Winning tenders is essential for continued growth, but trying to write a compelling proposal while they’re doing their day job leads many companies to put tendering in the ‘too hard’ basket
With an increasing spotlight on best practice procurement nationally and a drive to secure whole-of-life value-for-money for ratepayers (rather than the cheapest price today), high-scoring proposal attributes are becoming ever more important.
Senior Plan A Consultant Heather Murray says, “Price becomes less important in winning a tender when a project or contract carries a higher level of risk, or has a higher requirement for quality.
“In this environment, there’s greater demand for contractors to prepare competitive and compelling Non-Price Attribute submissions, including in areas such as health & safety, added value, and environmental and social sustainability.”
And as new infrastructure-related projects continue to come to market – in roading, rail, or housing-related sectors – the civil contracting industry is gearing up to meet the challenge.
Tender Specialist Plan A has been providing expert assistance to many of New Zealand’s largest (and smallest) civil contracting companies to help them produce winning tenders since 1998.
Tender specialist Plan A has recently become a Major Associate of Civil Contractors NZ, building on their long association with the Auckland Branch.
As a long-time supporter of national CCNZ conferences, the Plan A team is thrilled to increase their involvement with CCNZ.
Through sister company Clever Buying – which trains and qualifies most of NZ’s tender evaluators – Plan A consultants know what evaluators are looking for and how tender evaluation models work.
Kerrie McEwen, a Senior Plan A consultant, says, “From our team’s experience in tendering across almost every industry sector and in responding to bids in over 40 countries, we understand what best tendering practice looks like.”
McEwen adds, “Tendering doesn’t come naturally to everyone – or they simply don’t have the in-house resources available.
“Our 15-strong team can provide around-the-clock support if needed for those really tight deadlines.”
CCNZ CEO Peter Silcock says: “Plan A has a strong team providing a very valuable service to our members so it is great to have a nationwide partnership with them.
“There is a lot at stake when tendering and contractors are seeing real value in having some external input into their bid preparation.
“Plan A’s sister company Clever Buying is also actively working with CCNZ to promote improved procurement.”
The Plan A team of tender writers, bid managers, graphic designers and strategy facilitators is a group of experienced business people with a wide range of backgrounds – from engineering, IT, sales, science, strategy, training and teaching, to technology, health, policy, design and more.
They have developed winning bid strategy, written compelling content (often from scratch), reviewed, edited, designed and produced tenders that have won billions of dollars’ worth of work for contracts in Australasia, Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
They’ve also developed compelling PowerPoint presentations, manuals, websites, prequalification applications, marketing material, IPO documents, Board Papers – in fact, all kinds of complex documentation.
Plan A has consultants in Auckland, Northland, Taranaki, Wellington/Wairarapa, Nelson Marlborough, Canterbury, and Central Otago, along with two consultants in Europe.
Most of the company’s work is done remotely for clients by email, phone interviews and Skype for Business, providing a cost-effective and highly responsive service.
