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3 Things to Expect from Public Affairs Tenders

Public affairs tenders explained

Winning public affairs tenders can be a great way to grow your business. They can help secure a pipeline of work for your business and guarantee pay (depending on the sector). Businesses will issue public affairs tenders in order to procure public affairs services.

If you’ve never submitted a response for public affairs tenders before, you may be wondering how to begin. Or, if you aren’t seeing success from your current tendering effort you may be looking to improve. Luckily for you, we can help. This blog will explain how public affairs tenders work and what to look out for.

3 things to expect from public affair tenders

  1. Proof of experience

Buyers will often expect to you have a bank of experience of past successful contracts. Often, they will require 2 – 3 case studies within the last 3 – 5 years. These case studies must be similar in scope and complexity to the contract you’re applying for. They should demonstrate your capabilities to work on the proposed contract.

Depending on the word count, you should include how you overcame and challenges on these projects. This will strengthen your response demonstrating your problem-solving skills and flexibility. Some buyers may require you to detail the contact information of previous clients. So, it’s best not to over exaggerate on the example as you might be caught out.

  1. Added value

A winning bid for public affairs tenders will include how they will bring added value to the contract. Buyers want to get the most value for their money. Therefore, you will need to demonstrate how you will add value.

If you’re tendering in the public sector, this is referred to as social value. There is now a mandatory weighting of 10% on social value for public sector contracts. Here you must detail the environmental, social and economic aspects while fulfilling the contract. You should consider how your business will:

  • Support COVID-19 recovery
  • Encourage economic growth
  • Tackle climate change
  • Create new jobs and skills
  1. Framework agreements

Public affairs tenders may be a part of a wider framework agreement. A framework agreement is a multi-supplier agreement typically used within the public sector to procure a good or service. Securing a place on a framework can be a lucrative opportunity for your business. They can run for years at a time with the possibility of extension.

Framework agreements are often split into lots, with each lot representing a specific good, product or service. They can also be split into geographical locations. They allow suppliers to apply for specific lots they specialise in. Public affairs services can often be found as part of a wider agreement for other creative services. For example:

Lot 1 – Public Affairs Services

Lot 2 – Public Relations

Lot 3 – Digital Design Services

Lot 4 – Events Services

So, now you have a bit more of an idea of what to expect from public affairs tenders. You want to be clear and concise in your response. Make sure you adhere to the formatting guidelines in the specification and answer every question. You should be persuasive in your response and demonstrate why you’re the best business over your competitors.

Need assistance writing your next public affairs tenders?

You don’t always have the time or resources to write a winning response in house. Outsourcing to bid writing experts can help. Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, offer four levels of bid writing support. They boast an 87% success rate and have over 60 years of bid writing experience. The services on offer include:

Where can I find public affairs tenders for my business?

Running your own business takes up a lot of your time. The last thing you want to be doing is trawling hundreds of websites searching for public affairs tenders. Most websites post multi-industry opportunities and filtering them with CPV codes can produce unreliable results. Luckily for you, we have a solution.

Enter…Creative Tenders

Creative Tenders is an easy-to-navigate, centralise portal hosting live creative tender opportunities from across the UK.

Below are previous public affairs tenders sourced on our portal:

Public Affairs Consultancy

Stonewater Limited – East Midlands- Budget: £132,000

Provision of Public Affairs & Public Relations

St James’s Hospital- Republic of Ireland- Budget: £300,000

Contract for the Provision of Communications Support Services including Media Relations, Public Relations & Public Affairs

Health and Safety Authority- International- Budget: Undisclosed

Communications, Campaigns and Public Affairs Framework

Leeds City Council- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

AC/2020/09 – Public Relations, Public Affairs and Media Relations

Arts Council- Ireland- Budget: Undisclosed

A subscription to Creative Tenders offers your business:

  • Access to all exclusive, private and public sector opportunities within the creative industry.
  • A dedicated Account Manager on hand to answer any questions you may have about public affairs tenders. They can help you understand the procurement process in general.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free bid management consultancy each month.

WE SOURCE OPPORTUNITIES FOR SECTORS INCLUDING;

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see what creative contracts in the UK can help grow your business. 

WANT TO SAVE EVEN MORE TIME?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to optimise your tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for video and film tenders.

THE ULTIMATE TIME SAVER PACKAGE OFFERS YOUR BUSINESS:

  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Creative and Technology, for example.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid.
  • Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable creative tendering opportunities.

THE BECOME A PRE-BID MASTER PACKAGE ALSO INCLUDES:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

 

 

What is Required for a Video and Film Tender?

Video and film tenders explained

If you’re in the creative industry, you may be wondering what’s required for a video or film tender. Tendering is a viable business stem to consider going down if you’re wanting to grow your business. However, the world of tendering and procurement can be a confusing one.

Luckily for you, we’re experts in tendering and bid writing. This blog will contain some useful information on what’s required for a video or film tender and what to expect.

A split between quality, cost and social value

The evaluation score of your video or film tender will be noted in the tender documents. Often, this will be split between three things:

  • Quality

The quality section of a video or film tender will often be weighted higher than the cost. The quality section of the tender is where you can respond to their requirements and questions. You need to persuade the buyer why you’re the best business for the job. What are your unique selling points? Here, you want to demonstrate your capabilities and detail how you will exceed delivering the contract.

  • Cost

You want to ensure that you keep your pricing competitive. However, you don’t want to undercut your competitors by too much. This could be a red flag to buyers if you price your services too low. What’s more, is that you don’t want to promise you can do the job then go over budget. The buyer won’t be best pleased, as I’m sure you can imagine!

