powered by

Category: News

Window Cleaning Tenders: Everything You Need to Consider

Posted on by John Hudson

7 tips to help you succeed with window cleaning Tenders

Window cleaning tenders can cover a range of services across a variety of industrial, commercial and residential buildings. If you’ve never applied for window cleaning contracts before, it can seem daunting. The procurement world can be confusing, but hopefully, this blog will help if you’re new to the whole process.

Why should you tender for window cleaning tenders?

If you’re a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), there are several benefits you can take from tendering. These include:

  • Gain experience.
  • Guaranteed pay when tendering in the public sector.
  • Sustainability from securing a pipeline of work.

There are a number of different tendering opportunities and it can be confusing to know the difference between them.

Public sector tendering  

The public sector is probably the largest procurer of window cleaners. Examples of public organisations who commission window cleaning tenders are councils, educational institutions and other public-owned organisations like the NHS.

Private sector tendering

There are some private companies that also tender for window cleaning tenders. These companies often have multiple sites that require window cleaning services such as hotels, offices or restaurants.

DPS and framework agreements

Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS) and framework agreements are both tendering opportunities often used within the public sector.

A DPS is ultimately a supply chain list. Tenders are published to specific members who have been successful in maintaining a position on the list. Any organisation or group could put out a DPS to outsource work in one or more service areas. These are known as ‘Lots’ often relating to a specific region or service. The buyer can then refer to their set-list of applicants as opposed to going over hundreds of applicants each time. Applying for a DPS is flexible and you can join any time it’s open.

A framework agreement typically asks for multiple suppliers to deliver goods or services across various locations. They also use ‘Lots’ allowing businesses to work alongside other service providers in the contract. The contracts can last for several years and can be lucrative if you can secure a place on one. They’re effective ways to build up experience and places your organisation in good stead for future contracts.

Before you begin applying to window cleaning tenders you need to ask yourself: can you deliver? There’s no point wasting time and money on applying for an opportunity that you can’t fulfil. Read the specification carefully beforehand and double check you meet the minimum criteria before beginning. If you can, then that’s great! Below are seven tips to help you succeed when applying for window cleaning contracts.

7 things to consider when applying for window cleaning tenders:

  1. Health & Safety and Equal Opportunity 

When applying for window cleaning tenders, you’ll need to state your health and safety policies are up to scratch. Accidents can happen and the buyer will just want to ensure that you have taken suitable health and safety measures. These include:

  • CHAS (Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme)
  • RIDDOR (The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations)

You’ll also need to state how your business implements equal opportunities and non-collusion. You will most likely be asked if you comply with the UK/EU Equalities and Discrimination legislation of the:

  • Human Rights Act 1998
  • Equality Act 2010

  1. Pricing

Window cleaning tenders have been known to have a greater weighting on pricing than quality. You’ll want to make sure to price your services competitively. Although this isn’t always the case, it depends on whether you are applying for a public or private contract. It’s important to note that the lowest prices don’t always win the contract.

For public sector contracts, it’s worth noting that the buyer is often looking for the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT). This means the buyer is looking at more than just the price. The buyer could be looking for innovation, customer service, accessibility or the ability to deliver on time and more. Each aspect can be looked at by the client separately or as a mix with other considerations.

  1. Qualifications and accreditations

When applying for window cleaning tenders, you will be asked about the relevant qualifications and accreditations your business has. Relevance is key here and the buyer will want to know you are qualified for the job at hand. You may be asked if you implement certain policies or are members of any federations or institutions. Below are a few examples of qualifications and accreditations relevant for window cleaning tenders:

  • Member of the International Rope Access Trade Association (IRATA) or International Powered Access Federation (IPAF)
  • ISO 9001; 14001
  • Safe Contractor
  • British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICS)
  • ISOQAR
  • British Window Cleaning Academy (BWCA)

  1. Safe working

Buyers want to be reassured that you have safe working plans in place, in case something were to go wrong. Some window cleaning tenders may ask for well-written risk assessments, method statements and proof of adequate insurance. You may be working from considerable heights if cleaning high-rise buildings. If this is required, you may need to state how you will minimise the risk of working from a height. 

  1. Resources to be used

You will typically need to disclose what resources you are going to use while delivering the window cleaning contract. For example, the proposed equipment and cleaning solutions you will be using. You may need to detail any safety considerations when handling cleaning fluids.

  1. Delivery of service 

For the delivery of service, a business will need to state how they plan to deliver the service to the buyer. For example, the details of the staff working on the contract and your proposed operating hours.

You may want to consider the location of the contract when you are applying. For example, say a contract is based in Stoke but you’re based in Bournemouth. The buyer will want to know you’ll be able to fulfil the contract obligations in a timely manner.

Detail is key and you want to be as close to the word count as possible. There’s a reason they have included a word count. You don’t want the buyer to assume anything, so being clear and concise is paramount.

What quality controls do you have in place when delivering the contract? 

  1. Social value 

Social value now has a minimum weighting of 10% for government contracts as of the 1st of January 2021. In some contracts it could be considerably more. This means you will need to consider how your organisation increases the social value when carrying out a contract. This can include social, economic and environmental considerations such as:

  • COVID-19 recovery.
  • Environmental management – details of cleaning materials and chemicals you will use and how these are the most environmentally friendly option.
  • How you would add workforce and skill based development to the local area – for example, through apprenticeships or workplace training.

Environmental awareness is increasingly important and it’s worth really thinking about your businesses’ impact. Buyers in the public sector will want you to demonstrate you are committed to a sustainable future. The best responses will include how this commitment will coincide with the buyer’s own environmental goals.

Below are some examples of window cleaning tenders we recently sourced on our portal:

BCHC-20-0015 Trust Wide Window Cleaning

Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust- West Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

04-01-2021

Close & Window Cleaning 2021-24

Ochil View Housing Association- Scotland- Budget: £100,000

22-01-2021

Hafod Window Cleaning Services

Hafod Housing Association- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

04-12-2020

Provision of Cleaning, Window Cleaning and Pest Control at UK Astronomy Technology Centre

UK Shared Business Services Limited – South West- Budget: £340,000

18-01-2021

Window Cleaning

Phoenix Community Housing- London- Budget: £8,000

18-12-2020

Need help writing window cleaning tenders?

So, you’ve found the right window cleaning contract for you but you’re not sure where to start – we can help!

Our tendering experts at Hudson Succeed can help take your business to new heights! They offer four bespoke bid writing services whether you’re completely new to tendering, or you aren’t seeing any success. They have an 87% success rate and over 40 year’s bid writing experience. The four services are:

Join Facilities Tenders

At Facilities Tenders, we source sector-specific tenders on a daily basis from thousands of buyers, across the UK.

We know you’re busy! Our goal is to save you both money and time by manually searching for new business opportunities for you. We’ll send you daily alerts when new window cleaning tenders are released. You’ll have 24-hour access to our portal, and a dedicated Account Manager on hand to help.

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

A subscription to our Facilities Tenders portal includes:

  • 20-minutes of free consultancy every month with our bid experts.
  • A dedicated Account Manager to answer any questions you may have about the tendering process.
  • A team of Opportunity Trackers sourcing public, private and unique window cleaning tenders from 1000s of sites.
  • No reliance on algorithms or unreliable CPV codes. Our team manually upload each tender. This makes sure you have access to all public and private window cleaning tenders.
  • The ability to filter bid opportunities easily via keyword, budget, location and more!
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed – our bid writing division.

How to Succeed in Writing Grounds Maintenance Contracts

Posted on by John Hudson

Everything you need to know to win grounds maintenance contracts

Grounds maintenance contracts are a great way to secure a long-term pipeline of work. Grounds maintenance is a service that is often regularly outsourced by both private and public organisations. This generally means there is a constant stream of contract opportunities.

