How to Tender for Construction Work
Learning how to tender for construction work is essential for any construction business wanting to win contracts in the public and private sector. This guide will tell you everything you need to know.
Free Tender Search
Building tenders allow contractors to gain more clients and build a more extensive portfolio of work, which means greater profits and credibility. However, finding and winning tenders is no easy task. Sourcing public or private sector contracts across hundreds of portals is time consuming and requires a highly efficient system to find the most relevant and valuable results.
Tracker gives you access to competitor insights, tailored alerts for tender opportunities, and in-depth market analysis with our innovative end-to-end business intelligence tools. We help organisations in the construction industry grow their revenue and increase their market share by helping them find more lucrative tenders.
Read on to learn how Tracker’s market leading procurement tools can help construction companies like yours find, bid for & win more construction contracts.
What is a Construction Tender?
When a buyer (contracting authority) wants to purchase construction services or goods, an invitation to tender (ITT) is published that invites competing offers from construction suppliers who want to provide those goods or services. This invitation to submit bids is a tender. However, “tender” is usually used loosely to cover the entire tender process.
A construction tender can cover a broad range of services or utilities, from new-build construction work to equipment supply, building maintenance, and refurbishment.
Types of Construction Tender Processes
Now that you know what a construction tender is, the first step to winning construction contracts is understanding how they work. It is important to understand the various types of tender processes (procurement procedures) because an invitation to tender (ITT) can take on different procedures depending on the selected tender process.
The four most commonly used tendering processes in the public sector are:
Open Tendering
In public sector tendering, open tenders are the most common tendering process. Open tenders are advertised to the public, so all contractors have an equal opportunity to submit their bids for evaluation.
If the project is more complex, there may be a pre-qualification process after the tender submission to produce a shortlist of suitable suppliers from those who expressed interest in the ITT. This pre-qualification process differs from selective tenders, which only allows suppliers from a pre-selected list to submit their bids.
Selective Tendering
A selective tender, also known as a restricted tender, begins with a list of potential contractors pre-selected by the buyer. These contractors have already been pre-qualified for the project’s specific size, nature and complexity, most likely through the use of a Selection Questionnaire (SQ). Only these contractors are invited to bid for the tender.
Negotiated Tendering
During a negotiated tender, the buyer will select a single supplier they want to do business with and negotiate the terms of the contract with them. This process may be appropriate for specialist projects with a limited number of potential suppliers.
Framework Agreement Tendering
A framework agreement allows the buyer to invite multiple suppliers to a closed pool of vendors who can be awarded work over a period of time. Buyers that are continuously commissioning work often use framework agreements because working from a preferred supplier list can reduce timescales, mitigate risks, and save money.
Whichever tendering process is used, Tracker can set you apart from your competitors at every stage of the tender process. Sign up for a free trial or request a demo.
Steps in the Construction Tender Process
Before you start searching for relevant contracts and writing bids, ensure you are familiar with the procurement process.
A primary and possibly secondary selection process may be included in civil tenders, including a Selection Questionnaire (previously known as the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire) and pre-tender interviews. This allows the contracting authority to evaluate prospective suppliers, with only the most appropriate suppliers being invited to tender. A selection procedure is often used in the tender process for larger projects.
Once suppliers place their bids, the buyers then evaluate the tenders against a set of pre-announced criteria. Decisions about which suppliers will receive the awarding contracts are ultimately based on the best-value contractor.
Contract engrossment is the process of preparing and agreeing on the final form of the contract, as well as its schedules and appendices so the contract can be signed and contract execution can follow.
Not sure what goes into winning a construction tender? Tracker’s intelligence tools can help you gain complete visibility into previous awards and equip you with the insights needed to improve your bids.
We’ve outlined how to tender for construction work in 3 easy steps below.
