2020 - the year that for many of us felt like the longest ever because of COVID-19 that hit the whole world by storm. The global economy has been massively shaken and remains unstable.
The impact of the pandemic has dominated news headlines and agendas across every industry all over the world. All levels of Government and the private sector continue to exert their best efforts to formulate business continuity plans aimed at combating the disruptions it caused — and the tendering world is no exception.
Here, we take a look back at the impacts of COVID-19 on the tendering world. Was it good or bad? Or a combination of both? Let’s find out.
Social distancing and lockdowns
Amid all the chaos, procurement is a frequent topic that keeps coming up. Although pandemic response strategies varied markedly across different countries, here in Australia, the focus right from the early days was to flatten the curve through social distancing and lockdowns.
Naturally, this made sustaining the health of many businesses incredibly difficult. But the Government continued to run, and in the tender world, tenders continued to be published, albeit with some adjustments that bidders needed to take into account.
Some of those adjustments included:
The absence of site visits - instead, bidders were invited to online virtual meetings
A requirement for COVID-safe plans to be submitted as part of the bid
A requirement for business continuity plans to be submitted with the bid
Impact on projects
Like many other industries, large construction, development, and infrastructure projects in Australia have been impacted. This sector greatly contributes to the economy and employment, but COVID-19 in Australia introduced severe implications for the entire supply chain.
Tender issuers had to reconsider the risk of proceeding with their proposed projects as some may not be suitable due to the ongoing uncertainties.
Tender evaluation criteria were often adjusted, with an increased focus on things such as:
Reassessing the financial capability of the party submitting the tender.
Labour availability, including key personnel and replacements.
The supply chain proposal
The project program proposal
Tenders were put on hold
In the service sector, we’ve seen a number of tenders put on hold because of the Coronavirus or COVID-19. Even some that were already published and were close to the closing deadline. Here at TenderWise, we’ve also worked on tenders that were put on hold after the submission deadline had passed and it was already lodged.
It’s incredibly tough on small businesses who are tendering for work — they already put in the hours to develop their response (or paid a consultancy like TenderWise to do it for them) with no prospect of imminent reward for their efforts.
A need for a more customised approach
The battle to win new contracts can be tough now more than ever amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Tender submissions require a relevant but customised approach, coupled with demonstrated flexibility to cope with the uncertainties in the market.
Responses need to showcase the experience and skills of the business while at the same time establishing that the tendering business meets all of the tender requirements. If this global event caused any repercussions, there would be significant delays in the process, but people have found a workaround.
Businesses are adapting
Businesses have learned to adapt and change the way they do things. Everyone has accepted that the COVID-19 pandemic will be with us for some time to come, and we’ve all been forced to be innovative and think outside the box.
Here’s some good news. The number of tenders published daily doesn’t seem to have slowed down. If anything, the number appears to have increased, so there are plenty of opportunities out there just waiting for businesses to respond, especially this new year.
If you need a hand with a tender, I’m here to help. I’ve worked with hundreds of small businesses to develop tender responses, and you can read what my clients have to say about me here.
A chat costs you nothing, so if you’d like to talk about your tender response strategy, just give me (Pauline) a call at 0400 514 579, fill up the form here, or better yet, email the tender documents to me at pauline@tenderwise.com.au so I can read through before we chat.
Let’s all look forward to a better 2021!