Top ten tips for winning council contracts

These come mendip.gov.ukTop Ten Tips on How to TenderRead the documentation clearly and understand what is required of you.Provide all of the information requested. If you cannot provide some of the information, for whatever reason, ask for advice.Don't include publicity material in your submission unless you have specifically been asked to.Don't be put off by the tender documentation - you can always ask for help.You must complete and return the documents by the given time and date and make sure to sign anything that should be signed.Where relevant, cross-reference the answers or responses in your tender to the questions in the invitation to tender. This will make it easier to evaluate.Be clear on your pricing model and state any assumptions you have made when pricing (for example, resources required by you and/or the Council, timetables, etc.).If you are unsuccessful, make sure you ask for a debrief, you are entitled to one and it will help you to understand where you went wrong.Read the questions carefully and answer them accurately and precisely.Register with the Supplier and Contract Management System (SCMS); it provides any organisation with the opportunity to register an interest in supplying goods, services or works to Wakefield and the other twenty-one authorities in the region. The SCMS also enables organisations to tender electronically with Councils across the region and seek out new business opportunities.Some quick research shows that many councils do provide advice for SME (small and medium enterprises) on how to win contracts, and many of these advertise this on their websites. Either type 'tender advice' in the site search engine, or if you cannot find anything ring the council and ask for the procurement department.Especially in the current climate SMEs play a major role within the economy and in its recovery. Government in particular is putting a lot of pressure on councils to support SMEs.See if you can find a copy of their procurement policy. As my area is community involvement I am more than aware of this side of the criteria and is what I have mentioned most. But the procurement policy will highlight other areas which the council may put particular emphasis on. Most, if not all, will put emphasis on supporting the local economy. Therefore if you procure supplies locally when appropriate it is likely to help you.These tips should be equally appropriate to large public organisations.

Thanks for pointing this out. I was not aware of the various definitions. Having looked it up the definitions as adopted by the European Commision is:

Medium Enterprises: less than 250 employees and either a turn over not exceeding ECU 40 million or an annual balance sheet not exceeding ECU 27 million

Small Enterprise: less than 50 employees and either a turn over not exceeding ECU7 million or an annual balance sheet not exceeding ECU 5 million

Micro enterprises: less than 10 employees

It should also be noted that the number of workers refers to full time workers, with seasonal and part time workers being a fraction of the AWU (Annual Working Units) So if you have two part time workers making up 1 full time worker (job share for instance) these two employees would be considered 1 fulltime worker.

It is likely that most councils will follow this. I have no idea how a joint venture may be viewed, but it would be worth contacting the council to ask them.

Replies

Graeme @ BGS March 15, 2009 at 9:48am

Very helpful guidelines George.

Just one small point when I recently spoke to a council about contracts available to SME's, their definition (and it was their view and may not represent all authorities) that an SME would be deemed to employ between 10 - 100 employees and anything less would be considered the same as a one man band operation. May be time for small businesses to club together and chase after these contracts?
dgeorgea March 15, 2009 at 11:03am

Thanks for pointing this out. I was not aware of the various definitions. Having looked it up the definitions as adopted by the European Commision is:

Medium Enterprises: less than 250 employees and either a turn over not exceeding ECU 40 million or an annual balance sheet not exceeding ECU 27 million

Small Enterprise: less than 50 employees and either a turn over not exceeding ECU7 million or an annual balance sheet not exceeding ECU 5 million

Micro enterprises: less than 10 employees

It should also be noted that the number of workers refers to full time workers, with seasonal and part time workers being a fraction of the AWU (Annual Working Units) So if you have two part time workers making up 1 full time worker (job share for instance) these two employees would be considered 1 fulltime worker.

It is likely that most councils will follow this. I have no idea how a joint venture may be viewed, but it would be worth contacting the council to ask them.
Graeme @ BGS March 15, 2009 at 11:43am

The government is putting a lot of pressure on banks to support the SME's but apparently the banks are adopting the same approach when it comes to lending. The small micro enterprises fall outside of their guidelines.
dgeorgea March 15, 2009 at 12:36pm

Unfortunately it is not just the micro enterprises which banks and other financers are looking to screw over. RSL at the moment face having all their loans redefined if they apply for other loans, resulting in huge increases in costs to repay current loans. This will have a huge impact in the development of affordable homes.

Personally I think it is disgusting that the banks who caused so much of the current problems have been bailed out of trouble by public money seem so determined to ensure that we stay this way. But then finance is not one of my strongest points, and certainly not finance at that level. It does seem wrong though.

BGS LTD said:
The government is putting a lot of pressure on banks to support the SME's but apparently the banks are adopting the same approach when it comes to lending. The small micro enterprises fall outside of their guidelines.