Grounds maintenance contracts are often commissioned for both labour and grounds maintenance equipment. Contracts could include lawn care, hedge trimming, weed control and more. No two businesses will have the same needs. It’s vital that when writing your grounds maintenance contracts, you customise your response to the needs of the buyer.

Opportunities for SME’s

If you’re an SME who’s new to the tendering world, it can be tricky to know where to even begin. You might be wondering if there’s any point in applying for contracts when there are larger businesses out there. You shouldn’t be disheartened by this.

The UK government has implemented a scheme to award more work to SMEs. They have a target to see at least £1 in £3 being spent with SMEs. This means that public sector organisations are actively looking to award contracts to smaller businesses. This is great news, and it can be a lucrative opportunity if you’re able to secure a contract. Some grounds maintenance contracts last for several years at a time with the possibility of extension.

Below are some helpful tips on the types of things that are required for grounds maintenance contracts.

  1. Health and Safety

Health and safety are important aspects to consider within any tender. Buyers want to be confident that the work on their site is to the highest health and safety standards. You, no doubt, want to minimise the risk to your employees and the general public when working.

You may be asked what risk assessment practices and health and safety measures you have in place. These could be via:

  • CHAS (Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme)
  • RIDDOR (The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations)

  1. Method statements

A method statement is a critical part of all grounds maintenance contracts. This is used to detail the way a task is to be completed. It should outline the hazards involved and include a step-by-step guide on how to do the job safely. Your statement should detail what controlled measures have been implemented to ensure the safety of all involved in the task. It must state how employees carry out work in a safe manner to prevent injury to themselves or others.

You will need to include a full list of machinery and equipment to be used within the contract. For example:

  • Hedge cutters
  • Lawn mowers
  • Leaf blowers
  • Fork
  • Blowers
  • Ladders.

Method statements may include how your organisation handles:

  • First aid
  • Manual handling
  • Material handling
  • Preparation and induction
  • Staff and training
  • Tools and electrical equipment
  • Welfare
  • Noise
  • Vibration
  • PPE.

Method statements allow you to detail how thorough your business is. It allows you the opportunity to prove why you are the best for the job. You need to demonstrate how you are better than your competitors when carrying out each task.

  1. Qualifications and accreditations

Your businesses’ qualifications and accreditations are highly relevant. You need to be able to demonstrate that you are qualified to undertake grounds maintenance contracts. Below are some of the general and industry specific qualifications and accreditations you may need:

  • ISO 9001; 14001; 18001
  • CHAS
  • BALI (British Association of Landscape Industries) accreditation
  • RHS (Royal Horticulture Society) training
  • IoG (Institute of Groundsmanship)
  • Constructionline
  • SSIP.

  1. Case Studies

There’s a great deal of healthy competition when applying for grounds maintenance contracts. Due to this, your level of experience and business capabilities matter. You don’t want to waste resources and time on tenders that your organisation has no chance of winning.

Generally speaking, you will always be required to provide up to three case studies of relevant completed contracts. If you can show a proven track record of projects of a similar stature, it’s a better indicator of capability. You should keep it relevant and include past work that is similar in scale, or geographical location.

You should include past case studies over the last five years, no later. When detailing previous case studies, it would also be a good idea to state any challenges you overcame. This enables you to demonstrate that you have taken the initiative to predict potential challenges and planned ahead.

  1. Social Value

Social value is ever important. UK government contracts now carry a compulsory 10% minimum weighting on social value. On some contracts, social value can be weighted up to 30% within the quality response. Contractors want to know what steps your organisation is taking to think beyond your own internal objectives. Public sector organisations want you to demonstrate that you’re committed to a sustainable future. Businesses will be impressed if your responses align with their own social value goals.

Social value in tender responses will be assessed on:

  • How your organisation supports COVID-19 recovery.
  • The equal opportunity policies you implement within your business.
  • How you are creating new jobs, skills to tackle economic inequality. You could do this via apprenticeships or workplace training, for example.
  • The environmental considerations you are taking to reduce waste and tackle climate change.

As grounds maintenance is based within the natural environment, you will need to demonstrate you have robust environmental awareness. This could include your commitment to using environmentally friendly consumables or strict waste management procedures for example. Can you provide evidence to support these claims? You could try to calculate the specific environmental impacts of your service for the buyer. For example, how much less waste will go to landfill than your potential competitors?

Ultimately, your business should be committed to reducing any negative environmental impact. This could be done via:

  • Reducing consumption
  • Increasing recycling
  • Reconsidering how you manage activities
  • Encouraging biodiversity.

  1. Innovation

Contractors are looking for suppliers to deliver a better service to both themselves and their customers. Most grounds maintenance contracts will include questions for suppliers to demonstrate innovative solutions to everyday problems. They want to know what improvements you can deliver over the contract term. You will want to show supporting evidence of how your innovative methods have been used to save previous clients’ money. You could also state how such innovative solutions have delivered better quality.

Such increased interest in innovation and sustainability coincides with the increase of interest in social value. For example, some businesses have invested in battery powered equipment over petrol/diesel machinery in an attempt to reduce carbon emissions.

Landscaping contracts 

If you’re bidding on grounds maintenance contracts, you may specialise in landscaping. You may be wondering how to bid on landscaping jobs, and you aren’t alone. Bidding on landscaping jobs can have advantages and enable you to secure a pipeline of work for your business.

Buyers may release tenders for landscaping services that cover a range of work such as:

  • Grounds maintenance
  • Grass cutting
  • Trimming hedges
  • Weed removal
  • Tree trimming
  • Debris removal
  • Tree stump removal.

If you’ve never tendered before, you may be confused about where to begin. Procurement methods can vary, and different buyers will ask for different things depending on their needs.

It is likely that to bid on landscaping jobs, you will need to detail the same information above. This includes your business’:

  • Health and safety policies and procedures
  • Method statements
  • Relevant qualifications and accreditations
  • Social value responses

Below are some more things that you can expect to see when you bid on landscaping jobs:

Site visits

When you bid on landscaping jobs, you may have the opportunity to conduct a site visit. Depending on the buyer and the site, they may be optional or compulsory. However, it will be detailed within the tender documents. Site visits can be greatly beneficial to your bid response. They’re a great opportunity to go and see the proposed working environment for yourself.

It’s strongly advised that if there’s an option to conduct a site visit, that you participate. They allow you to gain an insight into the buyer, accessing information you otherwise wouldn’t be able to. It may even result in you being able to price your services more accurately.

Framework agreements

One thing that you can expect when you bid on landscaping jobs is that it is part of a wider framework agreement.

A framework agreement is a multi-supplier agreement used by the public sector to procure a range of goods and services. They are frequently used within the grounds maintenance sector. The length of a framework can vary from a few months, but landscaping frameworks more often run for years. Due to this, securing a place on a framework agreement can be a lucrative opportunity for your business.

Framework agreements are split into different lots. Each lot can either be a specific good, service, work or geographical location. They allow suppliers to apply to be part of a wider contract without needing to supply all areas. The number of suppliers for each lot varies and can be anything from four suppliers for one lot to ten. Suppliers need only apply for the specific lot[s] they specialise in.

Depending on the buyer, suppliers may be able to bid on any or all of the framework lots available. This will be stated within the tender documents and tender specification released by the buyer. If this is an option, a supplier must be able to demonstrate that they’re able to undertake all works. They must have the appropriate capacity and resources to undertake the works across all selected respective lots.

A higher weighting on price

When you bid on landscaping jobs, it’s not unexpected for the price to be weighted more than quality. However, that doesn’t mean a buyer doesn’t care about the quality of your response. In fact, it means quite the opposite. You should always put your all into your quality response when you bid on landscaping jobs.

