Public Contracts

Robster59

Robster59

Tour Rookie
Joined
Aug 7, 2015
Messages
5,918
Location
Jackton
www.eastrengolfclub.co.uk
As part of my job, I have the joy of having to submit to public tenders. These seem to get more detailed with the purchasers wanting to know everything about our company plus supporting documentation plus statements plus plus plus.......

The last one I did took me 30 minutes to sort out the pricing and 3 full working days to do the supporting documentation, statements etc. And the price was 80% of the overall tender rating submission.

I've just had the contract for another tender that I've just won for a major public body and the contract they have sent is 111 (yes, that's one hundred and eleven!) pages long! I mean, 111!? The whole thing is going mad.
:rant: :sbox:

The good thing is that at least I've won them both so the effort is worth it but My God it's hard work.
 
Robster59 said:
As part of my job, I have the joy of having to submit to public tenders. These seem to get more detailed with the purchasers wanting to know everything about our company plus supporting documentation plus statements plus plus plus.......

The last one I did took me 30 minutes to sort out the pricing and 3 full working days to do the supporting documentation, statements etc. And the price was 80% of the overall tender rating submission.

I've just had the contract for another tender that I've just won for a major public body and the contract they have sent is 111 (yes, that's one hundred and eleven!) pages long! I mean, 111!? The whole thing is going mad.
:rant: :sbox:

The good thing is that at least I've won them both so the effort is worth it but My God it's hard work.
Click to expand...

Don't forget to add the company's anti-slavery policy.

Its not just public bodies. Many of the companies we deal with even want to know what margin you'll make on the job, and set a limit to that margin. We've even had one recently that wanted us to drop the salaries of our staff so that we could drop the price.
 
Hobbit said:
Don't forget to add the company's anti-slavery policy.

Its not just public bodies. Many of the companies we deal with even want to know what margin you'll make on the job, and set a limit to that margin. We've even had one recently that wanted us to drop the salaries of our staff so that we could drop the price.
Click to expand...

Surely you wouldn't tell them your margin or if you did you'd lie about it. Why the heck would you give that info out?

We sold a product, a specialist paint, to a significant internet search engine company hq and they wanted to know the formula. I told them no and they couldn't comprehend that I wouldn't give that information out. I couldn't comprehend that they would ask for it! I told them to buy from another company but thankfully, as the product is quite niche, the order came through the following day still.
 
Lord Tyrion said:
Surely you wouldn't tell them your margin or if you did you'd lie about it. Why the heck would you give that info out?

We sold a product, a specialist paint, to a significant internet search engine company hq and they wanted to know the formula. I told them no and they couldn't comprehend that I wouldn't give that information out. I couldn't comprehend that they would ask for it! I told them to buy from another company but thankfully, as the product is quite niche, the order came through the following day still.
Click to expand...

We even get queried on our back office costs, pension contributions, overtime rates... the big boys in the oil industry are bullies.
 
jim8flog said:
Hence my comment about quoting on MOD contracts, they want it all.
Click to expand...

Exactly!

I've just been reading an ITT(invitation to tender) for providing training. The company who've issued the invitation have even asked what our costs are to store the training material on a server with 3rd party IT company we use. They've also asked what we pay our self-employed trainers.
 
Yip, everyone is squeezing every penny these days. Gone are the days of just sending your best price and payment terms. Having been involved in procurement for 20 years and having been sent on numerous CIPS (Chartered Institute of Purchase and Supply) courses , the first thing these instructors say is to try and insist on open book costing etc, Part of the process is having to obtain NDA's and get enough background to understand how secure the vendor is and what % of their business your contract will be etc etc. There is so much more administration now.

I miss the old days.
 
Hobbit said:
Exactly!

I've just been reading an ITT(invitation to tender) for providing training. The company who've issued the invitation have even asked what our costs are to store the training material on a server with 3rd party IT company we use. They've also asked what we pay our self-employed trainers.
Click to expand...


Do you give them the genuine information or lie? Can they come in and check your books?

I can't tell you how open mouthed I am at all this.
 
How on earth do you think the Purchasing Dept can justify employing more staff and have a bigger budget. That means, on the flip side, we need more Customer Relations staff to manage the 'Delivery' (all attending CIPS courses!)

Don't you just love the non-productive, no-blame overhead departments?
 
Well I feel a bit better after reading some of the other comments. I've heard about this before, especially with what I think of as the big "bully boy" companies. They want to know your costs so THEY decide what your profit margin should be. I think it called something like open book transparency but I bet if you asked the big boys to provide the same information about their company I bet they wouldn't do it.
 
Robster59 said:
Well I feel a bit better after reading some of the other comments. I've heard about this before, especially with what I think of as the big "bully boy" companies. They want to know your costs so THEY decide what your profit margin should be. I think it called something like open book transparency but I bet if you asked the big boys to provide the same information about their company I bet they wouldn't do it.
Click to expand...

In my industry, working with public sector clients, we have to submit our margin figure as part of the tender, and then there will be an open book review after each year. One of the upsides on this, is when real life looks nothing like their tender, we can use the data to support a claim for an additional payment.
 
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