  • Social value

Social value is a compulsory component when tendering in the public sector. There is a minimum weighting of 10%, but sometimes it can be as high as 30%. This means it is not something to gloss over. The promises you make within the social value section (and your tender response in general) are contractually binding. This means you should be making promises you can keep.

Your social value response should have a focus on the social, environmental, and economic aspects of the contract. It’s always worth doing some research on the buyer. This will enable you to align your social value promises to theirs.

Skills and Experience

Often the specification will detail the skills and experience expected. This could include, but is not limited to, the following:

  • Experience turning complex information into engaging and memorable video content
  • Experience in conducting filmed interviews
  • Knowledge and experience of audio, lighting and filming techniques
  • Skilled in Illustrator, Photoshop, Adobe CC etc
  • Experience in animated video content
  • Knowledge of live streaming on sites such as YouTube and Facebook

The specifics related to the video or film tender you are applying for will be detailed in that specification. Each buyer will be requiring something different, so it’s important to read the tender documents thoroughly.

Be expected to give a presentation

Once you have passed the initial tender stage (stage 1), you will likely be asked to do a presentation. Here, it is often expected for you to provide a showreel of your previous work. This will be marked in accordance with an interview. The interviewers will then score the presentation and add this to the interview score. This will then be combined for a total score for the stage 2 evaluation.

Need assistance when writing your next video or film tender?

You don’t always have the time or resources to write a winning response in house. Outsourcing to bid writing experts can help. Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, offer four levels of bid writing support. They boast an 87% success rate and have over 60 years of bid writing experience. The services on offer include:

Where can I find video and film tenders?

Finding the right tender for your business can take time. You already have enough on your plate. Luckily for you, we have a time-saving tool that can help you find the right tender for your business.

Creative Tenders is an easy-to-navigate, centralised portal hosting live tendering opportunities from across the UK. There’s no reliance on inaccurate CPV codes!

Our Opportunity Trackers manually search and upload private and public sector opportunities. You’re able to filter the results by keyword, budget, location and more! This streamlines the process when searching for video or film tenders.

Below are previous video and film tenders sourced on our portal:

GB-London: BTA1402 – Broadcast Agency

British Tourist Authority- London- Budget: £50,000

KS3 English – Video brief April 2021

BBC Bitesize- London- Budget: £90,000

The Good Business Festival – Videographers

Liverpool City Council- North West- Budget: Undisclosed

BBC Sport: Younger Audiences Short Form Commissioning Briefs April 2021 16 – 24 Year Olds

BBC Sport- North West- Budget: Undisclosed

Creation of unique works based on film and sound interviews

The National Library of Wales- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

A SUBSCRIPTION TO CREATIVE TENDERS CAN OFFER YOUR BUSINESS:

  • Access to all exclusive, public and private sector creative contracts in the UK.
  • An on-hand Account Manager is available to answer any questions you may have about a video or film tender. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free bid management consultancy each month.

WE SOURCE OPPORTUNITIES FOR SECTORS INCLUDING;

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see how we can help your business grow. 

WANT TO SAVE EVEN MORE TIME?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to optimise your tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for video and film tenders.

THE ULTIMATE TIME SAVER PACKAGE OFFERS YOUR BUSINESS:

  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Creative and Technology, for example.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid.
  • Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable creative tendering opportunities.

THE BECOME A PRE-BID MASTER PACKAGE ALSO INCLUDES:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

7 Things to Expect When you Tender for Design Work

How to tender for design Work

If you’re wondering whether to tender for design work and you don’t know where to begin, we can help. This blog provides 7 things to expect when you tender for design work.

First, let’s start with the basics…

What type of design work is out to tender?

Tenders for design work are released by both private and public sector organisations. They could be looking to procure a range of design services. These could include, but aren’t limited to, the following:

  • Graphic design services
  • Print functions
  • 3D designs
  • Signage
  • Produce design schematics for graphics
  • Artwork
  • Exhibitions
  • CGI
  • Lighting design
  • Illustration
  • Cartography
  • Branding
  • Digital design and more.

7 things to expect when you tender for design work

  1. Your economic financial standing

 When you’re tendering for design work, you can expect to have your economic financial standing to be assessed. This is to make sure that you’re able to carry out the work. It is comprised of three things:

  • Annual turnover
  • Financial ratios
  • Insurance(s)
  1. Case Studies

When writing your tender for design work, you will likely be asked to provide up to three case studies. These should be from within the last three to five years. These case studies should demonstrate projects that are similar in scope and scale to the one you are tendering for. They should demonstrate your capabilities to work on the project at hand.

Depending on the word count, they could include a positive testimonial from a previous client. This will strengthen your response, but bear in mind you might have to provide their contact details for a follow up. So, you shouldn’t make them up. It may also be a good idea to state if there were any challenges and how you overcame them.

  1. CVs

Some buyers may require you to include CVs for those who are to be involved in the project. Buyers want to be reassured that you and your team are experienced and qualified. They should be focused relevant and as concise as possible. Each CV should detail what the specific team member will be responsible for, they should also include:

  • Their job title
  • Any relevant qualifications or accreditations
  • A professional yet friendly picture allowing the buyer to put a face to the name.
  1. Outline methodology

You may be required to provide a concise written proposal setting out what your organisation would do. This outline should state how you will produce the work required as per the requirements of the specification.

  1. Quality assurance

Depending on the buyer, you may be required to provide details of your quality control process. This could outline how you ensure your organisation’s work is of the highest quality. You should provide details of security information and confirm general data protection. Bear in mind, this may not be required for all tenders for design work.

