Chapter 7: Analysing the Bid Specification

Overview

In this book the term 'bid specification' is used to mean the documentation that the client supplies to bidders about the tendering procedure and the contract. The documentation may be called 'request for proposals', 'invitation to tender' or simply 'tender documents'. Information about the services required under the contract may be referred to as an 'information package', 'tender dossier', 'terms of reference', 'brief for consultancy services', 'project brief' or a similar title. The client's requirements for bid submission are often presented as 'instructions to tenderers', particularly in public sector procurement. Clients may also convey their requirements in the form of guidance notes indicating the approach they expect bidders to follow, listing the information to be provided in each part of the bid and explaining the criteria that will be used in assessing bids. Where a client gives instructions, these must be taken seriously and followed strictly. Contractors who prepare bids in ways that suit them rather than the client do themselves no favours.

Read through the bid specification thoroughly, point by point - it will almost always contain more information than can be absorbed at a first examination. Keep it to hand at every stage of preparing the bid, and check your work against it to make sure you are going about things in the right way. Do not neglect any material the client may have attached by way of supplementary information, lists of publications, technical data and so forth: the reason for including it was to help you gain a correct understanding of the demands of the contract. You will have to take it on trust that the information supplied by the client is accurate; but clients may include a clause of limitation to the effect that the information is provided for the convenience of bidders and that bidders are expected to make their own investigations to determine the facts of the situation.

Your analysis will be a matter of interpretation, of trying to grasp what the project implies in terms of professional effort and what the client expects in terms of results. Guard against making hasty assumptions on the basis of an initial scanning of the document, reading into it things that are not there. Note down your first thoughts about the work requirements, the client's objectives and priorities, the points you will want to emphasize in the bid and the ideas that may give you a competitive edge. If you are an experienced bid writer, you will quickly get a feel for the essentials of a job; but don't let your first reactions fix your whole approach to the bid.