Table of Contents

Introduction by Robert Brown, TD Manager 1

Winner of iPad 2 revealed! 1

Point of view by Tim Williams, TD Managing Director 2-3

Tenders Direct Customer Survey Results 4-8

Training Update 9

elcome to the first of our new Tenders Direct customer quarterly newsletters.

For this first newsletter I would like to give you some feedback from our Tenders Direct

customer satisfaction survey. I would like to thank all of the 679 customers that took part in the

survey as this kind of feedback is invaluable in identifying which aspects of our service our

customers value the most, and will enable us to improve on the high level of service we already

offer.

Although overall customer satisfaction levels were shown to be very high, we strive to

continuously improve the service. In response to some of your excellent suggestions, we have

already implemented changes to the members area of our website to improve usability. The

survey confirmed our belief that customers place greatest value on both the quantity and

relevancy of the tenders they receive. With Tenders Direct providing more tender notices than

ever before and with a dedicated Tender Review Team that manually read through and check

every tender notice, we believe we can continue to meet and exceed customer expectations.

Robert Brown Tenders Direct Manager

“As one of the UKs leading Solid Wall Insulation installers

within the UK we have grown very quickly through

Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) and going

forward into the Green Deal we have made the transition

into Main Contractor Green Refurbishment.

We have spent months of research looking at potential

sources of information on public contracts, of which there

are many. In our opinion there is no comparison in terms

of the quality of information available with respect to the

cost of service.

Tenders Direct is very user friendly and by far is the most

comprehensive, yet simple to use, tender service on the

internet.

Rather than searching through a whole host of tenders a

quick search can be used to target our key terms such as

insulation, solid wall, external wall, retrofit, cladding etc.

We also receive email alert notices, in which contracts

including our key terms are sent straight to our inbox.”

“Tenders Direct adds considerable value to Lawtech’s operations and

assists with our aspirations to become a leading green retrofit

contractor within the UK.”

David Lawrence

Managing Director

1

The winner of iPad 2 announced - David Lawrence - Lawtech Ltd

2

The Treaty of the European Union absolutely forbids protectionism, so if we’re going to be

part of the European market then we need to follow the rules, which after all are designed to

benefit us all. This doesn’t mean that the UK will benefit in every transaction, but overall we

will gain a (significant) benefit. So, as a result the public sector cannot ring fence contracts for

local, or British companies and the same applies equally elsewhere in Europe. Besides it’s

generally acknowledged that protectionism will lead to a decrease in competitiveness over a

relatively short timescale, so it’s likely to be disadvantageous anyway.

In recent months there have been some high profile failures, for example, the award of the

Thameslink train contract to German based Siemens, rather than the Derby based, but

Canadian owned, Bombardier. The steel for the new Forth Bridge is being supplied by Spain,

Poland and China, rather than Scotland or at least the UK. Both of these contracts have caused

the politicians to take a fresh look at how the contracts are awarded and in both cases they

have decided that they could have been structured in a way that would have provided a

greater economic benefit to the UK, either because the contracts would have been awarded

to an indigenous company, or that the supply chain would consist of local firms.

Our European neighbours approach things

rather differently, for example, in France there

is an obligation to break large contracts down

into smaller lots, which, quite legitimately,

increases the chances of French companies

winning the work.

“The procurement regulations allow

the inclusion of social and

environmental criteria many of

which are likely to favour local

suppliers.”

Could the UK do more to favour British companies over foreign competition? By Tim Williams, Managing Director

3

All too often the local economic impact just isn’t

taken into account when the structure of a

public contract is being determined. What we do

need is to intelligently support a variety of

strategic measures that support our domestic

suppliers. The procurement regulations allow

the inclusion of social and environmental criteria

many of which are likely to favour local

suppliers. For example, if a new hospital is being

built in the north of England and the successful

contractor is required to provide

apprenticeships, or training for the long term

The new buzz phrase for this approach is ‘Community Benefit Clauses.’ The problem is that

while many procurement officers are supportive of these aims, they do not understand how

to incorporate them into their own requirements.

So what can we as individual suppliers to the public sector do to influence the

development of this approach. If you are in direct contact with procurement staff, local or

national politicians then obviously you can raise the issue directly with them. For most of

us though, the best approach is probably to persuade your Chamber of Commerce, the

Federation of Small Business, the Forum of Private Business, etc., to lobby for this on your

behalf. After all we don’t want Johnny Foreigner winning all our contracts do we?

unemployed then it is almost certain that the local population will take up these places and

also a UK company is more likely to win the contract.