  1. Social value or added value

If you’re tendering in the public sector, you will need to provide details of your business’s social value policy. This is because there is a mandatory 10% weighting on social value for public sector contracts. You will need to detail the environmental, social and economic aspects of the tender. You should consider:

  • Encouraging economic growth
  • Creating new jobs and skills
  • Supporting COVID-19 recovery
  • Tackling climate change.

It’s worth noting again, that within the public sector, the contract will be awarded to the MEAT. The MEAT is the most economically advantageous tender. Here, a buyer will be seeking the most value for their money. A buyer will be evaluating your tender response on more than just price. It’s worth remembering that the cheapest bid does not win. The buyer will be looking at a number of aspects, including, but not limited to:

  • Quality
  • Accessibility
  • Technical ability
  • The proposed design
  • Environmental benefits
  • Innovation
  • Customer service or ongoing support
  • Ability to deliver on time.

The specific evaluation aspects will be stated within the tender documents. These will vary depending on the buyer, so it’s important to read the specification carefully.

  1. Framework agreement

Sometimes you can find tenders for design work as part of a framework agreement. Framework agreements are multi-supplier agreements used within the public sector to procure a good or service. Securing a place on a framework can help you secure a pipeline of work for your business. They can run for years at a time with some having the possibility of an extension.

Framework agreements are often split into lots with each lot representing a specific good, work, service or geographical location. They allow for suppliers to apply for the specific lots they specialise in. This means a supplier doesn’t have to be able to deliver every aspect of the contract.

Need assistance with your next tender for design work?

We understand that you might not have the time, resources or experience to write a winning response in-house. Outsourcing to bid writing experts can help you win your next tender, securing a pipeline of work for your business.

Our sister company Hudson Succeed, have over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you win more tenders for design work. Whether you’ve never tendered before or need your response proofread before you submit – we can help.

  1. A Tender Ready programme
  2. The Tender Improvement package
  3. Tender Writing services
  4. Tender Mentor

Where can I find tenders for design work?

Finding tender for design work for your business can take hours out of your busy day. You likely don’t have the spare time to be searching hundreds of websites and portals for a relevant tender. Many of them post multi-industry opportunities and searching for sector-specific leads can turn into a full-time job!

Luckily for you, we have a time-saving tool that can take the headache out of tendering. Creative Tenders is an easy-to-navigate, centralised portal that hosts all live creative tendering opportunities from across the Creative Industry. There’s no reliance on inaccurate CPV codes!

Our Opportunity Trackers manually search and upload unique, private and public sector opportunities. You’re able to filter and search the results by keyword, budget, location and more. This streamlines the process, allowing you to find the perfect tender for design work.

Below are previous tenders for design work sourced on our portal:

Graphic design commission, Manchester Art Gallery – Platt Hall

Platt Hall- North West- Budget: £6,000

Town Centre Heroes Exhibitions

London Borough of Barnet- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Lelley Fields Crematorium Marketing Strategy and Brand Development

East Riding of Yorkshire- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

Restoring Stover Park – Brand and Interpretation Design

Devon County Council- South West- Budget: Undisclosed

Graphic Designer, The Beaney House of Art & Knowledge

The Beaney House of Art & Knowledge- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

A subscription to Creative Tenders can offer your business:

  • Access to all exclusive, public and private sector creative contracts in the UK.
  • An on-hand Account Manager is available to answer any questions you may have about tenders for design work. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free bid management consultancy each month.

We source opportunities for sectors including;

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see how we can help your business grow 

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to optimise your tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for tenders for design work.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Creative and Technology, for example.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid
  • Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable creative tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • A Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

3 Things to Note When Applying for BBC Tenders

BBC tenders: what to expect

Winning BBC tenders can be a challenge if you’re not familiar with tendering practices. Supplying to the BBC is rife with competition and you should want your bid to stand out from the crowd.

The BBC have five top priorities when it comes to suppliers and procurement. It’s worth bearing in mind that their strategic priorities include:

  1. Supporting the supply of distinctive, British ideas to the BBC from across the UK.
  2. Strengthening production ecologies, talent and the creative pipeline outside London.
  3. Maintaining a range of supply in the UK enabling smaller producers to not only survive but grow.
  4. Strengthening progress on diversity and representation both on and off-screen.
  5. Strengthening progress towards environmentally sustainable production in the UK.

3 things to bear in mind when applying for BBC tenders

  1. Various methods of procurement

Open tendering procedure

BBC tenders may also be an open tendering procedure. This often involves an invitation to tender, known as an ITT. An ITT will usually include the following:

  • Specification of requirement
  • Service level agreement
  • Commercial, operational, corporate social responsibility
  • Pricing schedule.

Restricted procedure

A restricted tendering procedure will feature a two-stage bidding process. It will first have an initial pre-qualification questionnaire, known as a PQQ or SQ. This is a pass/fail stage and is often used when more complex goods or services are being procured. It’s to ensure potential suppliers meet a minimum eligibility criterion and have the necessary ability to fulfil the contract.  After a supplier passes the PQQ or SQ, they will then receive an ITT.

Framework agreements

BBC tenders are often procured via framework agreements. Framework agreements are multi-supplier agreements used by a buyer to procure goods, works and services. They often benefit SMEs as there are more places available to supply a good or service. Securing a place on a framework is a great way to grow your business.

Framework agreements divide work into lots. Each lot typically represents a specific good, service or location. This means a supplier can apply to the specific lot(s) they can deliver. They aren’t required to supply the whole contract.

The type of tendering procedure used will be specified in the tender documents.