Remember:

Hit as close to the word/page/character count as possible

It’s there for a reason. If a buyer is expecting a 1,000-word response, simply writing 200 words won’t suffice. The same applies to writing a 1,500-word response. Follow the instructions given.

Avoid overly technical jargon

A lot of the time, a buyer isn’t an expert in your area, hence why they’re outsourcing for a solution. They won’t necessarily understand what you’re talking about. So, using laymen’s terms is the way forward.

Be detailed in your response

The devil is in the detail. Buyers are often expecting you to break down your answer and have detailed responses. The best tender responses will include a step-by-step response if they’re asking how you do a certain process. The more in-depth the better (within the word/page/character count).

Break up the text format

If a question is asking three things within it, break it up. Make the main points subheadings. This will help both you and the evaluator to signpost you have answered every aspect of the question. Put yourself in the evaluator’s shoes. If you’re confronted with pages of block text you aren’t going to favour it over one that’s broken up. Using bullet points, subheadings, tables and graphs can help.

Stick to the guidelines

Make sure you’re adhering to the formatting guidelines within the specification. Contracting authorities can be very strict with this. To avoid being rejected over a small matter, read the specification carefully. Before you submit, make sure you have the correct font, size of the font and anything else they note.

If you follow this advice, you’ll be well on your way to securing your next landscaping job. If you need any support writing your next bid for landscaping jobs – we can help.

Bid Writing Support

Are you new to tendering? Do you struggle to see success from your tendering efforts? If you answered yes to either of the above questions, then you may be interested in our bid writing service.

Our Bid Writers have an 87% success rate. They have over 60 years of experience and are more than happy to help you with your grounds maintenance contacts. Whether you’re a first-time tenderer, or simply need advice on improving your success rate – we can help. We offer four bid writing packages:

Tender Ready

The Tender Ready programme takes place over 4-weeks. It’s perfect for those who are completely new to the tendering process. Our Bid Writers will help you with your corporate literature and identifying opportunities.

Tender Improvement

The Tender Improvement package is for businesses that aren’t seeing success from their tendering applications. Our Bid Writers will assess a tender you’ve written and work with you to improve the content.

Tender Writing

Simply send the tender specification to our Bid Writers. They’ll write the responses and even submit it on your behalf leaving you time to focus on your business.

Tender Mentor

Our Bid Writing Team will analyse your grounds maintenance contract. Through Tender Mentor, they’ll then give you guidance and feedback noting any errors before you submit.

Where can I find grounds maintenance contracts?

So, you’ve taken all of the above into consideration. Now is the perfect time to start searching for grounds maintenance contracts. We get that you’re busy. You don’t want to be searching through thousands of different websites to find a suitable opportunity. That’s where we come in!

Our goal is to save you both time and money. We do this by manually searching for new business opportunities for you. We then publish them all on our sector-specific Facilities Tenders portal.

You can search for new opportunities via keyword, location or budget. This means you don’t have to rely on incorrectly labelled CPV codes. This allows you to access all private and public grounds maintenance contracts easily.

We’ll even send you daily alerts when new grounds maintenance contracts are released. You’ll have 24-hour access to the portal and a dedicated Account Manager on hand to help.

Below are some past examples of ground maintenance contracts and landscaping jobs we’ve sourced on our portal:

GB-Consett: Landscaping and Grounds Maintenance

Durham Aged Mineworkers Homes Association- North East- Budget: £500,000

06-01-2021

Grounds Maintenance Service

NHS Golden Jubilee- Scotland- Budget: Undisclosed

22-01-2021

Leaseholder Grounds Maintenance

Accent Housing- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

19-01-2021

Pickering & Ferens Homes – Grounds Maintenance

Pickering & Ferens Homes- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

18-01-2021

Grass Cutting and Landscape Maintenance Contract

Hjaltland Housing Association Ltd- Scotland- Budget: £105,000

15-01-2021

Adam & Eve Hard Landscaping

University of Winchester- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Barcud – Landscaping 2021-2022

Barcud Cyf- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

Land West of Woodhouse Lane, Hedge End: Construction of Natural Turf Sports Pitches, Footways and Landscaping

Eastleigh Borough Council- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Landscaping Project Phase 1 at St Peter’s Garden

Chalfont St Peter Parish Council- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Landscaping Services – Lot 3 Argyll and the Islands

Highlands and Islands Enterprise- Scotland- Budget: £101,250

Join Facilities Tenders

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

The Fundamentals of Waste Disposal Tenders

Posted on by John Hudson

Everything you need to know when applying for waste disposal tenders

Waste disposal tenders can cover a range of services across a variety of homes, businesses, buildings and public facilities. They are often noted as waste collection, disposal and recycling service contracts. The cleaning sector, in general, is vast and waste disposal tenders could be needed in areas such as:

  • Private and domestic
  • Commercial
  • Industrial
  • Corporate
  • Local Government
  • Education
  • Hospitality

Almost every aspect of life has an output of waste in some way. It is paramount that the disposal of this waste is done in the most environmentally conscious way as possible. Waste disposal tenders are abundant due to the necessity of the job.

There are significant subsections that waste disposal tenders could cover, such as:

  • Hazardous waste
  • Landfill waste
  • Inert waste
  • Scrap waste
  • Builders waste
  • Green waste
  • Recyclable waste
  • Laboratory waste
  • Chemical waste
  • Hospital Waste
  • Food Waste
  • Incineration
  • Biological reprocessing waste

The UK has a significant waste disposal issue and it’s taking its toll on the climate. The UK government estimates that over 26 million tonnes of waste is generated in the UK per year. Only 12 million tonnes of that are recycled and 14 million tonnes are sent to landfill. Because of this, the government has set multiple goals to try and address the UK’s waste production and disposal problems.

They hope to recycle 65% of municipal waste by 2035, with no more than 10% ending up in landfill. Moreover, they have a commitment of working towards eliminating all food waste to landfill by 2030. They hope this will tackle the problem of landfill emissions head on.

The basics of waste disposal tenders

Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ)

The procurement process can be tricky to navigate if you’re new to it. Processes can vary from tender to tender. A PQQ covers the status of your organisation. Typically, when waste disposal tenders are released, a business will need to complete a PQQ.

The PQQ will often ask for your company’s:

  • Information

Here, you will be asked to include general information about your company including:

  • Business name
  • Registered address
  • Contact information
  • Insurance details

  • Economic and financial standing

Buyers will want to assess your organisations financial standing at the preliminary stages of tendering. You will have to provide your organisation’s financial information. This is to make sure that your business can afford to fulfil the contract at hand. Buyers usually assess your economic and financial standing by asking for your:

  1. Annual turnover
  2. Financial ratios
  3. Insurance

  • Technical Capacity

Within the technical capacity section, you may be asked about your:

  1. Annual staffing and number of managerial staff.
  2. Educational and vocational qualifications of managerial staff.
  3. Tools and technical equipment that you’ll use for the project.
  4. Case studies.

  • Case studies

The PQQ will ask for your businesses’ technical capacity and you will need to include relevant case studies. These will need to demonstrate your experience on previous jobs of a similar spec. You may be asked for up to three past examples that your organisation has completed within the last five years.

Invitation to Tender (ITT)

Once your organisation has completed the PQQ, and it has been accepted, you will then be sent an ITT. This is a formal document issued by the buyer which outlines the scope of the project. It invites the supplier to submit a formal tender for the work.

It should outline how you will commit to the project delivery and often includes quality questions. These questions will ask how you carry out certain processes relating to the project at hand.

