Description

Whether your organisation is seeking better prices or services from its suppliers, or contracting out and outsourcing areas of activity, effective tender/RFP preparation is a way of assessing what a competitive marketplace can offer. Effective tendering techniques are now being employed by organisations as a way of ensuring that they are contracting with the suppliers that have the best prices and levels of service.

Key Learning Outcomes

• Reduce the effort, time and costs involved in preparing and evaluating supplier proposals
• Understand how to write and advertise a tender/RFP
• Learn how to prepare tenders/RFPs that solicit better and more competitive bids
• Analyse best practices for filtering and rejecting proposals 
• Develop an elimination and ranking criteria within your organisation, for suppliers
• Grasp techniques for actively managing and measuring supplier performance
• Incorporate effective proposal evaluation models and criteria
• Define performance terms to guarantee effective delivery and minimise costs
• Improve the services provided by your suppliers through effective negotiation skills

Who should attend?

• Procurement Professionals
• Purchasing Professionals
• Supply Chain Managers
• Operations Managers
• Project Managers
• Logistics Managers
• Production Managers
• Contract Managers
• Finance Managers
• Internal/External Auditors
• Heads of Department
• Facilities Managers

COURSE OUTLINE

Introduction to procurement

• The big picture of procurement
• Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
• Best Practice

Developing your sourcing strategy

• Examining the tender/RFP process as a concept and its significance and place in the procurement and project management process
• Defining your objectives, scope and boundaries
• Examining the relationship framework
• Can this process itself be outsourced?
• How to prepare budgets and identify purchasing authorities
• Planning and staffing requirements for procurement projects
• How to reduce effort, time and costs
• Analysis of the reasons why tenders/ RFPs can fail to deliver

Understanding the professional tender/RFP process

• Exploring the various stages of the purchasing process:
• Quotations
• RFPs
• Expressions of interest
• Requests for information
• How to use the RFI conference and/or briefings
• RFP closure process
• How to assign the right staff and professionals
• Techniques for goods/services analysis

Writing and advertising the tender/RFP

• Writing the proposal and specifications to attract high quality bids
• How prescriptive should your specifications be?
• The role of performance based specifications
• How to apply TCO
• Ensuring the design of your contract captures all of your objectives and expectations
• Tailoring your contract to guarantee the terms and outcomes meet your needs
• Incorporating performance measures into your contract
• The pre-qualification process - when to use it

Examining the sign-off and approval process

• Analysis of the role of the sponsor and user group in the tender/RFP process
• How to develop your business case before the approval meeting
• What techniques are available for streamlining the approval process?
• Successful techniques for how to plan and staff the evaluation team
• How to be objective and fair when assessing tenders/RFPs

Developing effective evaluation models for the tender/RFP process

• What are the most effective evaluation methodologies available?
• Effective techniques for filtering tenders/RFPs to reduce effort while increasing effectiveness
• Best practice techniques for documenting evaluation models

Best practice procedures for rejecting proposals

• How to rank and shortlist tenders/RFPs
• Designing benchmark criteria to evaluate expressions of interest and bids
• Establishing a review panel: Who should be involved?
• How to assess minimum conformity to process when evaluating tenders/RFPs
• Effectively assessing negotiable contractual arrangements
• Recognising the signs of minimum compliance
• What is tolerable risk and how do you assess it?
• How do you assess costs?

Evaluating your suppliers: Developing key measures for a total cost and value approach

• What are the roles and responsibilities of a procurement manager in the supplier relationship?
• Creating a supplier development plan
• What are the key phases of supplier management?
• Analysis of the practical tools available for effective supplier management
• Developing tools and techniques that can be applied to any supplier relationship
• How can you measure supplier performance?
• The future of supplier relationships in the electronic age
• Assessing the value of moving to a partnership agreement
• How to move towards a total cost value partnership

Managing the legal issues in the process

• The growing demand for performance- based contracts
• Determining the rewards/penalties to encourage contractor performance
• What do you do when it all falls apart?
• The remedies available for breach of contract including damages, specific performance and injunctions
• Examining the risk factors for the claimant
• Termination of the agreement

Post tender/RFP activities: Negotiating and awarding the contract

• Methodologies for responding to client queries
• Advising the successful applicant
• Obligations regarding tender/RFP rejection
• The legal pitfalls
• Post tender/RFP negotiations
• RFP tags
• Letters of intent