  1. Value for money

The BBC are expected to achieve and deliver maximum value for money. In order to do this, they will award the bid to the most economically advantageous tender, known as the MEAT. A MEAT is assessed on multiple aspects, not just price. It’s important to note that the cheapest bid does not win. BBC tenders will be evaluated on a range of things including, but not limited to:

  • Innovation
  • Environmental considerations
  • Accessibility
  • Ability to deliver on time
  • Quality
  • Price
  • Technical merit
  • Sustainability

The award criteria will vary depending on the type of contract and will be noted in the tender documents.

  1. Diversity, representation and inclusion strategy

Diversity and inclusion are imperative for BBC tenders. The BBC has pledged to commit to hardwiring diversity into everything they do. They are committed to growing diversity across the board via the programmes they make and the people that make them. It’s important to note that there are two commitments that come into effect on 1st April 2021.

  • A commitment for the BBC to invest £100 million in diverse production and content.
  • A requirement for producers to have 20% off-screen diversity on new TV commissions.

The commitments are independent of each other, but both focus on underrepresented groups.

20% diversity in production teams

The BBC are looking for those:

  • From Black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds
  • With lived experience of a disability
  • From lower-income backgrounds i.e. social economic diversity (SED).

£100 million commissioning spend

Newly commissioned titles must have at least two of the following diverse characteristics:

  • Stories and portrayal on-screen
  • Production leadership
  • Company leadership

It’s worth bearing these new commitments in mind when applying for your next BBC tenders.

Need help writing your BBC tenders?

The BBC care about the quality of your written response for BBC tenders. We understand that writing isn’t everyone’s strong suit and that’s ok. Your business shouldn’t have to suffer as a result of this. Outsourcing a tender to a bid writing service can help you win your next bid and grow your business.

Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, have an 87% success rate and over 60 years of bid writing experience. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you win your next BBC tenders. Whether you’re completely new to tendering, or need your response proofread before you submit – we can help.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect BBC tender for your business, send it our way. Our Bid Writers can take care of it all for you and they’ll even submit it on your behalf. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready 4-week programme is perfect for those who have never tendered before. A Bid Writer will work with you to make sure you have everything you need in place to tender successfully. The Tender Ready programme offers your business:

  • A 12-month subscription to Creative Tenders
  • Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding professionals
  • An organisation-wide Bid Library, including 3 case studies, 5 CV’s and 8 policies
  • Additional flexible benefit options.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you aren’t seeing the desired results from your tendering efforts. The Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents, working with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to Creative Tenders and additional tendering development services.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own BBC tender response and need someone to double-check it for errors, Tender Mentor can help. Our Bid Team will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes. They’ll also ensure that it’s in line with the specification before you submit.

Where can I find BBC tenders?

BBC tenders are published on the BBC website, but why limit and stop yourself there? There are hundreds of creative tendering opportunities going live every day with a variety of buyers. By limiting yourself to just the BBC you could be missing out on the perfect creative contracts in the UK for your business.

You may think that searching for creative tenders can take up a lot of your time, and you would be right. Wouldn’t it be great if you could use a time-saving tool that alerted you when new tendering opportunities are published?

Creative Tenders is one, easy-to-navigate centralised portal that hosts all live creative tendering opportunities from across the Creative Industry. There’s no reliance on inaccurate CPV codes!

Our Opportunity Trackers manually search and upload unique, private and public sector opportunities. You’re able to filter and search the results by keyword, budget, location and more. This streamlines the process, allowing you to find the perfect BBC tenders for your business.

Previous BBC tenders sourced on our portal:

BBC Audiences – Social Media Listening Services

BBC- London- Budget: £350,000

BBC Bitesize Scotland – 2nd Level Curriculum for Excellence

BBC Bitesize- Scotland- Budget: Undisclosed

Factual Commissioning Opportunity for Welsh Suppliers

BBC Wales- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

BBC Wales New Documentary Directors’ Initiative

BBC Cymru Wales- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

Culture in Quarantine Commissioning Strand – Disabled Artists Commissioning Opportunity

BBC Arts- Northern Ireland- Budget: Undisclosed

We also source opportunities for sectors including;

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see how we can help your business grow.

A subscription to Creative Tenders offers your business: 

  • Access to all unique, private and public sector opportunities across the Creative Industry.
  • An on-hand Account Manager to answer any questions you may have about finding BBC tenders.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new creative tenders are uploaded that day.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free bid management consultancy each month.

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you identify tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for BBC tenders for your business.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Creative and Technology, for example.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid
  • Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable creative tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • A Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

Tendering Portals – Reimagined

Tendering portals reimagined by Hudson Discover

Hudson’s tendering portals were designed as time-saving tools to help increase efficiency in the tendering process.

How long does it take you to search through numerous websites and find the right opportunity for your business?

Tender tracking is a full-time job. We know because our team of opportunity trackers search through thousands of websites every day.

This year, we are modernising the tender tracking process by enhancing our ten sector-specific tendering portalsincluding Creative Tenders.

The new features

As the updated portal is currently in development, here is a brief overview of what to expect from the new system:

The look

As you may already know, we recently rebranded the Hudson Group. Our new look is sleek and modern – therefore, our portal will be redeveloped to match.

Dynamic inter-trading

Procuring services will be even easier. Buyers will simply upload their specification and select which tendering portal they wish to target.

For example, if an accountancy business needs a new website, they can upload their specification on the new ‘Post a Project’ section and simply tick a box to send the opportunity to ‘Creative Tenders’.

Team collaboration

The new systems will allow users to assign tenders to their colleagues. Once the bid is submitted, the team can mark the tender as complete in the new ‘My Tasks’ section. This will allow for consistency across teams and increase efficiency when bidding for contracts.

User details can also be managed in the ‘My Profile’ tab. This enables the user to add or remove colleagues in just a few clicks, change passwords and update business details.

