What is Tender Management: Role, Components & Benefits

Tender management is an important component and a key term for understanding in the business and procurement context. The term tender management is used for the end to end process of identifying, managing and following up of tendering activities. It involves functions such as bid identification, bid submissions and all related follow ups in securing a government contract. A tender manager role is typically responsible for managing the entire bid process from contract negotiations and even the final submissions. In this article, we shall look at the key components of the tender management role, its benefits to an organization and the major processes involved in this role to benefit organizations. It is to be noted that this role is only applicable in companies where bidding is conducted. The profile of a tender manager is strictly confined to published bids and responding to those. With the primary aim of winning contracts for the company that align with its strategic objectives and profitability, the key components of tender management include

Opportunity Identification:

This is the first step of tender management whereby tender managers or bid managers are tasked with identifying the best possible offers floated in the procurement market. Companies may use tender aggregator services such as Tender Impulse for this purpose. The aggregator websites act as a business development tool by providing daily leads on upcoming tenders and projects from all across the globe. These sites are bifurcated based on keywords, CPV’s etc to give customers the best in class information. The activity is eased using such portals although it is still necessary to narrow down the precise bid for the companies to bid on for higher success rate. Doing an opportunity identification is a continuous process and requires astute understanding of the different markets and its synchronization with the company’s offerings. Creating a clear and well-defined strategy is crucial to setting the foundation for a successful tender submission.

Bid Preparation:

Once the company decides to bid on a particular project, the next step in the tender management profile is to prepare for the bid. There are various criterion that authorities set out while publishing their bids. Companies need to fulfil all these criterion in order to be hopeful for securing the contract. In the bid preparation phase, companies need to be able to compile a bid that not only covers all the technical areas of the product/service to be purchased but also fulfils the commercial and legal criterion of the authorities. This is quite a task and requires a lot of planning to ensure the bids are submitted on time and in good shape. Organizations need to also ensure that the bid submitted is in order of the format as prescribed by the authorities. The advent of e-tendering portals has further reduced the burden to abide by a specific format since the bidding is happening through an online portal with a uniform set of documents that can be easily submitted via the portal itself. Tender aggregator companies such as Tender Impulse can help organizations create contractor profiles on these portals while allowing them to focus on bid preparation and leaving the leg work to the outsourced to them thus saving time and attention on these matters.

Bid Negotiation:

During and after the submission of bids, managers need to negotiate the terms with the end buyer or the authorities. The bid negotiation not only involves negotiating the pricing but also future requirements, the value proposition of the company and finalizing the eventual terms of the contract. This may also require legal and technical assistance in the form of bid writing and lawyer services in order to successfully complete the project within the stipulated deadlines.

Contract Award & Contract Evaluation:

After the terms are finalized, the bid or the contract is awarded to the firm. Companies need to then ensure that they fulfil the product/service delivery and evaluate future requirements with the buyer. It is always desirable to create a relationship based approach with the authorities for repeat business. The bid manager or the tender manager is also responsible for creating a sustainable long term relationship with the buyer so that the company benefits from the contracts and increases its profitability.

Building Strategic Partnerships:

Often, bid managers or tender managers are expected to build lasting strategic relationships with the authorities. This is a continuous development process aimed at enhancing buyer supplier relationships.

Challenges to Tender Management Role:

In the above role and responsibility set, there are various challenges to the tender management role. Some of the major challenges for tender managers include increased competition, stringent requirements, limited timeframe to act upon and limited resource allocation from the company side to meet the deadlines. There are also other challenges that can occur in specific bids such as complex documentation, lack of information, risk management and dynamic requirements which are sometimes difficult to fulfil. Organizations must thus ensure they build robust tender management processes that can forecast these issues and allocate sufficient resources while trying to comply with all the necessary requirements in the short frame of time.

Overcoming the Challenges:

The most important element in a tender management process is managing the short timelines. To overcome this, a subscription of a reputable tender service provider is necessary. Used as a SaaS tool, such aggregator services provide timely and curated information in the form of bids, RFP’s, Prequalification’s, tenders and project notification services. Tender Impulse is one such website that provides complete updated information on procurement happening all across the globe. It is worthwhile for tender managers to consider a paid subscription as it allows them to save time and energy in sifting through global bids. Moreover, it also allows them a tool for market research thus preparing them to bid in future projects with relative ease.