Winning bid support for global security enterprise
Background
This customer is a British multinational private company headquartered in London and is a world leader in providing security solutions to governments, businesses, and individuals in over 90 countries.
The Challenge
We were engaged to streamline and optimise the bid management process for a tender related to the provision of offender tagging services. This involved managing two distinct lots: one focused on the provision of tags, and the other on the management of the service. The competitive dialogue process spanned ten months and each lot had six rounds of dialogue meetings and two separate submissions.
The process involved many challenges:
Competitive Dialogue Process: The tender process involved a competitive dialogue, demanding a strategic approach to navigate discussions and negotiations effectively, ensuring good team communication, capturing of dialogue and actions, and translation into an overall solution.
Comprehensive Responses: The customer needed to submit comprehensive responses for each lot, involving detailed information about the product and service, technical specifications for their own and others’ products, and full legal and financial submissions. This was across 3 stages of SQ, PITN and FITN over 10 months.
Volume of Responses: Managing and responding to 16 questions for each of the two lots across an SQ, PITN and FITN within a limited timeframe demanded precision, coordination, and a systematic approach.
Ongoing workload: The tender required both full and part time commitment from team members at various points, balancing ongoing product development, deployment and servicing of existing and new contracts, and the bidding and implementation of other tenders on a global scale.
Meticulous
Creative
Winning
Bids
The Solution
We conducted an initial assessment, collaborating closely to understand specific requirements, intricacies of the lots, and expectations. Our bid specialist was embedded in the client offices for the duration of the bid.
The engagement included the following key stages:
Competitive Dialogue Management
We actively participated in the competitive dialogue process, working closely with the customer team to develop a strategic approach. This involved identifying key negotiation points, aligning responses with client expectations, development and production of key materials, capturing dialogue and actions from meetings, and evolving the solution and tender responses based on a cohesive dialogue throughout the process.
Submission of SQ
We managed the submission of the Selection Questionnaire (SQ), ensuring that all required information was accurately and comprehensively provided. This included additional new product collateral that required writing. A new model of bidding was implemented to ensure full compliance with the bid requirements, which laid the foundation for a robust bid response.
Response Development
We undertook the complex task of answer planning with Subject Matter Experts, writing, editing, and coordinating a peer review process for up to 16 responses for each lot. This involved working collaboratively with subject matter experts at G4S to extract detailed technical information and presenting it in a clear, compelling, and compliant manner, limited by page count.
Graphics Production
To enhance the visual appeal and clarity of the responses, we produced a full suite of graphics. This included infographics, charts, and diagrams designed to convey complex information concisely and effectively.
Our bid experts demonstrated expertise in writing, editing, and reviewing responses, presenting technical information in a manner that was both accessible and compelling. In particular, editing was paramount to comply with rigorous page constraints.
The bids were delivered on time, and in full, including graphic design of the document, along with hundreds of supporting documents.
The Result
Sales Engine’s comprehensive bid management services was pivotal in the success in the offender tagging tender submissions and resulted in a successful bid outcome worth millions of pounds.
By expertly managing the competitive dialogue, ensuring a comprehensive SQ submission, and meticulously writing, editing, and reviewing 16 responses for each lot, plus developing a full suite of graphics demonstrated a creative, innovative and experienced approach to bid submissions, underpinned by our commitment to excellence.