Industry collaboration

At Hudson, we believe that everything is better when we work collaboratively. We know that our clients share the same belief. Our new tendering portals will allow users to ‘opt-in’ to collaborate with other businesses.

For example, a marketing agency could contact a freelance graphic designer to ask for collaboration on a large project that they do not have the in-house design resource to deliver.

Access to more tendering portals

Clients who require access to more than one portal will be able to easily swap between systems.

Simply selecting the ‘Change Portal’ menu will allow users to move from one tender portal to another without loading different websites.

For example, a software company may require access to both our Creative Tenders and  Technology Tenders portal. 

Stay in touch

The new dashboard page will not only display the recently uploaded tenders that match your criteria but helpful updates from the Hudson Group.

For example, the dashboard will make you aware of:

  • New Tender VLE masterclasses;
  • Bid Surgery date and location announcements;
  • System changes you should be aware of;
  • Hudson notices, such as seasonal opening hours.

Remaining features

The unique benefits of our tendering portals will remain the same. Here are just a few of the features and subscription benefits that you can expect to continue:

Manual opportunity tracking

We only use manual tender tracking processes – our research identified that a third of tenders uploaded using algorithms were tagged with incorrect CPV codes.

What does this mean?

For the users of these systems, this means that they could receive notifications for irrelevant opportunities. It also means that when the users search these portals, they will still have to sift through numerous, unrelated contracts.

Our fundamental objective at Hudson Discover it to save time for our clients. Our team of opportunity trackers manually search thousands of sites every day, uploading each tender and tagging the opportunity with relevant keywords. This means that our users can simply log into the portal and filter their search results by keywords – only to be shown relevant contracts.

My favourites

When you simply can’t decide which tender to bid for, add those that stand out to your ‘My Favourites’ page. Later, you can peruse through these opportunities and compare them more easily.

Bid writing support

Our Hudson Succeed team are still only a click away. We understand that some tenders can be daunting. Our clients don’t have an unlimited amount of time or resource to spend on writing and submitting tenders. That’s why our team at Hudson Succeed are there to help.

Last year alone, the team secured £300million in direct contract wins for our clients. They proudly hold an 87% success rate and they are trusted by more than 700 businesses, globally. More information about services and testimonials can be found on the Hudson Succeed website.

Account management

Tendering can be confusing and sometimes you need a little support. Our account managers are not going anywhere.

Every client on our tendering portals receives personal support from our expert account managers. Whether you need support with getting started or responding to a specific tender, our account managers are only a phone call or an email away.

Filters

Once you sign up, all you need to do is tell the system what you are looking for and anything matching your criteria will appear on your dashboard page.

Your criteria can be categorised by location, keywords, budget and sector. This helpful functionality will remain the same.

Do current clients need to update anything?

Our existing clients do not have to change or update anything. Your account manager will contact you to let you know when the new system will be live and what to expect.

If you have any questions about the system changes or your subscription, please contact Marie Fisher via marie@hudsonprocurementgroup.co.uk.

More information

For more information about what creative contracts in the UK are available, please get in touch with our team.

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PR Consultancy Contract Exclusive to Creative Tenders

PR Consultants Required for an Exclusive Project with Hudson

We have recently uploaded a new project for PR Consultancy & Support, exclusively to Creative Tenders. This RFP requires submissions from Public Relations professionals to support Hudson with raising the profile of our group.

Hudson is the parent company of Creative Tenders and all ten sector-specific portals that sit under the Hudson Discover division. We help our clients to Discover new opportunities, Succeed at winning them, Procure more efficiently and Invest their money more wisely, all whilst helping them Grow their business, Employ the right people, capitalise on the latest technology via our internal Labs Division and ensure a sustainable and bright future for their workforce through Hudson Initiative.

Our aim

The aim of the project is to promote Hudson for the purposes of business development both externally and internally. As part of this, we have a more stringent focus on our Discover and Succeed divisions, as well as raising the profile of our Directors, Jill and John Hudson.

We want to achieve national coverage and promote our services through multiple media outlets. We will be looking to award this project to a PR Consultant/Consultancy who can help us spread our vision and raise our geographic profile, with a strong focus on London as a priority.

PR consultancy outputs include:

  • Helping to raise our Group profile and achieve national coverage. This will include facilitating all editorial content and gaining access to outlets such as BBC News, television appearances, radio appearances, national newspapers and sector magazines/publications.
  • Helping us raise the profile of our Managing Director, Jill Hudson and Group CEO, John Hudson, providing them opportunities for interviews and appearances on the above stated outlets.
  • Strategically placing Hudson’s Senior Executive staff in front of Procurement Directors, Procurement Managers, Heads of Marketing, Business Managers, Company Directors and Sales Directors for a wide range of public and private-sector organisations.
  • Being responsible for press cutting throughout contract delivery.

Please be expected to understand our multi-faceted organisation and share our ethos and vision throughout the project.

Project details

Further information for PR Consultants wishing to bid for this opportunity can be found in the downloadable brief along with submission details and in-depth requirements.

Please note, you must be a Creative Tenders subscriber in order to bid for this project. Sign up to our portal.

Clarification Deadline: 17/06/2019

Deadline for Submissions: 24/06/2019

DOWNLOAD BRIEF

Find more opportunities such as these on our Creative Tenders portal. Our Opportunity Trackers manually scour and upload creative tenders from hundreds of websites across the UK. You’re able to filter the results by keyword, location, budget and more. This saves you a lot of time – streamlining the process.