1. Finding Construction Tenders in the UK
Before you learn how to submit a bid and win construction contracts, you must first learn how to efficiently find tenders that are relevant to your business. If you’re struggling with this, Tracker offers a suite of industry leading procurement tools that can give you a competitive advantage at every stage of the tendering process:
Our bespoke Tender Alerts service sends the latest tender opportunities to your inbox daily, ensuring that you are the first to know about new construction contracts as soon as they are published.
Our Market Intelligence and Commercial Projects tools allow you to track the competitor landscape so you can make more informed business decisions and identify new tender opportunities.
Tracker’s tendering tools can help you save time and resources so you can focus on preparing your tender documentation and writing a persuasive tender response that wins.
Ready to tender for construction projects that add value to your business? Our intelligence tools can help. Request a personalised live demo to see how.
2. Preparing Tender Documents for Bids
The tender documents needed for a bid submission may vary depending on the size, nature, and complexity of the construction project. The documentation will generally include the Invitation to Tender, form of tender, contract, pricing document, and design drawings.
To successfully bid on tenders you need to ensure you have prepared and organised all the required documents so nothing is overlooked during the tender process.
3. Strategic Bidding in the Construction Industry
Once the bid documentation has been prepared, a rigorous tender settlement meeting is often necessary. The bid estimate is reviewed to assess whether it is accurate (e.g. pricing and scheduling) and fully complies with the client’s requirements before submission.
The construction industry is incredibly competitive, so having a high quality bid is vital. Unfortunately, many construction businesses are unequipped to eliminate errors and create accurate estimates to ensure they get the most value out of the contract.
Tracker provides tools to streamline the bidding process, such as Spend Analysis which helps suppliers identify buyer spending patterns. Our Archive Data tool works similarly, offering five or more years of historical data on buyers and previous tenders. This tool also identifies new competitors in the market. Bid Manager, our easy-to-use bid tracking tool, centralises your bid documentation, workflow & activity onto a single platform.
By combining a wealth of rich data with advanced business analysis tools, Tracker helps construction businesses gain a competitive advantage and make informed decisions about their bidding strategy.
Find the latest construction tender opportunities and streamline your tender processes with Tracker. Read on to learn how we can help you gain access to valuable insights with our market leading business intelligence tools for procurement.
How to Win Construction Contracts
Tendering for construction work can be a resource heavy, expensive, and time consuming process. In the highly competitive construction industry, you need to be sure you’re bidding for the right contracts at the right time.
Tracker combines innovative data analytics tools with an enormous UK and European database of contract notices and awards to derive actionable insights into your competitors and the marketplace. With real-time tender alerts and advanced market intelligence, our end-to-end solution allows you to stay one step ahead of your competitors by efficiently finding relevant tender opportunities and providing valuable insights into the wider market.
Request a personalised live demo to learn how to find construction tenders easily using Tracker Core or Tracker Pro.
Opportunities to Win More Building Construction Tenders
With the continual expansion of public infrastructure in the UK, there is greater demand for the construction sector, which creates exciting opportunities for construction suppliers.
From building schools and hospitals to repairing roads and regular maintenance of existing buildings, new tenders are posted by the government and private organisations every day. Tracker hosts the largest public sector tenders database in the UK and Europe, giving you access to these valuable contract opportunities as soon as they become available.
Regardless of the size and nature of your construction business, we can bridge the gap and equip you with an arsenal of tools to search, bid for, and win more construction tenders.
Tracker aims to ensure you never miss a tender opportunity again. Sign up for a free trial today to test it out yourself.
Tracker: Industry Leading Procurement Services & Tools in the UK
As a market leader in procurement information products, Tracker offers a range of tools designed to boost business growth in public and private sector markets.
With the only business intelligence tool that can equip you to gain public sector contracts and private sector leads, Tracker analyses enormous volumes of market and competitor data to derive valuable, actionable insights that can help you easily find new construction tenders and make more informed decisions.
Ready to tender for construction contracts? Sign up today!
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Throughout our 39 years, we have continued to evolve and chart new territory – placing our customers at the heart of everything we do. Take your business to the next level with Tracker now.
