TENDER PANEL OUTCOMES

The first panel session in the 2007 Ballarat ICT Cluster Panel Series was facilitated by Prof Julian Lowe, Director and Dr Patrice Braun of the Centre for Regional Innovation and Competitiveness (CRIC) at the University of Ballarat. It was held between on 8 May 2007 at the Conference Room, Greenhill Enterprise Centre on the University of Ballarat Technology Park. A total of 24 people participated.

Discussion summary

Panel tips for prepared convincing tenders to win business from both private and public sector organisations included:

• Research the types of tender opportunities that are of interest to your organisation.
  • Determine in advance the niche areas you will focus on as opportunities arise.
• Prepare in advance
  • Have information on organisational capacity, track record, experience, quality assurance etc prepared and compliance requirements (for example OHS Policy, Environment Policy etc) in place.
  • Have relationships formed - invest time in building strategic alliances with other firms - a four week response period will never be long enough to find and build relationships to bring in additional skills sets “ you need to put the groundwork in and then aim to win work in very specific areas.
  • Have your 'tentacles' out - often it is through direct engagement with organisations or through networking that you find out about things.
  • Seek to build trust relationship - social interaction, small projects - so you are invited to respond when larger projects come up.
• Research the opportunity
  • Read all documentation that is supplied
  • Invest time in researching the organisation and the opportunity
  • Consider whether your organisation has the capacity to go it alone or whether you need to partner with others
  • Prepare questions and telephone the contact person to clarify what they are looking for.
  • Seek assistance - i.e. Ask if anyone else in the cluster has worked with the organisation before. Find out about their experience and learning.
  • Identify what you need to do to ensure your response will be a complying response
• Prepare your response
  • Define your solution
  • Be realistic in describing your ability and capability
  • Respond in the same order as outlined in the tender brief
  • Answer the questions that are asked
  • Be professional in presentation.
  • Comply with any format requirements (i.e. size limits, etc)
  • Be aware that decision makers may not be topic or systems experts - be careful with use of acronyms and jargon.
  • Don't go out on a limb - focus on what the organisation is looking for right now - not all the 'cool stuff' you might be able to achieve in the future.
  • Cost will not be the only driver - Understand that large organisations will want to assess the level of risk associated with awarding a tender.
  • Get someone else to review your response -A number of attendees indicated that they would be prepared to read through and provide feedback on draft documents.
• Presentation
  • If you get an opportunity to present - be well prepared, professional and tailor any presentation to the specific opportunity - don't use too many slides.
  • If you are collaborating with other organisations make sure you have discussed how you will approach presentation.
• Have to lose some to win some
  • If you are focused in your approach the work you have done and the learning obtained can be brought forward - It will be easier next time to mobilise around a similar opportunity.
  • Even if you are unsuccessful it is likely that you have promoted greater awareness of your capabilities.
  • Utilise the debrief opportunities as a way of identifying how you can improve your next tender response.

There was discussion about how firms within the Ballarat ICT Cluster might work together to win more business. A critical first step was to be able to easily identify the talent and capabilities that exist within Ballarat ICT sector.

• Ballarat ICT Directory has been launch and attendees were encouraged to ensure that their organisation is listed - Once we have a critical mass of information we may be able to look at developing a Capability Statement for the Cluster.
• There was mixed responses to the suggestion that someone could be appointed to coordinate business attraction via the Ballarat ICT Cluster. Some participants were in favour of a 'focal point'. Some felt that agile, organic relationships between SMEs and others better support collaborative bids.
• Others highlighted that what is often missing is the knowledge of the support services that SMEs can link into
  • Specialist expertise - e.g someone who can reviewing contract provisions
  • Business development support - so that firms become more proactive in documenting their capabilities, track record, quality assurance systems, compliance matters etc.
  • Report writing and editorial assistance to ensure that submitted responses are professionally presented.
  • Assistance in putting budget information together
  • Scheduling including preparation of charts etc.
• Businesses would be prepared to pay to access services of this nature.

Moving forward:

• Relationships are everything - we need to invest in the Ballarat ICT Cluster by regularly attending networking events.
• More knowledge is needed - we need to keep building on individual and collected knowledge of the Ballarat ICT Cluster capabilities.
• Networking is critical - we need to attend events like the Panel Sessions, the BITs Breakfast, the ICT Expo etc and also events which bring ICT firms together with other sectors and industries.
• Tendering is just another skill that businesses who are serious need to invest in.
• Participants agreed to exchange profile information as an outcome of the Panel Session.

Feedback on event

Participants in the Business Growth through Successful Tendering panel event were invited to provide feedback via an online evaluation survey. Excerpts from the evaluation feedback are included below.

What did you like most about this event?

• Surprisingly good turnout
• Networking
• Getting to know others and networking
• Ability to meet other ICT people from the park
• The realisation by most that we all need to network more
• The frankness of all speakers to convey their message to everyone. The panel gave direct answers to questions that spelt out what is needed.
• Opportunity to understand others experience of tendering to corporates/government. Chance to meet new businesses. Insights into the way tenders are processed.
• Understanding the frustrations and various thoughts from SME's on the tendering process.
• I sat quietly and listened, as at this point I had nothing to contribute, but I had a need to soak in things I didn't know. As a spectator I was amazed at how many 'C' words were used during the discussion (more than 40), cost, costly, costings, cooperation, cohesive, competent, competition, collaboration, communication, clever, close, core competencies, contact, contacts etc etc

What was least useful about this event?

• Nil
• N/A
• I think we got bogged down on the tender process
• Discussion on a tender facilitator
• One person seemed to dominate the floor and was well managed ¦
• An expectation that the cluster is going to walk business in the door for the individuals, without them doing anything - ongoing frustration within regions sector
• Not long enough to go through the detail
• Went a bit late
• One of the cleverest responses that went almost unnoticed was when someone said that when ICT [firms] tender they are effectively doing a 'retail sales' pitch. As a retailer I know that one of the first things to do is build rapport, listen more than speak, identify the need, address the need, offer options, educate and inform, then Close the sale and eliminate any possibility of cognitive dissonance (buyer remorse) ¦ ICT [firms do] not have to re-invent the wheel, but rather learn from other industries how to do core competency 'selling' in a user friendly (i.e. customer/tenderer) manner ¦

What would you suggest to improve future events?

• More information on the content of the event / agenda, it wasn't what I expected, not sure if that was just me or if anyone else thought this as well
• A more specific agenda and some pre-defined deliverables from the session if that is what is expected.
• Pre-Reading on what that specific meeting is about. A 'skills audit/profile' on the panel members, developing a skills audit (in this case a competency/interest/speciality/product differentiator) for each person who attends each meeting
• Maybe more success stories (if there are any...) and any examples of successful team models.
• Bring stakeholders from other sectors to the functions, eg Manufacturing or Food Processing, Banks, Local Govt so the ICT sector can interact with others outside sector.
• Need drinks for 30 mins after to loosen up the discussion a bit more
• Maybe produce and distribute a set of minutes after each event so attendees are clear on what was agreed, actions to be taken and who is doing what by when etc.
• Start a bit earlier, more action points and specific details....to be reported back to attendees so they feel something is being done

Are there any other comments you would like to make?

• Venue is good, panel was good
• Keep rolling
• Keep persisting. I think the worst thing you could do is stop trying
• Please keep letting me come along, I am trying to learn, and to contribute positively.
• The session covered what tendering was, but it didn't seem clear the all attendees had the same position on why they should respond to tenders
• Need to encourage repeat visitation to events and also look to identify ways of prompting networking. Make everybody swap cards with everyone else in the room. Maybe we do start events with brief introduction and card distribution time