Our Work

…We recommend a thorough evaluation of your offer in line with the needs of the client. And then, if you’ve decided to go ahead with submitting a bid, here’s a few more top tips to get organised.

Make time to tender

Tendering for new projects and contracts can be a challenging process and requires detailed planning and adequate time to create a winning response.

Remember, by evaluating, planning and creating clarity and time for your team to produce the best possible responses, you are giving yourself the best possible chance of success.

Each construction tender opportunity has a minimum tendering window to allow you to create a winning bid.

There are two key things to consider:

• Find the opportunities as early as possible, to give yourself the maximum time to evaluate, plan and deliver a strong response.
• Dedicate the time and resources you need to coordinate and compile a bespoke bid.

Once you’ve found and evaluated the tender opportunity and decided to go ahead, then it’s all systems go. Get a plan together and get organised.

Hold a tender kick off meeting

Assemble the wider team, review the tender information pack in detail to identify what’s needed.

Be sure about what the tender deliverables are, who is allocated the responsibility for providing which relevant documents or information. Be clear on the programme for completion of those tasks.

Realise and recognise your obligations

Understanding your obligations is vital. Know what you will be expected to sign up to if successful.

Make sure you investigate and understand your obligations with the form of contract, programme, management of “others”, design liability and relevant insurances.

All of these variables can have a significant impact on the contractor’s project risk profile, which will have a very real effect on your tendering approach, delivery strategy and preliminary costs.

Allocate roles, responsibilities and accountability

Choose your tendering team and involve the key players, administrators and management personnel. Consider also using external ‘resources’, including consultants (you know we do that too?). External consultants, such as Cube, can provide a new perspective on the tendering process. For example, identifying alternative methods of working, design solutions or new supply chain engagement.

Pick the right people

Choosing the right person with the relevant experience for the task identified provides added value. They may propose solutions which have not otherwise been considered, perhaps by highlighting quicker programme options, reducing costs or revealing risk.

Different partners bring different perspectives. Get their experience and knowledge down on paper. Remember your operational staff are not only good at construction delivery, they’re also experts in their respective fields and may welcome the opportunity to get involved and share it with you in the early stages.

Use this construction expertise to create the tender. Engage with the team you will allocate to complete the works and get them to help develop the methodologies you will need to write about.

Compiling a compelling bid

If you work together as soon as the tender lands and plan your response, you will immediately start creating a compelling bid.

Your humble blog writer has had first-hand experience of this… The Operations Manager on a particular job took one look at the client’s designs and immediately gave alternative methods to achieve the same result with fewer materials and less cost.

Encourage alternative thinking

Encourage thinking that considers alternative options of design, programme, logistics and methods of construction. This behaviour sparks reflection of best practice previously employed, lessons learnt and benefits to the client which should definitely be highlighted within your tender submission. 

If you are looking for a construction consultant to give an objective overview of your tender submissions, contact us on 0115 7060338 or email us at hello@cube-cc.co.uk.