A mixture of home grown expertise and the use of tried and tested processes has helped a Newcastle bid writing company get on the right tracks by assisting one of their clients to win a lucrative contract on the London Underground.
Based in its new Hoults Yard offices, Executive Compass prepares bids and pre-qualification questionnaires (PQQs) for clients ranging from owner-managed businesses to multi-national companies.
Their latest success came when a London based, medium sized company with a turnover of circa £70 million needed assistance to make their tender submission as strong as possible. The £600,000 contract was to provide refurbishment works for a station on the London Underground.
Over a short, three-week period, the team at Executive Compass provided expert bid management, bid writing, planning and a design service ensuring that both the content and presentation of the submission was as professional as possible giving their client the best possible chance of clinching the contract.
Much of Executive Compass’s success has been credited to the fact that they employ permanent members of staff rather than contractors, This helps to ensure a consistent, high standard of work every time. The firm also employs a well-used bid management process to plan and manage the tender document from start to finish. Their process ensures that bid writers have access to all the relevant information that they need to complete the bid together with easy access to supporting documentation and certifications to minimise delays in submission. The firm prides itself on its relationship with its clients as Matthew Walker who worked on the bid explains:
“ We like to get to know our clients business and how they operate. It’s essential that we use every bit of positive information we can in the process. In this case, the client had no intranet or bid management software in place allowing us to use or own procedures to great effect. Secondly, they had no existing experience of bidding for large contracts. We were able to guide them down the right track too and give them the benefit of our expertise and experience.”
As well as holding bid writing workshops, the team helped to prepare a construction phase health and safety plan, Microsoft Project Plan, a Mobilisation Plan, Business Continuity Plan, various policies, 42 pages of narrative response, design and branding for the project.
“Our workshops were held with key members of our client’s management team helping us to gain vital knowledge and information which was then included within the final submission making it as strong as possible. The workshops also allowed us to train all of their appropriate staff fully in efficient bid writing and management techniques so that the tender showed the capabilities of the company in the best possible light. We are delighted that they saw the light at the end of the tunnel thanks to our work.”
Executive Compass’s client went on to win another three similar contracts with their help.