Below are some previous PR Consultancy tenders sourced on our portal:

Provision of PR Consultancy Services

Bus Eireann/Irish Bus- International- Budget: Undisclosed

Fly-Tipping Action Wales: PR Consultancy

Natural Resources Wales- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

GB-Telford: PR Consultancy Services

Telford & Wrekin Council- West Midlands- Budget: £25,000

GDPR Consultancy RFP

Charities Aid Foundation- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Provision of Marketing & PR Consultancy Services

Radius Housing- Northern Ireland- Budget: Undisclosed

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GDPR CERTIFIED – Creative Tenders

Creative Tenders – GDPR certified!

In light of the recent GDPR changes in Europe, we have been ensuring that all Hudson Procurement Group’s companies are updated and follow the necessary procedures.

For the main part, we were already compliant with the standards set by the General Data Protection Regulation. We believe that businesses such as ourselves, should be completely transparent with how and why we use data – so here are just a few of the ways that we have accommodated our policy in response to these changes.

  • Policy Updates – We have updated all of our privacy updates so that they are clearly structured and simple to understand.
  • ICO Membership – We have been a member of the ICO for the past two years and recently renewed our membership in coherence with the GDPR legislation.
  • Reduced Access – We have limited the number of employees who are able to access personal information about our customers.
  • Insurance – We have always been insured in the unlikely event of a data breach – as all businesses should be.

The long and short of it:

If you don’t have time to trawl through our entire privacy policy here is a condensed summary of what we use your data for;

  • In-house Analytics – We closely monitor our website analytics to ensure that we are constantly improving the user experience and to track the efforts of our team.
  • Cookie Tracking – Just as the majority of online businesses use cookies, we also track the user path of visitors to our site to further our knowledge of our customers. This allows us to create a personalised service for our customers and show the right people, the relevant information.

Group CEO, John Hudson said ‘We believe in maintaining the privacy of our customers and every visitor who uses our sites. This is why we feel it is very important to declare ourselves as GDPR certified. We implement company-wide policies to prevent data breaches however, we are thoroughly protected for extra security.’

As mentioned, we have always taken care of our customer’s personal data and abide by the new regulations.

For more information as to our GDPR compliance please get in touch HERE!

WE SOURCE CREATIVE CONTRACT OPPORTUNITIES FOR SECTORS INCLUDING;

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TENDERS & BUYER PRESENTATIONS – TOP 3 BENEFITS OF ATTENDING A SITE VISIT

TENDERS & BUYER PRESENTATIONS – TOP 3 BENEFITS OF ATTENDING A SITE VISIT

It’s an obvious analogy: The bigger tenders are – the more effort that is required from both the supplier and buyer!

We’ve been to hundreds of site visits and buyer presentations to know that this is a crucial part of tenders and how they are developed.

Buyer presentations are delivered usually halfway through the Tender exercise and they provide all tenderers/suppliers the opportunity to get to know the buyer’s environment and culture, as well as a more detailed outlook on the requirements at hand.

This is usually for large-scale public-sector contracts. 

The buyer invites all suppliers to a site visit, which may include a group tour or a group presentation. This is to provide suppliers with a better opportunity to comprehend what’s expected of them during delivery and with developing their tender response.

We’ve provided our top 3 benefits in attending a buyer presentation/site visit.

  1. To comprehend – sometimes it takes more than a specification document to truly understand what’s expected – especially in a large, multi-million-pound contract that spans multiple regions. As you can expect, with undergoing these types of visits, online clarification questions are often decreased as all aspects will be clarified on the day. Yes – the buyer should make this public to all tenderers, but we’ve found that you’ll tend to grasp more out of the day rather than on a paper-reflected document. Whole conversations aren’t recorded and provided, so there will always be something (possibly crucial) that may be missed on paper, but clear on the day.

  1. To introduce yourself – by getting your face in front of the buyer[s] – this not only introduces yourself to them but if you display strong professionalism, knowledge and decorum – this will also stick in their minds. If you send your administrator on the day who’s clueless about your operations – and this is clearly projected – the buyer will consider your organisation less committed to the project and you don’t want to be remembered for that. Choose your most knowledgeable staff to attend who you know will act professionally and come back with a steered view of how better to develop your tender response and leave a lasting impression on the buyer.

  1. To stay ahead of your competitors – now we aren’t one for shaming our competitors – no matter how subtle. However, if you attend grouped discussions you’ll see exactly who your competition is. This provides in many ways a more competitive Tender process as you should be trying to enhance your response based on advantages over your counterparts. For example: If Company X is present and they deliver a certain way – you can always state how your delivery model provides much more added value to the buyer. Don’t go naming and shaming in your response – keep it classy and always have the buyer’s needs in mind!

These are just some of the things that make attendance at a site visit crucial when developing your tender response.

If you require any support at all with the development of your tenders – please get in touch with our Tender Consultants who’ll be happy to assist you in your efforts.

CLICK HERE for a FREE Consultation.

We’re here to help you succeed!

CREATIVE TENDERING OPPORTUNITIES | WHAT DO YOU THINK?

CREATIVE TENDERING OPPORTUNITIES – THAT’S WHAT WE DO! WHETHER YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE, HERE IS YOUR CHANCE TO HAVE YOUR SAY! 

If you are a customer on one of our platforms, please help us by having your say. Highlight what does work for you and what doesn’t, when it comes to your subscription against one of our many platforms.

We take customer feedback very seriously. We do so to ensure that every business engaging with our services is treated with the utmost professionalism and care.

We welcome any comments and feedback continually and deliver the means by which to capture this data on a monthly basis.

Every month we send a brief survey. This looks at various aspects of our offerings, with the aim of receiving as much feedback as possible to serve our continuous improvement measures.

