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15.03.2021 | Blog Keeping track of tender participations

All companies that participate in tendering procedures to win contracts can tell you a thing or two about it. In addition to the core business, it is very time-consuming to review the often very extensive documents and then to evaluate whether it makes sense to participate. Claus Blank from the Munich-based software manufacturer IntraFind describes a support tool for keeping track of the tender jungle and shows an application scenario.
Use intelligent search and analysis software effectively

Nowadays, it is no longer a problem to obtain information about calls for tenders. When searching for relevant invitations to tender, companies inform themselves via platforms or are supported by corresponding services that provide companies with suitable alerts. Once you have received an interesting invitation to tender, you can quickly download all the relevant documents from a platform or have them sent to you by e-mail.

But this is where the work really begins. The task is to sift through the extensive documentation and determine whether participation in the tendering process is sensible and promising, or to find out which of several simultaneous tenders should be prioritized. For this initial assessment, the company needs to find out a wide variety of information:

Step 1: Analysis of the procurement needs

In order to evaluate the service data and the project scope and to see whether the project is suitable and feasible for one's own company and whether sufficient capacities are available in the corresponding period, it is necessary to extract the information from the tender documents:

  • Which (individual) services are required?
  • Reconciliation of the recognized delivery components with the existing products, services or articles
  • What is the scope of services for the project?

Step 2: Finding all deadlines reliably

To see if the tender is feasible in terms of time, the company needs to know all the dates and deadlines:

  • Registration for participation
  • Asking bidders questions about the tender
  • Submission of the offer
  • Workshop offer presentation
  • Implementation start
  • End of implementation

Step 3: Collect all legal contract bases

In order to assess the risk and effort involved in the contractual basis, aspects of procurement law and corresponding documents must be evaluated. These include, for example:

  • Attached contracts/ general terms and conditions
  • Links to additional GTCs and regulations on the internet
  • Confirmations on compliance (labor law, equal rights, etc.)
  • Place of jurisdiction and applicable law
  • Service level agreements on service hours, holidays, etc.
  • Passage on contractual penalties
  • Compliance or governance requirements

Fast initial analysis with Document Analyzer

To save time and reduce effort, you can now load all tender documents into IntraFind's Document Analyzer and start analyzing and evaluating them.

  • In the shortest possible time, the analysis result is available: The software immediately shows all deadlines and you can assess whether the company can meet the time frame.
  • In addition, all contract bases are sifted through. This enables the company to estimate the effort and risk involved in fulfilling the contract.
  • The performance and project volume can be classified: Can and do we want to participate?

The advantages: The software very quickly provides a sound basis for deciding whether to participate in the tender. It analyzes the documents in seconds and provides a kind of "central table of contents" with a direct link to the relevant text passages in the documents to read up on details. The AI-based tool doesn't overlook anything, because it has already been extensively pre-trained. In addition, company-specific technical requirements can be further trained very quickly - simply by marking a few sample texts. In this way, the granularity of the analysis is permanently improved and experience already gained in tender processes is incorporated as expert knowledge.

Conclusion: Intelligent software products relieve employees of standard tasks in their daily work. They help people to filter out the information they need to complete their tasks from a flood of data in a time-saving and reliable manner. What this information means and what actions are derived from it requires human expertise.

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The author

Claus Blank
Senior Account Manager
Claus Blank has been successfully selling solutions for enterprise search, compliance, eDiscovery, cognitive automation and artificial intelligence for 20 years. At IntraFind, he drives the sales activities for AI-based search and content analysis solutions.
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Claus Blank