Australian Tenders Blog

Over the next few months I will post on my blog my top tender tips based on my own experience as a Bid Manager.

My first tip which is stating the obvious is to read the tender documents. Responding to a tender is a bit like sitting an exam.  You have  lots of questions to answer and not enough time to answer them. You need to take the time to  read and understand the question before diving into a reply.  Otherwise you risk  being marked down for not answering the question properly.

Reading tender documents is not as easy as its sounds. Tender documents can be incredibly long and boring. Reading them is time consuming and tedious.  We have all formed habits of speed reading documents which means you might read the first sentence of a paragraph and skip the rest. By all means speed read the tender as a first pass to get the general idea of the tender and to determine whether or not  you wish to proceed to respond to a tender, but at some point  you need to sit down and read the documents in their entirety (clause by clause). You just never know what requirements might be lurking in an appendix, put in the wrong section or as a note on  a drawing. If missed and not priced or excluded, such a requirement could blow your profit margin on a contract.

To read the tender documents I suggest you set aside a few hours,  find a nice quite place free from distractions such as the telephone and staff, and read the tender documents from front to back.  Make sure you have a highlighter, a pen and paper.  As you read the document I suggest you do the following:

• Highlight any important clauses or requirements. Otherwise you will find yourself saying I am sure I read that somewhere but for the life of you will not be able to find it.
• Make a list of  everything you tender response will need to include. You will often find  that this is spread throughout the document. You do not want to leave out an all important plan or document that will have  your tender dismissed as being incomplete.
• Tender documents will always be missing some information or have ambiguities.  Write down any questions you have as you go.
• Try to read between the lines. As you read the tender document try to understand where they are coming from, what their underlying need is and what is important to them. You may want to look at the organisation’s web site or annual report  for some background information to assist you in this process.

Finally you may wish to read any important sections of the tender documents a second time later down the track. You  might be surprised at what you missed on the first read.

Australian Tenders lists tenders which are typically open or public tenders. These are tenders where there are  no restrictions placed on who may submit a tenders. These tenders are made public via advertisements  in the newspaper or where tender information is placed on a publicly accessible website.

In Australia there are differing rules and regulations from state to state which govern which tenders must be made open or public by government agencies. Each state typically has a body or department which overseas government procurement in that state and publishes extensive policies and guidelines for the both the government agencies and suppliers.

In the many states in Australian (NSW, VIC, WA) government agencies must make public any tenders in excess of $150,000. For procurements below $150,000 a minimum number of written quotations (typically 3) need only be obtained. So if you are looking for work which typically has a contract value less than $150,000 it may not go through a public tender process and may not be available through our website.

In Queensland there is a state government policy which mandates that details of all contracts and standing offers awarded in excess of $100,000 be made public.

In South Australia the State Procurement Board has a simple procurement process for low value and low risk procurements up to $110,000 where only 3 written or verbal quotes are required.

The first step in winning government business is to identify which government agencies are likely to require your goods and services and then  determine what policies those agencies use in their procurement process.  From these policies you should be able to determine   what procurement methodology they might use for your goods and services and whether or not it will include an open tender process.

Welcome to AustralianTenders.com first blog post.  As of today we have 1322 tender listed on our website from all over Australia.  At AustralianTenders.com we recognise that finding a tenders relevant to you business is only the first, and probably the easiest step in the tender process.  In our future blog posts we will aim to provide you useful information to help you win the tender opportunities we have found for you. In parallel  with this  we we also be updating the links page on our website with links to resources and organisations that can help you win tenders and grow your business.