampton (but not 25th March in London, because I am running Preparing Perfect Tenders that day in Birmingham).

Hope to see you there.

Pricing Workshop postponed from 14th July 2014

The Pricing Workshop scheduled for the 16th July for the University of Bradford has been postponed or cancelled.  The reason is that there was so much interest in the Public Procurement evening that it is being  built on with another event on Monday

I shall be helping out on that rather than running a lead in to the Pricing workshop, which we hope to reschedule for later in the year (but no promises).

Here are details about the Knowledge Transfer event.

Knowledge Transfer Networks

Business solutions and executive development opportunities from a Globally recognised Business School here in the heart of Yorkshire.

 

 

FREE Knowledge Transfer Network Evenings

 

In partnership with

 

Bradford Metropolitan District Council

Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council

Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council

Wakefield Metropolitan District Council

 

  

‘Working with council procurement.’

  

14^th July 2014

Arthur Francis Lecture Theatre, Bradford University School of Management,

5.30 - 6.00pm registration - 6.00pm Evening speakers - 7.30pm Food - Networking.

After coffee on arrival, the evening offers you direct access to insights on this management theme through our speakers. Later, you can network with people over a nibble (or two) and share experiences. For us it’s not about the networking it’s about the knowledge and the insight we can all develop.

 

Speaker topics:

 

Procurement Myth Busters

 

And

 Breakout sessions on

 

Tips for successful tendering

European Union Directives

Social Value

YORtender

 

This evening is about finding out what is on the horizon in procurement from your local councils but also about finding out more about how they work, what drives them and correcting some of the myths about process and actions you need to engage in to work with them. The will be plenty of chances to air views and to ask…well the daft questions about what to do and how to do it. There will be some break-out sessions to look at different topic areas too.

 

For more information or to book on the event please contact ktnetwork@bradford.ac.uk

Bidding and Tender Writing Course 17/18 February 2014

I am running the 2 day Bidding and Tender Writing course again on Monday/Tuesday 17/18 February 2014 in Bradford.
This event has been very well received in the past, and I have added some more practical exercises to make it even more helpful in writing your own bids.

This event is already full (sorry), but if you are interested then let me know and it will increase the chances of us running another event later in the year.  The event is run by Bradford University School of Management Knowledge Transfer Network, and there is a fee for attending.  However if you are in Bradford or Calderdale the University does try hard to find alternative funding to cover the costs - no promises though.

If there are enough people interested in your organisation we can run the event in-house (wherever you are) as a cost effective way of improving your bid writing skills.

Bid Writing in Calderdale

The Third of our 2 day tenders and bid writing courses is starting at the Shay in Halifax on Monday.
This one is full, in fact it is oversubscribed, but there is one more free event being supported by the Business Growth Calderdale project - 21/22 November 2013.
Those 2 days are straight after our second Connecting Manufacturing event at the Shay on 20th November, and will be free to Calderdale companies thanks to support from Calderdale Council.

If you miss those dates, then we shall be running the event again in 2014 - 17/18 February.  But your are going to have to pay for those, which are being run on a commercial basis by the University of Bradford School of Management.  The good news is that they are open to any business

I am also doing a 1 day course on Pricing for UoB on Thursday 17th July 2014.  Don't ask me about the prices, because I don't know yet.

Further dates for tendering course

The dates 3/4 June are now full but there will be a further course 29/30th July, and again in September/ October.  All free to Calderdale companies

Free Bidding and Tendering workshop 3/4 June 2013 - University of Bradford

Winning business is essential at any time, but particularly in the current economic situation.  Many valuable contracts are awarded through tendering, in both the private and public sector.  However the tender process can be complicated and off-putting, and many businesses do not bid for winnable contracts because of the paperwork.  Many other businesses do not win the contracts they should because they lose out to less competent firms with better bid writing skills.

This course aims to help companies win lucrative business through tendering, and to improve their success rate at both the approval and contract award stages. 

