Posts Tagged ‘Tenders Direct’
Posted by Gemma Waring on February 13, 2017
It’s Valentine’s Day. That time of year when people pay attention to the special connections they have in life and take a bit of time to celebrate them. Or maybe you are still looking for some special connections? Still searching for that one relationship with long term potential, stability and plenty of money…
Of course, here we’re talking about your business connections – specifically your connections with public sector buyers and tendering. With contract life spans of three years plus, 30 day payment terms and a high chance of you retaining a contract once you’ve won it once – what’s not to love? Read the rest of this entry »
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in suppliers, Tender Tips | Tagged: business opportunity, Millstrea Associates public sector tenders, New business opportunities, procurement, Public procurement, public sector, publishing tenders, suppliers, tenders, Tenders Direct | Leave a Comment »
Posted by David Law on June 10, 2016
The Public Sector is providing more and more contracts for Construction sector suppliers. Although times were tough for the industry following the recession, things have rebounded and opportunities have never looked better for suppliers and contractors working with the Public Sector. The future looks brighter still with this sector having a projected average growth of 2.6% from 2015-18.
Certain sub-sectors of construction have had significant increases over the past year. A 12% increase in road related tenders, 8% increase in new build tenders, 25% increase in architecture/design team tenders and the biggest increase is in the renewable energy sector (areas like solar power, wind power and geothermal) of around 35%.
With the High Speed 2 project, floods defence work, major road schemes across the UK, along with affordable housing and other projects it’s no surprise that things have rebounded in this sector.
Millstream has created an infographic on this to highlight the key facts and you can view this here: Construction Infographic
More than 4,000 private sector companies use Tenders Direct to find new business opportunities, of those over 950 are construction businesses, accounting for around 22% of the customer base. Tenders Direct work with thousands of public sector organisations in the UK, Ireland and Norway to publicise their contracts, allowing direct access to contracts that many are unaware of. The dedicated research team solely identify contracts and include them within the Tenders Direct database – many of these are smaller contracts that would not be published by the Official Journal (OJEU) or on any other central resource.
The Tenders Direct team, also manually categorise all tenders to ensure that only highly relevant opportunities are provided and therefore personalised to individual preferences and areas of specialism and are sent to subscribers every day.
To find out how Millstream can help you find opportunities in public sector construction, call 0800 270 0249 or visit www.millstream.eu
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in Construction Tenders, General Procurement, Tender Tips, Uncategorized | Tagged: business opportunity, construction, procurement, Public contracts, public sector, suppliers, tendering, tenders, Tenders Direct | Leave a Comment »
Posted by John Cutt on November 3, 2015
Alone with his thoughts in the dank cellar below the House of Lords, Guy Fawkes imagined the display of pageantry that would occur above him when King James I arrived later that day for the State Opening of Parliament. This war veteran from Yorkshire, however, had a very different spectacle in mind: the detonation of 36 barrels of gunpowder directly beneath the King’s feet. With James dead, Fawkes and his fellow conspirators hoped to instigate a popular uprising and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. He just had to remain undiscovered for a few more hours…
A noise… his heart skipped a beat. Footsteps!
It’s fascinating to think that the actions of a few individuals in the distant past can continue to influence our lives centuries later. In his moments of introspection in the cellar, Guy Fawkes probably didn’t imagine that his effigy would be burned as part of a widely recognised annual cultural event over four hundred years after his death; he surely wouldn’t have had the remotest idea that an extensive publicly funded supply chain would be required to make it happen!
Read the rest of this entry »
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in General Procurement, Uncategorized | Tagged: Public contracts, public sector, tendering, tenders, Tenders Direct | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Gemma Waring on May 27, 2015
A lot of potential suppliers to the public sector are put off by the amount of work it takes to become tender ready and what seems to be a chicken and egg situation where you need references to pass the PQQ (selection) stage but can’t get references until you win a contract!
The changes to the procurement regulations this year have made in roads to this situation with the abolition of PQQs for below threshold contracts and the removal of the burden of proof for above threshold contracts but there are a number of steps SMEs (and all organisations new to public sector tendering) can take to get a foot in the door and start supplying to the public sector. Read the rest of this entry »
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in Tender Tips | Tagged: New business opportunities, PQQ, Public contracts, public sector, SME, tendering, Tenders Direct, Winning Tenders | 3 Comments »
Posted by Gemma Waring on March 5, 2015
Following on from our recent blog regarding the changes to the PQQ stage in the new 2015 Procurement Regulations we are going to look at what has changed at the ITT stage and what suppliers need to be aware of when tendering to the public sector.
The most important changes to the ITT stage for suppliers are:
1) There is now greater clarity regarding the rules on social and environmental aspects being taken into account in tenders meaning that:
- social aspects can now also be taken into account in certain circumstances (in addition to environmental aspects which have previously been allowed);
- contracting authorities can require certification/labels or other equivalent evidence of social/environmental characteristics, further facilitating procurement of contracts with social/environmental objectives;
- contracting authorities can refer to factors directly linked to the production process.