The weighting of the tender can range from 70% quality and 30% price or 80% quality and 20% price. If you are submitting a waste disposal tender for central government contracts, there is a mandatory 10% on social value. The social value is included within the quality response.

Social Value

When evaluating tender responses for government contracts, departments will use the new model to score potential suppliers. This scoring will focus on the wider, positive impact businesses will provide when delivering the contract. Organisations will be assessed on:

  • How your organisation supports COVID-19 recovery.
  • The environmental considerations your organisation takes to help fight climate change and reduce waste.
  • How you are creating new jobs or skills to tackle economic equality.
  • The equal opportunity policies you implement within your business.

If you’re still unsure about how to proceed with your waste disposal tenders – we can help!

Our team at sister company, Hudson Succeed, are experts in bid writing and have an 87% success rate. They have over 40 years of experience across multiple industries. They offer four bid writing packages catering to your every tendering need. These are:

  1. Tender Ready

The Tender Ready package is for those who are completely new to the tendering process. We have a three-stage process that can help you prepare for the process. You’ll have access to an expert Bid Consultant and a 12-month subscription to our Facilities Tenders portal.

  1. Tender Improvement

Have you been submitting your own waste disposal tenders but haven’t been seeing results? Our Tender Improvement package is for you. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous tendering responses and supporting documents. They will then provide you with recommendations and guidance on how to improve.

  1. Tender Writing

Have you come across a waste disposal tender you want to go for, but don’t know where to start? Why not send it to one of our Bid Writers? They can do everything for you, and even submit it on your behalf! They’ll provide you with a full tender writing breakdown which will let you know if they need anything from you.

  1. Tender Mentor

Our Bid Writers will take a look over a waste disposal tender you have already written as part of Tender Mentor. They will provide you with feedback, guidance and notify you of any errors before you submit.

Join Facilities Tenders

At Facilities Tenders, we source sector-specific tenders on a daily basis from thousands of buyers, across the UK.

We know you’re busy! Our goal is to save you both time and money by manually searching for new business opportunities for you. We’ll send you daily alerts when new tenders are released. You’ll have 24-hour access to our portal, and a dedicated Account Manager on hand to help.

We track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

Open Security Bids – 10 things to consider

Posted on by John Hudson

10 things to consider when applying for open security bids

There are a number of things to consider when applying for open security bids. Firstly, you might be wondering what the difference is between open and closed tendering.

  1. The difference between an open and closed tender process:

Open Tender

If a tender is open, it means that it is open to all qualified and interested bidders. If there is an open security bid, then anyone can submit a response to the invitation to tender (ITT).

Closed Tender

A closed tender is when only specific parties are invited to submit a final bid response. This could be an ITT that’s only accessible for those who have passed the pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) stage. A closed tender gives buyers greater confidence that their requirements will be satisfied. A closed tender is more likely to be put out when there are more complex, or specialist contract needs. Due to this, only a limited number of businesses can meet these.

  1. Security Industry Authority (SIA)

For any open security bid, guards will need a Security Industry Authority (SIA) licence. They would need an SIA licence relevant to the nature of the job. For example, key holding, manned guarding or door supervision. The organisation will need to be registered with the SIA as well. The SIA is the organisation responsible for regulating the private security industry in the UK. They report to the Home Secretary under the Private Security Industry Act of 2001.

There are a number of licensable activities in which SIA licencing covers:

  • Public Space Surveillance (CCTV)
  • Security Guarding (SG)
  • Key Holding (KH)
  • Close Protection (CP)
  • Door Supervision (DS)
  • Cash and Valuables in Transit (CVIT)
  • Vehicle Immobilisation (VI)

There are two types of SIA licence:

  1. A front line licence

A front-line licence is a credit card-sized plastic card that must be worn, subject to the licence conditions. It’s required for those undertaking licensable activities other than key holding. It also covers non-front-line activities.

  1. A non-front-line licence

A non-front-line licence is a letter that can also cover key holding activities. It’s required for those who supervise, manage and/or employ individuals who engage in licensable activities as long as the front-line activity is not carried out.

  1. Qualifications and Accreditations

When applying for an open security bid, you might need to attach some additional qualifications and accreditations. These could be specific for the job at hand, for example:

  • ISO 9000
  • ISO 14001
  • ISO 45001
  • CHAS
  • SMAS
  • NSI
  • NASDU
  1. Types of open security bids:

Typically, buyers in the private and public sectors put out open security bids when they’re looking for services such as:

  • Manned Guarding Security
  • Technological solutions
  • Fire Marshals
  • Dog Handling
  • Access/Egress Systems

These services may be delivered across different sectors including events, housing and education.

  1. The specification

You must read the specification. This may seem obvious but it’s crucial. You need to understand exactly what the buyer requires. You also need to make sure you can provide every single aspect of it. If they’re asking for an SIA accreditation and you don’t have one, then there’s no point in applying. You don’t want to waste time and money responding to a tender when you don’t meet the criteria.

  1. Health & Safety

Buyers want to be confident that the security services you’re providing are carried out to the highest health and safety standards. Specific health and safety questions could ask how you handle risk, conflicts and your out of hours procedure. How do you keep up to date with new guidance? How do you communicate this to your staff? You need to convey that all of these are aligned with best practice.

  1. The competition

As with any tender, you’ve got to consider your competition. You want to convince the buyer that you’re the best person for the job. Why are you the best security provider? What’s your USP? What will you do that your competitors won’t?

  1. Past examples

Buyers will always ask for previous case studies in order to establish your experience. You must select the case studies that are most relevant to the services you are bidding for. For example, you’re bidding to provide Manned Guarding services to an educational institution. For this, you should use three previous examples of providing these services to other educational institutions.

  1. Structure

Some open security bids will have a structured approach. Others can have a free-flowing proposal. Sometimes buyers can give you a structure with word counts, others can simply ask for a proposal. With free-flowing proposals it’s worth considering the following:

  • Make sure your structure is clear and coherent. Signpost each section clearly. This will make it easier to read.
  • You shouldn’t rely on assumptions. You should give specific details and examples to assure the buyer that you’ve given it thought. Ambiguity can cost you. You don’t want the buyer to assume the wrong thing, so it’s best to be clear.
  • Demonstrate your capabilities. Discuss factors that clearly indicate your competence. Prove to them you are capable of delivering what they’re asking for.

  1. The advantages of tendering for work

Many SMEs find the procurement landscape daunting. If you’re unsure of the benefits, let’s look at some advantages to tendering.

Guaranteed pay

In the public sector, suppliers can benefit from guaranteed pay once winning a contract. Public organisations are contractually bound to pay the awarded supplier. Obviously, this is one of the biggest advantages when tendering for work.

If you’re an SME and think only the big businesses can win contracts, the government has a target to help. The UK government has set a target to see £1 in £3 spent with SMEs. This is good news if you’re an SME as it means public sector businesses are actively awarding contracts to smaller businesses.

Gain experience

When applying to tenders, you must provide relevant past case studies of your work. Tendering for contracts as part of dynamic purchasing systems (DPS) or framework agreements is an effective way of building experience. Once you have some of these under your belt, you can then progress onto larger contracts.

Make Contacts

You need to make contacts in order to gain experience. Building relationships will help you gain experience and work with more buyers. This will help you in the future as you’ll be able to impress buyers with your previous experience. It’s good to have a foundation of contacts that provide opportunities for collaboration and inter-trading.

Sustainability

Securing a place on a long-term framework or contract can give your business sustainability. Here at Hudson, we’ve helped clients secure four years of income just from one win. This is surely an attractive prospect for any business owner.