The course is run by Dr. Paul Wright MCIPS, co-author of Excellence in Public Sector Procurement, who has experience of both writing and scoring bids.  This practical 2 day event, to help you to improve your tendering success rate.  The course will cover principles of both private and public sector processes, and draw on real examples and case studies. 

Delegates are invited to bring along their own examples of both bids and tenders for group discussion, and will form personal action plans for improving bidding success rate.

To book on the workshop contact ktnetwork@bradford.ac.uk

These workshops are delivered by the Knowledge Transfer Network@Calderdale and are part of the Business Growth Calderdale programme, part financed by the European Union. The project has attracted £1.1 million from the Yorkshire and Humber European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Programme 2007-2013.

The West Coast Mainline Debacle

The shambles over the awarding of the West Coast Mainline contract is the big public sector procurement story of the moment.

The story is being covered in a number of places - Peter Smith at Spend Matters has covered it a number of times, including providing links to the original tender (if you are interested enough).  Robert Peston over at the BBC has of course also commented.

Rather than rehash entirely, I will just make a few points.  Peter Smith has pointed out that there are 3 possibilities - first that the process was flawed, secondly that the correct process was not followed correctly, and finally that something changed somewhere through the process.  The current line is that it is the first problem, and that the fault lies with the civil servants who set up process.  Some of them are disputing that.

I think the first thing to say is that the problem in many people's eyes was the result, regardless of the process.  If the process had been flawed but awarded it to Virgin there would not have been this fuss.  People I know who use the service are happy with Virgin and concerned about changin - even if First are promising a better service.  We all know that people are very reluctant about change - even for the better (see Machiavelli).  This allowed Richard Branson to create the fuss which lead to the review which got us to the current situation.  I do not believe First group would have been able to achieve that.

If it is the wrong process, then we have to understand why.  There are suggestions that it was wrong assumptions about Risk - which is part of the process, not how it was applied.  It is a very long contract (15 years) and all assumptions about what will happen over the length of the contract are speculation ("It's difficult to make predictions - especially about the future" - Yogi Berra).  What will the oil price be in 2027? Which party will be in power?  Will we have superconducting electricity distribution?  Will we have self driving cars?  All of these could have impacts on both demand and delivery of train services.  So, it is tricky.

As to why we should compensate bidders for the cock up in the process - we want them to bid again in future, and the fault was ours (the public sector) not theirs.  EU procurement law allows them the potential recovery of the damage to their company resulting from the mistake, so they are due compensation.  The costs will in any case in some way be charged to the public purse - through higher fees if not a direct payment.

This one is going to rumble on and on.  Sadly there is a great risk it will be a political football rather than a learning opportunity. 

The one lesson I would like the government to take from this is that procurement is important, and needs to be supported to ensure value for money and efficiency.  It is not just a cost.

Robert Peston's blog at the BBC is here.
Spend Matters latest post on the matter is here

BTW the illustration is not a Virgin train but an old Russian train iirc.

Good news/bad news - Procure4London

The local authorities in London are banding together to procure collectively.  This should achieve the twin aims of reducing costs, and making it easier for smes to bid for business (though not necessarily to win business).  The site went live on 9th September 2011 - see here.

Why do I say good news/bad news?  Well partly the point  I made about about whether this will help smes.
But secondly, it will be another portal.  Opportunities are already supposed to being shared through ContractFinder, and many London opportunities (not just Olympic opportunities) are going through Competefor.  The original intention was to have Competefor as a legacy of the Olympic Games.  That probably died with Glasgow 2014 decided not to use it, but it seems a shame not to use it for this opportunity.  There may be issues I do not understand but it seems from here like a duplication of effort - and cost.

One step forward, one step back...

Article at Bdaily Business Network - Winning business from the Public Sector

I have a brief article on the Sector Focus of BDaily - click here to read it.  Anyone coming to this blog from that article - welcome.  I hope you find some things to help your business in the previous blogs.