We constantly work on ways to improve and we rely heavily on our customer’s voice to ensure specific needs are met both efficiently and effectively.

The survey will only take a couple of minutes and features 5 questions to answer at your leisure.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE PART!

If you’re not a customer, but want to experience first-hand how we can provide you with creative tendering opportunities including Marketing Tenders and Printing Tenders. Please click the following link to book a FREE demo with one of our dedicated Account Managers. They will guide you through the most relevant Tender Platform that remains specific to your provision.

 BOOK YOUR FREE DEMO FOR CREATIVE TENDERS NOW!

Want to find out more about our overall services, please visit our group website HERE to find out more.

WE SOURCE CREATIVE CONTRACT OPPORTUNITIES FOR SECTORS INCLUDING;

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TUPE – WHAT IS IT & HOW DOES IT AFFECT YOU?

TUPE – WHAT IS IT & HOW DOES IT AFFECT YOU?

I know what some of you are thinking – what on earth is TUPE?

One thing we are not here to do, is provide you a whole lot of legal jargon surrounding compliance and adherence to specific laws. This blog focuses on the basics of TUPE and how this applies to suppliers who are tendering!

TUPE is an abbreviation of Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment.

This is commonly used in a range of industries and rarely used in others, however we still think this is useful to comprehend, as this is widely considered across many UK tenders.

Let’s give you an example:

So, Bill, Bob and Ben are all IT Technicians for a local council on behalf of Company X.

Company Y has just won the tender to provide the IT Technical Solutions Contract over a 5-year period for this local council, meaning Company X will no longer provide the services.

To ensure Bill, Bob and Ben are not made redundant or out of work due to supplier changeover, the local council has stipulated that TUPE will apply as part of Company Y’s contract win.

Company Y must then liaise with Bill, Bob and Ben and ensure their transfer from Company X over to Company Y goes without a hitch. They undergo company consultations and inductions and ensure a fair and transparent process is followed, which complies with regulations.

Make sense? – it’s basically a procedure, governed by law, to move employees and any liabilities associated with them from an old employer to a new employer, and when it comes to procurement and supplier changeover, TUPE can be rife!

How does it affect you?

Again, this is used dominantly in some sectors, whilst rarely used in others. You may find you may never have to deal with TUPE. But it’s always good to be aware of what to expect.

The likes of Engineering, Technology, Construction, Utilities, Manufacturing and Logistics, where continuous delivery/support is required with certain buyers from grass-root operatives, means TUPE majorly applies to ensure employees of Company A can continue to work on contracts when Company B takes over.

If TUPE does apply and you have to inherit one or more employees as part of the contract-win, you’ll have to consider multiple things regarding the management of TUPE as per your tender response.

What you should do:

  • Assess the TUPE database! – this may be on a spreadsheet or a similar information sheet – make sure full assessment is made on this. This should detail employee liabilities, such as sick pay, holiday pay, etc. This is where the most basic details of the employee come to light, so you can ensure you can afford the staff you may potentially inherit.
  • Price Correctly! – use the details of all TUPE staff (acquired from the database/information sheet) to ensure you are taking into account clear variances in your pricing model. You, as Company 2 may pay your staff a specific amount, but Company 1 may pay them a lot differently. Take this into consideration.
  • Understand your responsibilities! – do you need to contact the new employees directly or will the buyer bridge this relationship initially? – Understand what you need to do when it comes to managing TUPE staff.
  • Get Help! – in your tender response, if there are any questions on TUPE management, state how you’ll use a reputable and fully qualified legal service for support, advice and guidance to ensure full complicity against the regulations.

If you’re struggling with the mind field that can be TUPE regulations and require some support with your tender management approach, GET IN TOUCH TODAY! Our Tender Consultants are always here to help you understand, prepare and succeed!

How about discovering those all-important opportunities where TUPE may or may not apply? Our Tender Connect service, offers 10-industry-specific platforms providing you will both Public AND Private opportunities across your sector.

Framework Agreement – Top 4 questions to ask yourself!

FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT – TOP 4 THINGS TO ASK YOURSELF

You’re most likely to see the term ‘Framework Agreement’ scattered across our tendering portals, asking for multiple suppliers to deliver/supply either one or more services/goods across various locations. Sounds pretty broad, right?

Well, through utilising a Framework Agreement, this is a much smarter way of working for a lot of buyers and procurement agencies. Although it may be a contractual headache at times, the long-term aspects to delivery remain progressive and are more and more often used across the UK procurement sector.

See our TENDERING DOESN’T NEED TO BE COMPLICATED’ blog for other terms you may see!

Multi-provider Framework Agreements are quite simply, contracts or agreements between one or more organisations. There is such a thing as a Single Provider Framework, where one provider is utilised for ad-hoc call-off requests for particular services/goods, however, that is a story for another day.

Multi-provider frameworks can be exhibited via the following example:

London-based Council seeks up to 8 Creative Agencies / Freelancers (per LOT) to undergo multiple creative services. This includes:

  • LOT 1: – Digital Design & Branding
  • LOT 2: – Website Development & Build
  • LOT 3: – PR & Marketing
  • LOT 4: – Managed Print Services

As you can see here, the buyer is asking for 8 suppliers per LOT (service), meaning there will be a total of 24 suppliers as part of this contract. Although you may have to share the spotlight with your competitors, it’s a fantastic way of getting your company heard across the Creative Sector and to show your position in the market alongside your competitors. Plus, there’s work and money involved.

The majority of companies argue that if you don’t score the highest tender, then your impending work is decreased by a long shot. Sometimes, you may be right, but a lot of the time you may be wrong.

