When Should I Challenge the Procurement Process?

Like it or not, the new Public Contracts Regulations 2015 are going to make a big difference to how you bid for Public Sector contracts. Sixfold is all about how to finesse the Public Sector procurement to create a competitive edge. We have often focused on how the fundamental principles – equal treatment, proportionality and transparency – can be used as a tool to your advantage.

Sixfold has been called in to help a large company resolve a strange issue with the evaluation of its multi-million pound tender. The company had been told that it had come second and, in accordance with the procurement requirements, it was sent the scores both it and the winning bidder had been allocated.

It’s a delicate decision to challenge a lost bid decision and possibly alienate yourself as a “troublemaker”. Should you acquiesce or fight for what’s right for everyone?

I don’t think that there is an easy answer to this. However, I think that often, bid teams get their answer wrong, back off a justifiable challenge and potentially lose business that should have been theirs.

Lessons learned from some years of working in the world of Public Sector procurement After what seems a lifetime in either selling into the Public Sector or advising Public Sector clients on how to get the best from their procurement activities, I thought I had seen it all.  But now and then, something else happens…

Here you are, striving away day after day dealing with a relentless stream of complex and demanding bids.  There have been countless evenings and nights when you have been working alone in the office to meet a bid deadline.  And then, when you have had company, it was because it was “all hands to the…