What you need to know about e-Tendering

These days it’s rare for Public Sector organisations not to use electronic tenders as standard practice to post contract notices and operate their tenders and contracts.

Procurement Professionals benefit from using a solution that will manage a compliant tendering and contracting process, but suppliers can benefit too. Procurement Tender Platforms make it easier to access tenders and offer a step-by-step process to follow.

e-Tendering Platforms saves time and effort for a Procurement Organisation and takes away the risk of non-compliance with paper-based processes. These solutions are very much the norm across Public and Private sectors alike.

Suppliers now must adapt and learn how to use one of the many e-Tendering platforms used by organisations, such as Jaeger, Due North, Proactis, Atamis and SAP Ariba.

All work in similar ways for accessing a contract opportunity, responding with a bid and evaluating and awarding to a successful supplier. Though some do it better than others.

It is important for suppliers to understand how to successfully navigate the and what they will do:

• Express interest in contract opportunities
• Complete and submit a selection questionnaire (SQ) or Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PPQ).
• Complete and submit a bid or tender proposal.
• Access and download the tender documents, such as the buyer’s specifications, schedules, contract terms and conditions, diagrams etc.
• Ask the buyer clarification questions about specifications or requirements.
• Receive notifications of any changes to the tender requirements or documents.
• Upload any collateral to support your bid.

What Do Suppliers Need to Know?

Onscreen Response

The electronic tendering process provides standard approach to submitting bids. Each platform will look different but all they follow a sequential process. Some will allow you to respond within uploaded documents but its more common for platforms taking you through the tendering process will require to complete online screen sections before moving on.

This reduces the margin for error, such as accidentally missing out vital parts of the proposal.

Formatted text fields

Not all online portals require you to submit your bid within uploaded documents. Portals such as SAP Ariba, Atamis and Proactis use text boxes for question responses. This puts all the focus onto the content and not the document format. This also means that no bidder can be at an advantage due to unique formatting or design, in some cases the question can be automatically scored by the platform based on the content response.

A word of caution! plan and document your response in a word document and copy and paste your answers into the field. It will save time and mitigate data loss if your screen goes down. Remember to keep an eye on your word count!

Clarifications Questions

Its common that Suppliers or Procurement Professionals to ask questions throughout the tender process. e-Tendering Platforms usually allow both to ask questions and seek clarification from each other.

If a requirement in the specification is unclear, the buyer would be able to clarify this in a timely manner. These platforms will have an audit trail and in most cases during the bidding stage, clarification questions and answers are made public to all suppliers.

During the Bid Evaluation stage, Buyers may get in touch with suppliers for clarifications post-submission. This reduces the chances of the submission being scored down automatically due to error.

Easy-to-use interface

Online e-Tendering Platforms are in the main user-friendly once you’ve done a few tenders. They can simplify the submission process for suppliers and contract award for organisations. Paper-based processes are more costly to operate and riskier to maintain a compliant and far process. It’s easier to manage documents for submissions online and make edits where necessary.

7 Brilliant tips when using e-Tendering!

1. Don’t forget your username and password!

Avoid the stress of forgetfulness! Lost system access to your supplier account may mean you miss the submission deadlines. If you have a company profile on a e-Tendering Platform, share the log-in details with colleagues.

2. Check your Email Junk Folders!
Online portals will send you email notifications for various reasons. You will receive notifications when tenders are ready or clarifications are responded to, or the contracting organisation has an update. Keep an eye on these notifications, as some are system generated its worth checking your junk inbox as they may be filtered out by your email program.

3. Save and save again!
e-Tendering platforms usually have an automatic timeout system that will log the user out after a period of inactivity (15 minutes or more). Some do have auto-save features, but don’t rely on it. Save each section as you go!

4. Use Microsoft Word to Draft your Response

One fool proof way to ensure good spelling, word count and grammar is to use MS Word before pasting them into the onscreen boxes. Don’t forget some organisations will set a limit on how many words can be in an answer and not read or review any words that go over that word count. Poor spelling and grammar can put of an Evaluator. Don’t be marked down for simple mistakes that you can avoid.

5. Ask your Clarification Questions as early as possible!

It’s not uncommon for there to be a deadline for submitting clarification questions to the Procurement Professionals. By asking your questions early, you can use the time to get your bid right. This could be the difference between winning your bid with a good answer or losing it with a simple misunderstanding of the question.

6. Read Your Bid, Review Your Bid and Read it again!

Give yourself time before the bid is submitted to have one final review of both the questions and your answers. Did you really answer the question or put what you thought what was being asked? Too many bids can be lost with a supplier being too enthusiastic to sell that they miss simple indicators. If answers are required in a certain format or limited in attachments don’t take a chance, it could result in rejection. Read the Questions and Understand the ask!

7.Never leave it to the last minute to submit your bid!

Leaving the bid submission to the last minute is dangerous. The internet can go down, or Platforms do not work. Give yourself plenty of time with some to spare to submit before the deadline. If the platform goes down or stops working, take screenshots and evidence your issues back to the Buying Organisation and Platform helpdesk (if available).

 

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