Here are some past examples of open security bids we have sourced:

Manned Guarding Security Services

NHS Grampian- Scotland- Budget: Undisclosed

31-08-2020

Provision of Manned Security Services at White Cross Business Park, Lancaster and Lancashire Business Park, Leyland – RFQ 15268418

Lancashire County Council- North West- Budget: £950,000

24-11-2020

Supply of Manned Security and Keyholding Services

Sanctuary Housing Group- West Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

05-10-2020

Safer Streets: Home Security

BURNLEY BOROUGH COUNCIL- North West- Budget: £120,000

13-01-2021

GB-Barnet: Security SStoSH

Barnet Homes Ltd- London- Budget: £500,000

22-12-2020

So, you’ve found an open security bid that you’re wanting to go for. If you don’t know where to start, we can help. Our tendering experts at Hudson Succeed, are here to help your business grow. They offer four main services to help you with your open security bids. These are:

Tender Ready

A programme that’s perfect if you’re completely new to the tendering process.

Tender Writing

Our Bid Writers take care of the whole tendering process for you.

Tender Improvement

This service can help businesses who aren’t seeing successful results from their tendering efforts.

Tender Mentor

This can help you make sure your bid is the best it can possibly be. Our Bid Writers will provide feedback and guidance on a tender you’ve already written before you submit.

Find more open security bids via our sector-specific portal 

You don’t want to miss out on any opportunities for work due to mislabelled CPV codes. At Facilities Tenders, we source sector-specific opportunities via manual tracking. Our Opportunity Trackers manually search for the latest public and private sector security bid opportunities daily. They search through thousands of sources and upload them to our portal. This allows you to search for open security bids easily using filters to suit your needs. Be it budget, location or keyword.

When you sign up to Facilities Tenders, you’ll start receiving security bid opportunities straight to your inbox. You’ll have 24-hour access to our portal, and a dedicated Account Manager on hand to help. This saves you time and money, allowing you to get on with running your business.

Join Facilities Tenders

The security tenders on our portal include:

  • Events security
  • Manned guarding
  • Access control
  • Cark park attendants
  • CCTV
  • Intruder alarms
  • Out of hours security and more!

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

The Difference Between Public and Private Security Bids

Posted on by John Hudson

Three Myths Surrounding Private Security Bids

Public and private security bids are often used when companies are looking to outsource security services. They are after the expertise and experience that a dedicated security company provides. This ultimately saves them money and training costs from directly employing security personnel. Both public and private security bids can increase your business prospects, helping you to further develop a security service business.

What’s the difference between public and private sector procurement?

Public Procurement

Public procurement is conducted by not-for-profit (NFPs) organisations, also known as the public sector. It’s often affiliated with the government both local and central.

Private Procurement

Private procurement is completed within for-profit organisations (FPs). This happens within privately-owned companies who are looking to outsource their needs. This is known as the private sector.

Budget

The budgets of private and public procurements are often the biggest difference between them. Public procurement that’s driven by governments tend to have a lot less flexibility on how they spend their money. The private sector has a lot more flexibility within budgeting.

Due to this, it’s easier to procure goods and services based upon their price and competitiveness. As there is an underlying focus on procuring to increase top-line value, there’s a need for wiggle-room. At the end of the day, the private sector wants to make a profit. This means they tend to favour the most economically advantageous tenders (MEATs). The public sector also prefers MEATs. However, the private sector can choose a supplier without the regulations that the public sector is bound by.

For any private security bids, guards will need a Security Industry Authority (SIA) licence. You need to have an SIA licence relevant to the nature of the job in hand. For example, key holding, manned guarding or door supervision. The organisation will need to be registered with the SIA as well. The SIA is the organisation responsible for regulating the private security industry in the UK. They report to the Home Secretary under the Private Security Industry Act of 2001.

SIA licencing covers the following activities:

  • Manned Guarding
  • Key Holding
  • Vehicle Immobilising

The SIA doesn’t currently licence the following activities, although the Private Security Industry Act 2001 allows for:

  • Security Consultants
  • Precognition Agents
  • Private Investigation Activities

Tendering for work in the private sector

Several myths are surrounding private and public sector tendering. If you’re a small and medium enterprise (SME), these myths might put you off the tendering process. We hope we can straighten some of these out.

Myth 1 – “You have to be on the inside to get access to private sector opportunities”

It can be easy to understand why some people might think this. There can be fewer opportunities within the private sector, and they can be even harder to find. This is particularly relatable when talking about private security bids.

Luckily, our talented team at Facilities Tenders are skilled at finding both public and private sector tendering opportunities. They then upload them onto our portal, so you don’t have to trawl through thousands of sites.

Myth 2 – “There are no rules or governing principles for the private tender process”

You might think that when comparing it to public procurement. Luckily, this isn’t actually the case. Although significantly less strict than public procurement, which has strict rules and regulations, there’s still important legal principles that apply. Particularly when turning over a specific amount.

Myth 3 – “Private sector tenders don’t use structured tender processes”

This isn’t strictly true. Like public procurement, private tenders can use basic ITT formats, RFTs, RFPs or similar. However, there’s one big difference. Even if the contract is worth more than the EU threshold, you’re not lawfully required to fill out a PQQ. You may be asked to fill out a simplified form concerning your basic company information. But it’s highly unlikely to be as detailed as the requirements for public procurement.

The disadvantages of private procurement

Despite these myths, there can be some disadvantages to private procurement. The private sector is not bound by the same rules and regulations that the public sector is. As mentioned above, they can choose a supplier without having to implement a fair process such as PQQs.

There is another disadvantage of private procurement that’s worth thinking about if going for private security bids. This is a matter of payment. There aren’t as many regulations around payment as the public sector, like the prompt payment code.

These points are worth thinking about when going for a private security bid. There are obvious advantages when going for public security bids instead, such as more opportunities. However, if you’re concerned about how to complete a private security bid, don’t worry. It could be a fairly simple process. But if you have any qualms, we can help.

Here at Hudson, we have over 40 years’ experience across a variety of industries and an 87% success rate. Our Bid Writing Team can help you! Whether this is your first-time tendering, or if you simply need someone to take a look at your bid response. We have four packages to suit your needs:

Join Facilities Tenders

At Facilities Tenders, we source sector-specific tenders on a daily basis from thousands of buyers, across the UK.

We know you’re busy! Our goal is to save you both time and money by manually searching for new business opportunities for you. We’ll send you daily alerts when new tenders are released. You’ll have 24-hour access to our portal, and a dedicated Account Manager on hand to help.

We track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

A subscription with Facilities Tenders can offer you:

  • A team of opportunity trackers sourcing public and private security bids from 1000s of sites.
  • A dedicated account manager on-hand to answer any questions or queries you may have about the process.
  • No reliance on CPV codes or algorithms. Our team manually upload each tender, making sure that you have access to all public and private security bids.
  • The ability to filter bid opportunities by keyword, budget, location and more.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free consultancy every month with our bid experts.

Janitorial Cleaning Bids: 7 Things to Consider

Posted on by John Hudson

7 Tips for Winning Janitorial Cleaning Bids

Janitorial cleaning bids can cover a range of services across a range of buildings, homes, and public facilities. At Facilities Tenders we source tenders for public and private sector janitorial work, including:

  • Government and public service bids, i.e. cleaning public sector care homes.
  • Commercial bids, i.e. cleaning museums.
  • Outdoor bids, i.e. gutter cleaning.
  • Transport bids, i.e. bus washing services.
  • Education bids, i.e. school cleaning.
  • Energy and utility bids, i.e. supplying gas and power.
  • Construction bids, i.e. deep cleaning of a company’s units/vans.
  • Industrial bids, i.e. cleaning power station facilities.

See a service your company provides? Great. If not, this is just a small selection of available opportunities for cleaning services – we source hundreds! Book a free live demo to view which live tenders are currently available near you.

Why should you tender for janitorial cleaning work?

