Chapter 16: Communicating Added Value

Overview

Adding value means bringing something to the arrangement that is genuinely beyond the [client] organization's capability or capacity; something that it could not source internally, even if it wished to. Contractual arrangements that add value can be highly beneficial to the organization.

Added value can occur at three levels:

• business benefit: identifying new opportunities for ways to benefit the customer's business

• capacity/capability: infusing new skills, methodologies and capabilities in the service delivery

• economy: better, more efficient and cheaper services through economy of scale or rationalization.

A [service] provider's contribution to all three should be readily capable of identification throughout the deal either at the outset, on an ongoing basis or for individual programmes. This might also form a useful measure with which to assess their performance.

(Contract Management Guidelines, Office of Government Commerce, draft version April 2002)

There is no purpose in submitting a bid unless it is as competitive as you can make it in terms of technical quality and value for money. You will not necessarily win just by showing that you have sound expertise, adequate professional resources and a solid record of experience and are competent to provide the services the client wants. Each of your competitors may be able to say the same. To defeat them on quality, your bid has to possess an extra dimension that sets you apart from them, a distinctive edge that represents the benefits you are uniquely placed to offer the client. Offering more at no extra cost - this is what is meant by adding value to your bid. Communicating added value means emphasizing those benefits and projecting the difference they can make to the success of the contract.

Remember that it is the client, not you, who decides what gives a bid added value. To get on the right track, you have to start from an analysis of the bid documentation, looking for signals about factors that really matter to the client: in some cases the specification may make these factors explicit; in others you may have to rely on your insight into the background of the contract. Keep in mind that one purpose of the bid process is to see whether any of the bidders can bring original and productive ideas to their work.

If you have been able to identify factors that have key importance for the client, respond directly and convincingly to those priorities. Depending on the subject of the contract, your bid can gain added value in various ways, as outlined here.