Are you unfamiliar with submitting bids to the public sector but wish to enter this market? Are you uncertain about meeting the qualification requirements, finding it challenging without prior references from public contracting authorities?
If you are already submitting bids to the public sector and want to optimize your internal bid management, you may have invested considerable time and effort without achieving desired results. It’s time to establish an overarching bid strategy and improve your bid success rate.
Have you identified a competition crucial to your company’s strategy but with an exceedingly short bid deadline?
With our extensive experience from the buyer’s perspective, Caranda provides excellent assistance to private suppliers in formulating bids for public procurements. We have assisted both domestic and international companies, handling major contracts, complex individual assignments, and bids for significant framework agreements.
We recognize that our expertise in understanding competitions, formal rules, as well as implicit and implied desires and requirements, is invaluable in these situations. We can demonstrate significant improvements in success rates when implementing bid strategies based on Caranda’s methodology and/or when clients utilize Caranda for bid writing and/or as bid managers.
Caranda possesses practical knowledge of how evaluations are conducted in the public sector. We optimize your response based on the specific request. As buyers, we read award criteria with a different perspective, which enhances the bid’s chances of success.
Here’s how contractors can win more public tenders:
Caranda can assist with:
- Developing an overarching bid strategy in collaboration with the client.
- Enhancing the competitiveness of specific bids to secure victories.
- Improving the efficiency and quality of responses in public competitions.
- Expertise in organizing, economic, and technical evaluation.
- Ensuring the client achieves the target price. Please note: Caranda assesses questions of impartiality in advance for each case.
How can contractors win more public procurement competitions? Increased knowledge of the regulations and evaluation competence provides better opportunities to win competitions for public procurement. What can contractors do to increase their chances of success in public procurement competitions?
Based on our experiences from the client’s side, we find that many suppliers have significant potential to improve their competitiveness through increased knowledge of procurement regulations and evaluation methods in public competitions. The quality of offers varies, and there is considerable potential for creating better bids to achieve higher rankings in competitions. By making relatively simple adjustments, the quality of bids can be improved, making it easier for the client to evaluate the bids and leading to fewer errors in the evaluation process and fewer complaints.
Misjudged in a competition? More about public procurement and tender law here.
Structured Bids: A clear and structured bid that addresses the requirements in the competition documents makes it easy to evaluate the bid. When writing the bid, think of the client as the person who will read it. How would the client prefer the bid to be structured? Do not underestimate the significant task the client faces when evaluating bids; make it easy for them to navigate through the bid, so they don’t have to spend time searching through a messy presentation.
Ensure that you understand what is required to be delivered. Many bidders rely too much on their brand and neglect to fully understand the competition documents. Insufficient investment is made in the formal aspects of the procurement process. Often, significant resources are spent on creating attractive solution descriptions, but bidders may still be rejected due to, for example, missing documentation of meeting the qualification requirements. Bidders often rely too much on routine and assume that being a large company automatically qualifies them as a qualified supplier.
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Others provide extensive documentation of their competence and routines without tailoring it to what is actually requested. This results in the client having to search through extensive material that only partially addresses the requirements.
- Structure the bid according to the requirements in the competition documents and answer the qualification criteria and award criteria point by point. Format the bid to address all elements in the competition documents. General presentations and descriptions can be good as supplements but should be used in limited amounts.
Award Criteria: There is still much to gain for many by having a more conscious approach to and focus on the award criteria. What has the client specified for evaluation? The assessment of how the award criteria are met determines the competition, nothing else. Therefore, it is crucial to answer the award criteria as requested by the client. Too much other information can make the essential information less clear. A conscious attitude toward providing the best possible responses to the award criteria can be decisive in competitions. Often, it is the small differences that separate the bidders from each other.
Be meticulous in answering how the award criteria are met. A little extra effort can be decisive. How are the bids evaluated? In competitions with extensive award criteria, task understanding, and solution descriptions, it is especially important to have expertise in how bid evaluation is conducted. In these bids, well-prepared offers and quality assurance that the bid responds to what is requested are particularly important. • Use internal or external resources with experience from similar competition formats during the bid phase. It increases the chances of winning while building competence for future competitions.
Reservations or Clarifications: Clients often request that reservations be made in the bid letter or specified separately, if possible with pricing. Most suppliers, however, avoid clear reservations by instead providing clarifications and assumptions. For a supplier, this may be a tactical choice to avoid using the word “reservation” but also to clarify what is being delivered when the competition documents are not clear enough. The distinction between what is a clarification/assumption and what is actually a reservation is thus left to the client, making the evaluation process more challenging. If a clarification or reservation is overlooked, intentionally or unintentionally, by the client, it may result in complaints about incorrect allocation. On the other hand, it can lead to rejection of an otherwise excellent bid. • Be conscious of what aspects may deviate from the competition documents or be perceived as reservations. Avoid reservations that may create uncertainty in the evaluation.
A little extra effort can increase your chances of winning. Projects for public clients are typically good, exciting, and challenging. The opportunity to win such competitions increases significantly if you improve the quality of the bidding process. The crucial aspect is understanding what the client needs and how you, as a supplier, can best meet those needs! It is as simple and as difficult as that.
Offering Support for Public Procurements in Norway
The regulations governing public procurements are extensive and constantly evolving. Procedural errors can lead to costly delays, as well as liability for damages and reputational damage for the contracting authority.
Caranda’s lawyers possess specialized knowledge of the regulations concerning public procurements, combined with an understanding of how these provisions can be best applied to ensure successful acquisitions.
Well-crafted competition documents that comply with the requirements of the regulations are essential to avoid procedural errors that may trigger the obligation to cancel the procurement and incur liability for damages. We develop and quality-assure templates, including competition documents, standard contracts, and evaluation matrices.
Our lawyers are integrated into our project teams, providing ongoing legal advice and quality assurance.
We also tailor courses at all levels for public contracting authorities seeking to enhance their competence in public procurements. Leveraging our extensive experience in conducting practical procurements, our course instructors impart knowledge that is founded on a unique blend of theory and practice.
Caranda also assists suppliers in public procurement processes, including the preparation and quality assurance of bids. We also offer courses for suppliers looking to enhance their knowledge of competition in the public sector.
Caranda regularly assists national and international clients, including builders and contractors, in procurement processes for large infrastructure projects in Norway.
With over 80 procurement specialists, we have an in-depth understanding of the regulations governing public procurement. Leveraging this knowledge, we provide support to national and international companies in preparing bids for Norwegian infrastructure projects.
By having Caranda on your team, you can make the most of your team’s strengths, ensuring that their qualities are documented, evaluated, and appreciated, thus increasing your chances of success in the bidding process. As you improve your success rate and win more of the competitions you participate in, you can reduce your overhead costs and increase profitability. Being a skilled contractor is not enough; you must also ensure that those evaluating your bids share the same perception.
Bringing Caranda into your bid team should provide your company with the following advantages:
- Targeted presentation of evaluation criteria, such as Traffic Management, Health, Safety, Quality, and Organization.
- Achieving higher deductions from the bid price during the evaluation phase.
- Document handling and coordination, control, and submission via electronic platforms.
- Local knowledge of the market for subcontractors and competitors.
We are confident that the competitive advantages we bring to your team will increase the likelihood of a successful and profitable project delivered on time, within your budget, and meeting the quality expectations of your clients.
Please get in touch with Dan Caranda via email at [email protected] or by phone at +47 942 98 000.