The term tender is an invitation to bid for a project. Tendering is the process whereby governments and financial institutions invite bids for large projects that must be submitted within a finite deadline.
Tendering is not restricted to big companies - SMEs account for more than 99.9% of the business population and the government has committed to spending a third of its procurement budget with them.
Most governments and financial institutions have a well-defined process for projects or procurements. There are specific processes in place to govern the opening, evaluation, and final selection of the vendors. This is to ensure that the selection process is fair and transparent.
When projects are publicly funded, or there are simply large sums at stake, organisations need to get the best value-for-money for tax payers or stakeholders, and demonstrate they have not awarded contracts unfairly.
One good thing about tendering is you don’t need a raft of business contacts to win work – an online search will give you a good idea of the options available.
The UK government runs a Contracts Finder service for any current or future public sector contract worth more than £10,000. You can search for the latest opportunities based on your industry, location, value and even whether it is suitable for SMEs.
Alongside Contracts Finder, the government website suggests other routes, including Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) for work in the EU, the Digital Marketplace for digital services providers and the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI). It’s also a good idea to contact your local council to find out how you become an approved supplier and look for notices in relevant industry publications.
Council and local authority information on tenders
Here are the weblinks for the relevant tender pages across this area:
- Tender for a contract | Nottinghamshire County Council
- Procurement - Nottingham City Council
- Procurement - Derbyshire County Council
- Tenders and contracts - Derby City Council
- Find tenders and contracts - Ashfield District Council
- Contract opportunities | Procurement in Bassetlaw | Bassetlaw District Council
- Procurement & Contract Opportunities (broxtowe.gov.uk)
- Procurement and tendering process - Gedling Borough Council
- Procurement and selling to the council – Mansfield District Council
- Tendering for Council contracts | Newark & Sherwood District Council (newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk)
- Procurement - Rushcliffe Borough Council
Here are more useful weblinks that might provide more options to you:
- East Midlands Procurement Portal - Home (eastmidstenders.org)
- Proactis Contracts register (due-north.com)
- Contracts Finder - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
- bidstats - UK Public Sector Contracts
- In-tend Education Portal Tendering Site - Tenders - Current (in-tendhost.co.uk)
- Tenders UK | Current Tenders (tenders-uk.com)
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