Tendering isn’t just for large companies – solo service providers and small to medium enterprise (SMEs) can benefit too! Our bid writing division, Hudson Succeed, have worked closely with a range of cleaning businesses to win janitorial cleaning bids. There’s potential for huge business growth through tendering, and there are always contracts out there to bid for. The Opportunity Trackers at our tender tracking branch, Facilities Tenders, source new public sector janitorial opportunities every day!

Here are 7 things to consider before – and during – a janitorial cleaning bid!

  1. Research the industry.

What are the implications for the cleaning industry after a year like 2020? Firstly – cleaning service providers deserve national praise for the exceptionally important role they’ve played throughout the pandemic in 2020! Many cleaning and hygiene key workers have been on the frontline, fighting the virus, throughout the year. In 2020, cleanliness is more crucial than ever. Delia Cannings, representative of the Association of Healthcare Cleaning Professionals (AHCP) said:

Cleaning operatives in the healthcare sector played a key role during the pandemic and have done an incredible job. Many have gone above and beyond, working longer hours, taking on extra responsibilities and adopting new standards and practices to prevent COVID-19 contamination.

Has demand changed in the industry?

There’s no doubt it’s been a trying time for the industry. Service providers have been forced to react and adapt. Lauren Kyle, representing the Business Services Association (BSA), discussed the shift in demand for cleaning bids in the cleaning industry:

Our members operate in a wide range of sectors, some of which – such as sports and leisure, transport, and retail – have seen a downturn, while others – such as schools, and hospitals – have seen heightened demand for cleaning and disinfection. 

In light of shifting trends, can your cleaning service adapt to meet new demands? For instance, can you seek experience in a healthcare setting to strengthen your case studies when tendering for in-demand services? Are you qualified to provide janitorial cleaning work in schools?

Using a sector-specific tendering portal which allows for keyword filtering will help you find relevant work, quickly and easily. We’ve seen a surge in public sector work on our Facilities Tender portal recently. There is always a steady stream of janitorial cleaning opportunities, particularly for schools and healthcare. Get in touch for more information on our portal and start finding live tenders available near you!

  1. Prepare your documentation.

Janitorial cleaning bids can be tricky. There are some things you should consider in advance to make sure you’re not wasting your time. Ensure your company is prepared to tender. For instance, a few areas of documentation worth considering before you even begin tendering are:

  • Accreditations.

Do you have the relevant accreditations for janitorial cleaning bids? Tender specifications will often require that your company has a specific set of accreditations. There are also government requirements you must comply with for trading, including relevant insurance. You should prepare your company for tendering by ensuring you comply with all the requirements for your sector. This may include:

    • A detailed health and safety manual
    • Public liability insurance
    • Professional indemnity insurance
    • Employers’ liability insurance.

  • Turnover.

Is your turnover good enough for the job? Buyers may set a turnover threshold in the specification to ensure your company is capable of taking on a job. This is particularly likely for large contracts. As a general rule, we never advise bidding for a contract that is more than half your annual turnover. For example, if you turn over £100k, we advise bidding for tenders with a maximum budget of £50k.

  • You may need to attach your most recent audited/unaudited accounts as proof of turnover. This is usually required early on in the process of a tender, i.e. the PQQor SQ. It should therefore be made clear whether your company’s turnover meets the threshold early on. This is always worth double-checking before going any further and wasting time with a tender.

  • Corporate literature.

Does your business have the relevant corporate literature, ready to submit in a tender response? Is it well-designed and easy to read?

At Hudson, we can fully prepare you for tendering. We’ll create high-quality and company-branded content for you through our Tender Ready service. We’ll first create a checklist to determine what is needed to succeed with any janitorial cleaning bids. Then, we’ll work in collaboration with your team to produce detailed, precise, and concise documents, ready to tender!

  1. Showcase your past experience.

Another area you should ensure you’re prepared for when tendering for janitorial cleaning bids is demonstrable past experience. Do you have past experience in similar jobs that will prove you’re the best candidate? Are you certain this experience is relevant? How many previous contract examples does the specification request? Make sure you fit the bill here.

If you do have the credentials, you’ll need to provide evidence to back-up each claim. This will often be done through case studies. Our free Tender VLE masterclass walks you through how to set out your case studies effectively in a tender response.

Usually, it can be expected that you’ll to be asked to provide at least three relevant case studies. This applies to each service you provide. Make sure you describe and evaluate your experience in a way that that demonstrates why you’re the most qualified provider. Keep the information as relevant and fitted to the bid as you can! There’s no room for any irrelevant information on a past job, even if the overall experience itself is relevant. Every word counts!

  1. Consider the scope of work – fully!

The scope of work is an important element of any bid. Janitorial cleaning bids, especially, have a lot of elements to consider. You will need to consider every aspect of the job to accurately generate a price and timescale. You should read and digest the full tender specification and supporting documents before you begin your tender response. To ensure the job is worth tendering for, you must be confident you’re the best service provider for the job!

Read carefully. You don’t want to miss an important element of the tender that disqualifies you. Neither should you ignore any aspects of the tender that may be out of reach for your services.

For example, the buyer might require cleaning services for 100+ schools across multiple counties. Are you certain you have the workforce and resources to deliver a job of this scope? And if so, do you have the experience to back this up and prove yourself on paper? Always be realistic and responsible in your tender responses. Only bid for work you know you have a solid chance of winning.

Some things you may need to query for a janitorial cleaning bid, for instance, include:

  • What equipment and supplies are required?
  • The number of staff members required to complete the work.
  • How large is the facility in square feet?
  • How many separate rooms require cleaning?
  • What kind of flooring is in each room?

Ask for as much information as possible on the building or facilities which are to be cleaned. Is something not specified in the tender, such as floor type? If you feel this would be helpful in judging the scope of work, ask for clarification!

  1. Visit the site, whenever possible.

Can you arrange a site visit with the buyer where you can visit the facility and assess it first-hand? If so – great! You’ll be in a much better bidding position. Site visits can be a very useful tool while tendering for janitorial cleaning bids.

As we’ve just mentioned, the more information you have before bidding, the better. Physically seeing the floor types, for instance, gives you a clearer view of the scope of the work. There’s only so much you can envisage from the black and white words of a tender specification. In a site visit, you can physically assess all parts of the building(s) where the job will take place. In doing so, you may want to consider:

  • Size of the rooms
  • Fixtures
  • Surface materials
  • Item counts, i.e. How many dining tables? How many toilet facilities?

A first-hand assessment of the site allows you to create a much more meaningful proposal. You can note the difficulty levels of different areas and better prepare for how the job will unfold, for instance. This helps you to finetune your timescale and workforce, to be as accurate as possible.

Remember to follow all necessary safety precautions during site visits, such as wearing a mask and maintaining social distancing.

  1. Price your bid accurately.

At its heart, the tendering process is designed to help buyers find the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT). While the process offers suppliers a fair chance of winning, your pricing will always be compared to your competitors. Pricing is always an important aspect of a bid.

Check the weighting of how your bid will be evaluated in the award criteria of the tender specification. The bulk of the weighting will often be split between cost and quality. For example, janitorial cleaning may be assessed by 60% price and 40% quality, or vice versa. Some bids may even be based 100% on price.

Regardless of its weighting, you should always calculate your price accurately and competitively.

Consider the direct costs of the work (i.e. wages, supplies, equipment) and quote a price that allows you to make a profit. There are two don’ts to remember here:

  • Don’t overcharge to boost your profits, or you’ll end up wasting time on a tender that you’ll inevitably lose. The tendering process can be very time-consuming. Always aim for the lowest price you can, whilst still making a profit.
  • Don’t undercharge either. Slashing your prices dramatically may seem like a good way to become the MEAT, if you’re bidding for experience. However, this will likely scupper your chances. If your price is dramatically lower than the other bidders (who have all quoted similar prices), this will look odd. Buyers will become suspicious of particularly low prices and assume foul play, or incurred costs later down the line.