Here are the 4 crucial questions you must ask yourself when tendering for a framework agreement:

1. How many suppliers is the opportunity open to?

Remember, the more suppliers the opportunity is open to, the more chance of securing a place on the Framework.

2. Do you have a good chance of winning it?

Obvious question you might say, but you’d be surprised at how many organisations go for work that (at the time of tendering) they could potentially deliver but haven’t got the corporate literature or writing skills to make them stand out on paper. Look at our ‘To Bid or not to Bid’ blog to look at what you can do to ensure your success is maximised! 

3. Are you going for multiple LOTs?

Do you have to submit a response per service/LOT? Does this mean you have to submit 4 or more tender responses? – if so, always make sure you have the resource and time to do this. Never replicate your answers, always give as much time to each individual tender/LOT to ensure increased chances of success. It is better to focus more of your time with something that you can deliver better in, than going for all LOTs where other competitors may have the upper-hand. Go for the LOT where you know you can be number one! If you don’t think you’ve got the upper-hand, then should you be wasting time on it.

4. What is the process of contract award?

One of the most important aspects of a Framework Agreement is to understand the process that you undergo when you’re in the framework and how is work dished out? This could work in multiple ways, so remember to read the instructions carefully. Some examples include:

  • Mini-competition – this is where the buyer asks all suppliers on the framework to quote them a price for a specific job at hand. This may include a quality aspect also. The cheapest quote wins!
  • First Supplier wins all – this is where the supplier who scored the highest via the tender process, will be guaranteed all work. If they can’t deliver a specific element, then it will go down the chain to the supplier who scored second. If they can’t deliver, then the supplier who came third and so on – all the more reason to be completely focused on the service you work best in and become number one!
  • Drop down effect – some buyers take it in turns to disperse work. In this case, the highest-ranking supplier would receive the first job, the second highest ranking supplier the second job and so on.

All decisions to how the framework is managed are declared by the buyer in the ITT (invitation to tender) stage. It’s usually transparent from the get go!

Find out how you can receive various framework opportunities straight to your inbox, by BOOKING A FREE DEMO TODAY!

Frameworks can be extremely complex when tendering for works. Remember our Tender Consultants are here to help!

PRIVATE TENDER OPPORTUNITIES – Intertrading at its finest!

Want to find more Private Tender Opportunities?

The best way to inter-trade is with us – are you ready to do business?

Intertrading – a term that so many businesses want to hear day in and day out. It’s a term that indicates business transactions being a two-way street, featuring both Private Tender Opportunities and B2B-specific leads – “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.”

The main aim of Hudson Procurement Group is to ensure procurement and tendering is managed in the easiest, most transparent ways possible and we feel intertrading is a big part of that!

We have been back to the drawing board in the development of our Hudson Discover offering, due to the unrivalled success of our 10 industry-specific platforms.

Hudson Discover is all about INTERTRADING and ensuring that our customers who are receiving public contract opportunities via their subscription to our dedicated sector-specific website, can easily work alongside another customer via a different platform and receive Private Tender Opportunities.

Phase 2 is currently underway, and this will be on the ground running by December 2018.

We are wanting to tell you about what to expect and how YOU can maximise your opportunity tracking and how you can soon procure in a more effective and efficient way.

For e.g., if you are a Graphic Design agency and in need of a new piece of hardware? Those registered on our Creative Tenders portal can publish an opportunity which is made available to our Technology Tenders portal – filled with hardware-affiliated organisations. Or, if a Cleaning Company (subscribed to our Facilities Tenders portal) is after a new update to their website, voila – post the opportunity on Creative Tenders and you’re onto a winner!

We are here to help you bridge the gap between exchanging new business so it’s easier and more centralised.

We have also published a brand-new opportunity on our Creative Tenders portal TODAY! This is an EXCLUSIVE OPPORTUNITY aimed at Digital Agencies for the provision of a Content Management System and Website! Opportunity ends on 16th April 2018!

All the more reason to be a part of the action, right?

Of course, it isn’t only subscribed customers who can post opportunities across our platforms to our growing customer-base, any buyer across the UK can do this. And the best part is – it’s 100% FREE to publish opportunities. Our team will even help you ensure the specification is clear, coherent and developed to avoid scope-creep etc.

So, what are you waiting for?

Join our platforms to see exclusive private opportunities from buyers across other industry sectors and ensure you intertrade more effectively using a one-stop-shop for all of your business needs.

Get in touch and BOOK A FREE DEMO TODAY!

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BBC LAUNCHES THIRD PHASE OF THEIR DRAMA DIRECTORS SCHEME | RIVER CITY

BBC launches the third phase of their ‘Drama Directors Scheme’ with the Scottish soap opera ‘River City’.

Do you want the chance to be behind one of the UK’s biggest drama series?

Well now, you can.

Pitches and CVs are being sought nationwide to find the next best director[s] to serve on multiple Continuing Drama Series.

BBC has announced that ‘River City’ will be the next show that will provide 2 trainee directors with the opportunity to be mentored within the next year.

BBC has stated that “as part of [director] training, successful candidates will receive a full credit on one episode of the drama. If the director has shown that they can meet the standards required, the show aims to hire them within nine months for a full directorial commission. It is our ambition that this will be the first step of an ongoing partnership with each of these directors; and, as their careers develop, so will their relationship with the BBC and the wider television drama community.

The opportunity is already underway with a deadline of 09th April 2018 at 10 am.

Please CLICK HERE for procedures on how to apply.

You can find similar opportunities to this on our Video Production Tenders page.

WE SOURCE CREATIVE CONTRACT OPPORTUNITIES FOR SECTORS INCLUDING;

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