1. BE PREPARED

• You never know when a tender of interest to your organisation will be called.
• Check relevant websites regularly.
• Subscribe where possible so as to get early notification of relevant forthcoming tenders.
• Maintain the currency of your tender resources or toolbox.

• You will be able to complete tenders within the allowed timeframe.

2. KNOW WHAT YOU CAN DO

• There is no point in bidding for a tender that is outside your core business unless a strategic decision has been made to expand your organisation's activities or area of coverage.

• You will be competitive against existing providers in the area.

• You need to know what your current costs are and how any new business would affect them.

• You will not find yourself in a loss-making situation as a result of having under-estimated the costs of delivering the service.

• This will enable you to know what to prioritise in your tender applications e.g. children's services over aged care services.

• You will not be spending time competing for tenders that are not a priority to your members or clients.

• Know which of your staff (including management) can take on more or different work and which are already fully committed.
• This includes their existing cultural competency/ awareness.

• You will be able to estimate the set up time and costs more accurately with less risk to the organisation.

• This means collating the demographic and other characteristics of clients as they relate to this tender.
• Make sure someone in your organisation knows all the key sources for the demographic data you are interested in and how to retrieve, manipulate and maintain the data.
• If there is no one in your organisation who can do this Toni Adams Associates can assist you with this.

• You will not have to spend time learning how to collect this data during the limited time period for the tender.
• You will know the data gaps and have ideas for addressing them.

7. KNOW THE PROGRAM

• Familiarise yourself with the program guidelines, program standards and accountability requirements that the tender is for.

• You will be able to address the selection criteria more effectively and there will be no nasty surprises if you get the contract.

8. KNOW THE PROCESS

• Read the tender guidelines and specifications with care. Follow them to the letter and clarify with the appropriate person any areas of uncertainty.

• You will not miss out due to forgetting to answer one of the questions!

9. KNOW THE CLOSING DATE

• Allow time for close editing, final review, signing, printing (if required), collating and lodgement by the due date and time.
• If electronic lodgement is available, practice it first (if possible).
• Do not leave electronic lodgement to the last minute, as electronic lodgement systems can become overloaded if too many people are trying to access them at once.

• You will not miss out being considered by the panel due to an oversight or running out of time.

10. KNOW THE LIMITATIONS OF THE TENDER PROCESS

• There are three factors you can control: your organisation's capacity, preparedness to deliver the services and the quality of your tender application.
• You cannot control for: the quality of the competition or the skills/experience of the assessors.

• You will be able to identify whether the tender process has been carried out correctly and feedback will be more useful and more easily integrated into your organisation's Continuous Improvement process.