  1. Ensure your writing is precise, concise and high quality.

There’s a lot to consider in janitorial cleaning bids. However, you should never skimp on the quality of the writing and presentation of a bid. The proof is in the prose! A well-written, precise and easy to read proposal can be essential to the success of a bid.

Don’t worry if you don’t have natural writing prowess. Our bid writers at Hudson Succeed can provide you with a range of tender support. Our experts have an 87% success rate and are experienced with janitorial cleaning bids. Through our Tender Writing service, our Bid Writers will:

  • Write your tender response;
  • Answer any clarification questions you may have;
  • Advise on supporting documents and attach them;
  • Submit the final bid on your behalf.

One cleaning service provider we saw success with is APM Cleaning. We worked closely with them to secure work on multiple lots on a framework agreement. They provided the following feedback on our services:

The Hudson Team were very reactive in their ways of working and handled all communications very effectively and efficiently. This partnership is credit to the recent win for the Prosper DPS for Facilities Management, which we were successful on all LOTs applied. We would recommend Hudson to any company who require bid support of any kind!  

– Samantha Reid, Director, APM Cleaning.

Our bid writers also produce successful bids across a range of sectors, helping clients see results such as:

  • Securing £200million over a 5year period
  • Increasing the organisation’s turnover by 20% from one bid submission
  • Securing 4-years of sustainable income
  • Winning a contract for £350k on their first bid
  • A guaranteed £6million of income, over four years.

Find more results on our testimonials page. Call or email us for a free quote.

Conclusion.

Tendering for janitorial cleaning bids is an excellent way to grow your business. The best way to see success is to ensure you are well-prepared and well-supported for the tendering process! We offer a range of support to carry you through, from finding the tender to becoming the successful bidder.

Join Facilities Tenders.

At Facilities Tenders, we source sector-specific tenders on a daily basis from thousands of buyers, across the UK. We know you’re busy! Our goal is to save you both time and money by manually searching for new business opportunities for you. We’ll send you daily alerts when tenders are released for services in your sector. You’ll have 24-hour access to our portal, and a dedicated Account Manager on hand to help.

We track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Below are some previous janitorial cleaning tenders sourced on our portal:

Cleaning & Janitorial Services 2020

ITSLIGO- International- Budget: Undisclosed

06-03-2020

Cleaning and Janitorial Materials and Washroom Services

National Procurement Service (Welsh Government)- Wales- Budget: £12,000,000

22-01-2020

Cleaning and Janitorial Supplies

North Western Universities Purchasing Consortium Limited- North West- Budget: £12,000,000

20-12-2019

GB-Leicester: COVID 19 Related PPE and Janitorial

University of Leicester- East Midlands- Budget: £100,000

31-07-2020

Provision of Cleaning and Janitorial Services at the British High Commission Islamabad & British Deputy High Commissions at Karachi and Lahore

Foreign & Commonwealth Office- London- Budget: Undisclosed

13-07-2020

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

We’ve Rebranded!

Posted on by John Hudson

Our parent company, Hudson, is going through a complete rebrand and so here at Facilities Tenders, we have a new look too!

We have also recently changed our name from Utilities Tenders to Facilities Tenders. Don’t worry! We are still sourcing fantastic business opportunities for the Facilities Management, Security and Cleaning industries. Get in touch to book your free live demo today.

You can check out our new logos and colour palette below:

facilities tenders logo   facilities tenders logo on white background

cleaning contracts image   cleaning tenders image- Facilities tenders

We hope you like it, we know we do!

 

Get in touch to get a part of the action and win various national contracts, with a value range from £500 to £1.4bn.

The sub-sectors we track Facilities Management Tenders for include:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

£780M INVESTMENT ANNOUNCED FOR EAST COAST TRANSPORTATION

Posted on by John Hudson

North East cash injection announced!

The North East will be “better connected than ever” Prime Minister Theresa May announced earlier this week. The plans to upgrade East Coast transportation will require investment in the region of £780 million with the aim of increasing both capacity and travel speed.

So, what does this mean for us and the wider procurement industry?

Improved connectivity means that more effective business partnerships will be formed, and a gap between traders, buyers and suppliers in the North and South might thus be bridged. This will offer both buyers and suppliers the chance to inter-trade nationally by establishing contracts with parties based outside of their immediate region. In our tendering and procurement endeavours, we have noted this to be a common concern for potential suppliers.

This investment comes as part of a region-wide goal to build a more prosperous future for the North East. The Prime Minister said, “We have set out major policies and investments as part of our Modern Industrial Strategy to unlock the potential in the North”.

The tendering process will become more accessible as the volume of feasible opportunities increases due to more efficient transport systems. Internally, we will be able to provide more contact support to our clients based in South East regions of the UK.

Facilities Management Contract

In light of these North East cash injection announcements, a £180 million drive for cutting edge research into renewable energy has also been revealed, due to take place in the North East. Don’t miss out on these new contracts. Use our Research Tenders or Facilities Tenders portal to access these opportunities as soon as they are published!

Get in touch to get a part of the action and win various national contracts, with a value range from £500 to £1.4bn.

At Facilities Tenders, we track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

Our Tender Consultants are looking forward to utilising the improved transport services to deliver connect business relationships with our clients. We offer a range of Bid Writing and Management services, dedicated to your business growth efforts.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES – SEGMENTED!

Posted on by John Hudson

Professional Services – Segmented!

We are drilling down into our portals to ensure that you only see 100% relevant new business opportunities on our platforms.

The market spoke, and we listened. Professional Tenders is being broken down into four sector-specific portals. These new sites will be as follows;

But it gets even better! We are further specifying these sectors into keywords, most frequently used within these industries and most especially used in tender notices for these sectors.

Research Tenders will be categorised as;

  • Market Research
  • Academic Research
  • Insight
  • Feasibility Study
  • Qualitative
  • Quantitative
  • User Testing
  • Telephone Surveys
  • Workshops/Focus groups
  • Employee Research

‘The research industry is thriving in the UK. Due to the popularity of our opportunity tracking service, we are utilising keywords used commonly in procurement and segmenting Research Tenders into its own platform. We believe that this will benefit our customers and reduce the time needed when searching for suitable tenders’ said Growth Director, Jill Hudson.

Consultancy opportunities would previously have been found by searching for various keywords on our Professional Services portal and sifting through the various results that may not have been categorised the same way that you refer to your business in-house.

In order to rectify this, Consultancy Tenders will contain the following keywords;

  • Management Consultancy
  • Strategy
  • Evaluation
  • Operational Effectiveness
  • Project Management
  • Training
  • Telemarketing
  • Change Management
  • Apprenticeships
  • Business Support

‘Consultancy is a vast sector, there are too many variants to have the whole industry integrated into one platform that shares customers from all the professional sectors. Our clients will greatly benefit from the modified portals as we break down these complex sectors’ Said Daniel Hall, Content and Procurement Manager.

Currently a customer with Professional Tenders?

Not to worry, we will be in contact with all of our current customers to further explain these changes. But to clarify, these adjustments only serve to provide a more tailored experience for our portal clients, there will be no inconvenient changes made to the sites and no extra costs will be incurred, we are simply improving the tools to benefit your professional services. If you would like to discuss anything mentioned in this article please get in touch HERE!

Get in touch to get a part of the action and win various national Facilities Management contracts, with a value range from £500 to £1.4bn.

The sub-sectors we track Facilities Management Tenders for include:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

WE’RE HERE TO HELP YOU DISCOVER!

