Initiate

Initiate

The Bid Team can help you initiate a bid and ensure that the bid plans are sound and that key staff have been assigned their responsibilities.

A bid initiation is a planning exercise which examines the resources needed to commit, assign and secure to bid successfully. It includes a plan to win which is linked to scheduled bid reviews. The Bid Team has produced a guide to help companies through the initiation stage.

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03-Bid-Plan

It is important to create a bid plan to help decide whether the bid is a worthwhile investment of resources. The Bid Team has a proforma bid plan that focuses on the availability of resources and whether they can be secured for the bid. The bid plan at this stage is an initial estimate of the resources necessary and when they are likely to be required on the bid.

It is important to create a bid plan to help decide whether the bid is a worthwhile investment of resources. The Bid Team has a proforma bid plan that focuses on the availability of resources and whether they can be secured for the bid. The bid plan at this stage is an initial estimate of the resources necessary and when they are likely to be required on the bid.

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Identifying areas or sections of the bid that can be improved by sub-contractors should be made by analysing the requirements and determining where sub-contractors will score additional marks. The Bid Team’s solution assessment proforma identifies weak requirements that can be addressed by sub-contractors.

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04-Schedule-Reviews

There are a number of reviews that need to be undertaken to ensure that the bid is still worth the investment. Bid reviews should be scheduled as early as possible to make sure that key people can attend. The Bid Team has produced a proforma to facilitate the review schedule.

There are a number of reviews that need to be undertaken to ensure that the bid is still worth the investment. Bid reviews should be scheduled as early as possible to make sure that key people can attend. The Bid Team has produced a proforma to facilitate the review schedule.

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The pink team is a mid-bid review that can be held as many times as needed. The direction of the bid is either moved forward or the direction is altered as a result of the outcome of this review. The Bid Team has produced a proforma to facilitate this review. The pink team reviews are part of a series of reviews that need to be undertaken as the bid progresses.

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04-Gateway

At each stage of the bid process there should be a reassessment of the likelihood of winning the bid. As the bid develops, more information becomes available and the likelihood of winning will change. The Bid Team has developed a series of gateway reviews that sign off the continued investment in the bid. After passing this gateway the process moves to the storyboard stage of the bid.

At each stage of the bid process there should be a reassessment of the likelihood of winning the bid. As the bid develops, more information becomes available and the likelihood of winning will change. The Bid Team has developed a series of gateway reviews that sign off the continued investment in the bid. After passing this gateway the process moves to the storyboard stage of the bid.

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The Bid Team can help you initiate a bid and ensure that the bid plans are sound and that key staff have been assigned their responsibilities.

Here’s a bit more information on the bid initiation for your guidance:

When you have decided that there is a reasonable chance of winning an opportunity through a competitive tender and have concluded that the bid expenditure will result in a profit outcome or return on investment, there is a tendency to “rush to write”. This should be resisted, and the bid should be treated as you would an implementation project, that is to say you need to plan the bid thoroughly and schedule your resource expenditure to maximise the impact. Without thorough planning and scheduling the bid can easily be knocked off track and nugatory activities undertaken. This can result in a bid failing to achieve a win or worst still failing to submit a fully compliant and hence winning bid. This article will walk you through the things you need to know when initiating a bid.

Initiating a bid involves implementing the bid plan that was developed in the qualification stage of the bid. The purpose of creating a bid plan to decide whether the bid is a worthwhile investment of your company’s resources is incredibly important. At this stage, the bid plan is an initial estimate of the resources that will be necessary as well as the time that they are likely to be required. The initiation stage involves securing these resources. It is possible that the resources committed in previous stages are no longer available. If this occurs, alternative resources need to be found from either internal or external sources. These external sources could be sub-contractors. In addition, during the planning stage, areas identified that could be improved by sub-contractors should be identified. This is done by analysing the requirements and selecting where sub-contractors will score additional evaluation points. When selecting relevant sub-contractors, their project contribution and exclusivity should be included as part of the selection process. It is important that the requirements evaluation, solution assessment and competitor assessments are updated to reflect the sub-contractor’s input.

One of the most important elements of the development of a winning bid is ensuring that the correct allocation of resources is carried out. This is driving factor in determining the bid costs. Bids that have a small value will carry disproportionate costs in comparison to their resulting margin. There is little to no point to bidding for something if the cost of the bid exceeds the expected margin of profit. It is important that the costs are analysed and compared to the profit to decide if the bid is worth going for. An assessment should be made to see if the bid is winnable. If the only barrier to victory is the allocation of resources, a question must e asked as to what would be the proportion of the margin that you would feel comfortable investing in order to secure that return. A general rule is that 20% of the total contract margin would be deemed a reasonable investment.

During the bid process, a number of reviews need to be undertaken to ensure that the bid is still worth investing in. These bid reviews should be scheduled as early in to the process as possible to make sure that all key members of the management team are available to attend. Each review should add value to the bid process and add validation to the likelihood of success using this process. This is especially important when sub-contractors are added. In this case, the bid plan will have changed, and it is important to ensure everyone is on board with the changes.

The initiation stage of the bid should produce a completed bid plan with resource plan and subcontractor inputs defined as part of that plan. The plan can be used to track activities in the next stages of the bid and determine the impact of external factors to the bid. No bid ever goes completely to plan, and the customer can change the emphasis through clarification answers and additional material. Without the plan the impact is hard to assess with the plan at least you can estimate the impacts on schedule and more importantly costs.

During the initiation stage there are several things that have changed, such as the inputs of subcontractors on the requirements evaluation, solution assessment and competitor assessments. In addition, the secured bid resources are known, and the bid budget is refined as known costs are added. A final review should be conducted as the likelihood of success, the investment plan and the return on that investment. Bidders should be willing to stop the bid at this stage if the win assessment has significantly reduced or the investment return is lowered. It is better to save your bidding budgets for another bid that have a punt on an expensive activity.

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