The caveat to this is that any factors taken into account must be reasonably achievable for all suppliers so as not to favour larger companies or specific methodologies. We would encourage suppliers to keep a check on your key buyers to see what policies they have in these areas and how they are likely to implement these new rules. For example do they have a big drive on apprenticeships or carbon emissions you could support them on? In general it would be a good idea to start gathering data, case studies and evidence of your company’s positive social and environmental impacts to use in your responses going forward as the level of detail asked for in these questions is only going to increase.
2) Full life-cycle costing can be taken into account when awarding contracts; this could encourage more sustainable and/or better value procurement which will hopefully save money for tax payers in the long term. Read the rest of this entry »
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: bid, Public Procurement directives, suppliers, tender, tendering, tenders, Tenders Direct | 2 Comments »
Posted by Alastair Caithness on July 15, 2013
Public sector tendering opportunities are a valuable way to secure new business, with hundreds of local contracts published every week in every sector, from healthcare and IT to construction and transport.
Many local authorities, NHS trusts and government departments now handle procurement electronically to save money and time as well as ensuring compliance with the latest regulations.
It is therefore vital for businesses to ensure they do not miss out on any potential opportunities in their own local area, throughout the UK or mainland Europe, according to Tim Williams, managing director of electronic tendering specialist Millstream, which runs the Tenders Direct and myTenders websites.
Tim Williams, MD at Millstream Associates
“The days of the printed version of the Official Journal of European Union are long gone and there is no effective way to keep track of all the opportunities without using an online system, particularly in today’s fast-paced world of business,” said Tim, whose company recently won a contract to run the national procurement portal for the Welsh Government.
“Procurement processes will all be conducted entirely online in the near future and the Government’s target is for procurement to be completely electronic by 2016, so it’s vital that companies make sure they don’t miss anything.
“We aim to make it as easy as possible for purchasers in the public sector to advertise their tenders and to help small and medium sized companies to identify new business opportunities and crucially, to give them the best chance of winning that work.”
Tenders Direct was established by Tim in 1992, to make it easy for subscribers to find information on public contracts.
Read the rest of this entry »
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in General Procurement | Tagged: eProcurement, procurement, Tenders Direct | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Hailey Thomson on February 10, 2011
When I was working in customer services for Tenders Direct I was always getting asked about the loophole that is Part B Services. Whispers of a tender due to come out any day now, companies waiting patiently and BANG, before they know it, the Tender has been awarded to John Doe Ltd down the road. How does this happen, where was the tender published and why do some tenders disappear into a black hole of EU Laws?!
Read the rest of this entry »
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in General Procurement, Procurement Law, Tender Tips | Tagged: Contract Award, Exclusions, low value tenders, Part B Services, procurement, Tenders Direct | 1 Comment »
Posted by Jill Watson on October 11, 2010
Hands up who has heard of the Contract Award Notice (shortened to CAN for those with a particular love for procurement and tendering jargon like us)?
If you have heard of it, then you will know that the CAN is the official notification which must be published in OJEU by the contracting authority AFTER the contract has been awarded. It details the name of the winning bidder, duration of the contract and the value (if the authority has played ball and included that).
When you receive your tender alert emails, remember to look at the document type in the top left hand corner first to check what kind of notification you are dealing with. You don’t want to go asking the authority for contract documents for an opportunity which has already been awarded! The different notice types are automatically organised into separate folders on Tenders Direct to avoid any confusion.
Whether you have or haven’t heard of the CAN, you might be wondering at this point how it can be of any relevance to you unless it has your name down as the winning bidder!?
Well don’t dismiss the CAN straight away as it does have its uses.
Read the rest of this entry »
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in Tender Tips | Tagged: Contract Award Notice, Duration of contract, New business opportunities, OJEU, Public contracts, tenders, Tenders Direct | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Neil Thompson on March 31, 2010
Recommendations first outlined in the Glover Report to help small businesses identify contract opportunities are now coming to fruition.
The Glover Report – Accelerating the SME Economic Engine states…
“Tendering opportunities thought especially suitable for SMEs or consortia of SMEs should be flagged by the procurer during the advertising process.”
Although this idea has been around for a while, the OGC have recently published a paper entitled Small supplier big opportunity, Flagging your contracts to SMEs which follows on from the Glover Report’s recommendations and outlines the procedure to be adopted by purchasers in highlighting suitable opportunities for SMEs.
Read the rest of this entry »
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in General Procurement | Tagged: business opportunity, Glover Report, Office of Government Commerce, OGC, procurement, Procurement Best Practice, Public contracts, suppliers, tender, Tenders Direct | 1 Comment »
Posted by Hailey Thomson on January 26, 2010
Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don’t think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without talking about the other.
Bill Gates
Today’s technology is high-speed and merciless; if you miss even one of the latest trends, you’ve practically fallen off the face of the earth. As purchasers move more and more into eProcurement and eTendering, are the suppliers, particularly SME’s feeling left behind?
Do not let eTendering pass you by! Keep reading and have a quick look at my checklist to help you with future eTenders… MORE
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in Tender Tips | Tagged: eProcurement, eTendering, eTenders, Future of Procurement, procurement, Public contracts, public sector, tender, Tenders Direct | Leave a Comment »
Cindy Cheng
David Law
Duncan Dallas
Gemma Waring
John Cutt
Kim Postlethwaite
Nelson Poon
Line Olsen
