Managing the tender chaos

A few thoughts on some practical advice to tenderers when tendering for eg NEC3 ECC projects:

·         Carefully read the Works Information (WI). Anything ambiguous or inconsistent should be queried – the sensible tenderer surely has a better chance of beating the gamblers with a level playing field using a high quality, clear, objective and coherent WI as the basis? (Advice to clients – for goodness sake get the WI right in the first place or at least act upon queries raised by tenderers).

·         Think about variants where you have a great innovative idea but make sure you submit a compliant bid as well.

·         Look at the quality of the Site Information, is it sufficient for tendering purposes?

·         Think carefully about health & safety, the CDM pre-construction information, your programme/cost allowances for these.

·         Know how to fill in Contract Data part two, get some training, don’t ring up the NEC Users’ group helpline asking what the heck is the subcontracted fee percentage for a bid due in 1 hour (it has been known!).

·         Make sure you know how Contract Data part one works.

·         In fact, make sure the client provided documents are sufficient/clear/objective then set about compiling an excellent offer, possibly with variants, for the right price etc.

Otherwise, and not surprisingly, chaos = chaos = chaos!