Need help putting a tender you have sourced into action? Our Tender Consultants are here to assist!

Facilities Management Tendering Doesn’t Need To Be Complicated!

Posted on by John Hudson

Facilities Management Tendering doesn’t need to be complicated

We’ll repeat … Facilities Management Tendering – DOES NOT NEED TO BE COMPLICATED!

There are many factors to why people assume tendering is overly-complicated. This is usually down to the amount of time it takes to complete and how mundane the process is. Yes – there may be 5000 pages of specification but hey … who doesn’t love a bit of light reading!

The three things you MUST possess when tendering is PERSISTENCE, PLANNING & POSITIVITY!

Let’s get past the moaning and downtrodden attitude to how ‘complicated’ tendering is and break the process down to show how easy it actually is!

In order to de-complicate the situation – let’s look at a few things that are deemed complicated when tendering. This includes:

1. Terminology – Facilities Management Tendering

The number of abbreviations flying around is becoming increasingly common in the procurement world. Terms like RFQs, ITTs, PQQs, DPS, and RFPs seems like they are only used to confuse us into a state of literary decline. Let’s simplify:

PQQ Pre-qualification questionnaire – this is usually a stage-1 questionnaire asking about specific company details like insurance and similar contracts you’ve worked on etc., along with simple ‘yes and no’ questions making sure you’re not fraudulent and you pay your taxes etc.
ITT Invitation to Tender – we can sometimes forget out the PQQ and jump straight into an ITT, which is usually where your quality and costing ratio comes in. This is where you price the job at hand and answer several technical questions about your ability to undergo the work in accordance with usually detailed specification/scopes of work.
RFP Request for Proposal – very similar to an ITT where cost and quality are assessed however RFPs are used in situations where the client either can’t – or doesn’t want to – define the scope of work up front to an adequate level of detail, meaning you need to be very descriptive and state a clear proposal to what’s needed.
RFQ Request for Quotation – The RFQ is a lot like the Tender, however typically smaller in size and scope. They’re often more geared towards clients who are seeking pricing information for a defined scope of work or supply of materials or equipment. Detailed proposals are typically less often sought here.
Framework A Framework Agreement is an agreement between one or more businesses or organisations. If you enter into a framework agreement, usually you will be one of many suppliers contractually bound to deliver against buyer requirements.
DPS Dynamic Purchasing System – A DPS is similar to an electronic framework agreement, with two exceptions, new suppliers can join at any time and it is to be run as a completely electronic process. DPS is used exclusively by public sector organisations and can be considered as a ‘competitive supply chain’, where all chosen supply chain members regularly compete for work via ITTs and RFQs.

2. Opportunities

These are extremely broad with hundreds upon hundreds of opportunities released daily! Customers tend to wish to have one main platform to source the most relevant opportunities to grow their business. Wouldn’t that be great? Currently, opportunities are typically shared through typically problematic electronic algorithms across multiple platforms, either showing you irrelevant opportunities or no opportunities at all.

Keeping it simple – sign up with our industry-specific portals via Hudson Discover to receive daily opportunities, sourced from the hundreds of UK tender portals. These are manually searched and published on a daily basis by a team of procurement-based staff, not computers. We are the first company to do this and the feedback we have is out of this world

3. Portals

There are thousands of online platforms, websites and communication systems that are evident across UK procurement. Some portals are outdated, complex and an all-around pain to navigate. Our team have used them all! Just make sure you know your key focus areas and process-knowledge for each website – these are working your way around:

  • Downloading all tender information;
  • Asking/monitoring clarification questions from other suppliers/the buyer;
  • Submitting the tender;

Every website should have a ‘help’ section – don’t be afraid to use it and/or contact the people who run it.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was one platform for everything? For every industry? For every buyer? WATCH THIS SPACE– we are working with national professionals to work on a user-friendly, affordable and globally accessible platform to condense UK procurement in a one-stop-shop fashion.

4. Writing

Not everyone can write in an engaging, concise and straightforward manner. It’s easy telling people what you do, but to put that on paper in a professional way, covering set criteria, is a major hassle for a lot of business developers. Don’t get stressed with it. Just remember 3 key focus areas when writing a response to any question:

  • WHAT: what you have done or what you are going to do?
  • HOW: how you have done this (methodology) or how you are going to do it?
  • EVIDENCE: hard-hitting proof that you have done it before- experience/ evidence is key!

We offer Bid Writing services, using our procurement experts with over 25 combined years’ experience of writing tenders. Check us out – Tender Consultants.

5. Losing

What is the point of spending all this time on a bid for it to lose and you to go back hating the process, hating the tender and subsequently hating life itself! Don’t fret – USE THE FEEDBACK! If you didn’t win the work because you lack ISO accreditations (for e.g.)– you know what to do! As part of our provision at Tender Consultants, we have a tender readiness programme that you can use to make sure you maintain a good chance of securing key pieces of work.
All procurement-based processes that most people find difficult/complicated are exactly that because of the lack of understanding of key tender-management processes. We will be launching a FREE training environment (Tender VLE) in May 2018, which focuses on everything tender and procurement based, including profound topics that will completely eradicate the notion that tendering and procurement is complicated.

Get in touch to get a part of the action and win various national contracts, with a value range from £500 to £1.4bn.

Below are previous facilities management tenders sourced on our portal:

013-1120T Framework for the Provision of Facilities Management Service

Agri-EPI Centre- Scotland- Budget: Undisclosed

CA8113 – Invitation to Tender Computer Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) system

MSE Group- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

The Provision of Facilities Management Services

London Energy Limited- London- Budget: £7,000,000

Facilities Management Prior Information Notice

Efficiency East Midland Limited- East Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

Facilities Management Services– Oman

The British Council- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Join Facilities Tenders

We track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

THE £12BN CLEAN UP

Posted on by John Hudson

THE £12BN CLEAN UP – Commercial Cleaning Contracts

This is the moment a lot of cleaning companies have been waiting for! A large Commercial Cleaning Contract.

The government has announced ‘a £12bn tender for cleaning and maintenance services at schools, hospitals and in other public buildings’.

The folks at Cleaning Matters has stated that the ‘move comes in the wake of Carillion’s collapse’ and will also help support the 2020 SME initiative, where 1 in 3 pounds will be spent with Small, Medium Enterprises.

Due to the recent Carillion crash, this has led to one of the biggest Facilities Management frameworks we’ve seen in a long while.

‘There are concerns that managing so many different suppliers would be a nightmare for the civil service, who have struggled to oversee outsourced work in the past’.

independent aspects of Commercial cleaning contract management

One thing that will undoubtedly be asked via tenders is the independent aspects of contract management. We advise all cleaning companies to get ahead, act fast and ask themselves to why they should be chosen and what makes them stand out in such a competitive market?

This will make sure you have the functions readily available to put across in your tender submissions.

If you need extra help, we offer a Tender Mentor service where we can guide and review your tender submissions for as little as £295+VAT.

Get in touch to get a part of the action and win various national contracts, with a value range from £500 to £1.4bn.

Below are some cleaning tenders previously sourced on our Facilities Tenders portal:

Cleaning Tender – Bolder Academy – New School Site – Isleworth

Bolder Academy- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Cleaning Tender, Bishop Stopford School, Kettering

Bishop Stopford School- South East- Budget: £100,000

Cleaning and Caretaking Services Framework for Schools and Corporate Properties

Gloucestershire County Council- South West- Budget: £17,040,341

Derby Cathedral School Cleaning

Derby Cathedral School- East Midlands- Budget: £725,000

For the Provision of Cleaning Services at Myddelton House

Lee Valley Regional Park Authority- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Join Facilities Tenders

We track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!