Tim Williams

Managing Director

Did you like this

article?

Visit our Tenders Direct Blog

http://blog.tendersdirect.co.uk/

Tenders Direct Customer Survey Results!

“I would like to

thank all of the 679

customers that took

part in the survey as

this kind of feedback

is invaluable...” Robert Brown

5

We asked our customers about their tendering activity and where their interests lay the most in

relation to high value (OJEU = over £150K) and low value (below £150K) public sector

opportunities for the UK and the rest of Europe.

“Tendering Activity”

“How can Tenders Direct provide you with more assistance to win new business?”

Rowlands Pharmacy “I have found Tenders Direct to be a great site. Easy to navigate,

understand and staff have been very helpful. The training course I attended was

very useful as well. We always get through the PQQ stage and we have only

been looking at this for under a year. We have submitted four bids recently and

are awaiting results.”

AEG Power Solutions

“Provide clarification of supply change

for tenders as we bid to prime contractor not to

end client”

VoiceAbility

“Just keep doing what you are doing

now!”

Payzone

“Provision of more courses.”

Thermo Fisher

“Only send the notification to me

and not my competitors!!!”

Gateway Computing Limited

“We use the Tenders Direct service purely

to search on suitable tenders which is all we really

need it for and I consider it the best one to use”

Crescendo Systems Ltd

“Continue to provide notifications as

you currently do”

This part of the survey provided an opportunity for customers to respond in their own words and

perception. We received over 236 responses; here are some we have picked for you:

6

“Which aspects of our service do you value the most?”

“Which features of the members’ area of the website do you find particularly useful?”

This section of the survey focused on the Communications Methods of the service and how our

customers use the system.

Over 90% use the search/manage tenders feature, over 60% use the Tender Alert Profile. We have

noticed an increasing use of the Contract Award Notices feature (33%) of our service. You can use

this information as a market monitoring tool and also to identify possible sub-contracting

opportunities. To find out more, please visit the Tenders Direct website or give your account

manager a call.

“Will you recommend Tenders Direct to others?”

“Based on your current satisfaction level, how likely are you to renew?”

7

Meditec Medical

“Efficient Customer Service. Whenever I have

had to ring always respond well”

Green Park Interim & Executive Search

“It makes us money...and it's easy”

Architects Design Group

“It is the only website I look at on a daily basis

and like the format the information is presented in”

University of Derby Corporate

“Because they search all sites and therefore

are a one stop shop”

Q Despatch (West) Ltd

“We have found it to be a successful route

for tender notifications leading to us winning

significant contracts.”

Audit North West

“For the above reasons - it's that peace of

mind that I won't miss any tender opportunities”

Applied Medical Technology Ltd

“It does what it says on the tin!!!”

AST Ambulance Service Ltd

“Because it’s the best out there in terms of

functionality and value for money.”

8

“What encouraged you to subscribe to Tenders Direct?”

“Which additional services are most important to you?”

9

Last year over 182 people attended one of our courses and all with positive feedback. As the

above statistic shows this continues to be a popular route for people to learn practical skills and

tips when completing essential documents. We constantly develop these products to be up to

date and also make them as practical as we can. We keep the numbers low to encourage

participation from everyone and routinely have two trainers, a procurement specialist and a tender

writing expert.

We have now developed capacity to extend these services to include some of the elements

featured above. Our approach is to work in partnership with you, developing systems and

coaching you and your team to develop your capacity to win business for the future. This can be a

mixture of one or more of the services below:

Our new bid critiquing service can be carried out

during a live tender or retrospectively as a learning

exercise, particularly if an unsuccessful result was

achieved giving you valuable and supportive feedback.

Our tender writing consultancy will work with you to

ensure that you have all the elements required to bid,

the bid management process is managed and advice

and assistance can be given on how to create a

compelling bid.

In addition, in house training can be carried out to

support the above consultancy services. You will see

lots more about these new services in the future, but in

the meantime don’t hesitate to contact us on 0844 561

0675

Prime Cleaning Services Limited

“Feedback on why we might not get through

a PQQ would be good”

Conduit Consult

“Keep doing what you do best and add

support through the process”

Blue Chip Customer Engineering

“More Options for Training and also how to

select the correct criteria”