What is Tender Management?

So what is tender management? In today’s competitive business world, many potential projects and services are put out to tender. That is numerous potential companies are provided with the opportunity to bid for the work. In their bids, they will describe how their company will solve a business problem, provide the service required or supply the goods requested. They will also need to provide a competitive price for this work. The process of designing and writing these proposals or tenders, complete with the competitive pricing, is called tender management, proposal management or bid management.

The Art of Tender Management

As a company is competing against many other companies that may have the same or better qualities and lower prices, the art of tender management or writing a winning tender is highly skilled. A good tender writer who really knows how to write a bid and who will make the tender stand out from the competitors is highly sought after.

When does Tender Management Start?

The tender starts when an appropriate Invitation To Tender (ITT) has been identified. The ITT is a formal document that is published by a purchasing company in order to notify other companies that bids for a piece of work, project or service is required. There is always a fixed deadline that the tenders must be returned by and this makes bid management very time dependent. It all adds to the stress of the entire process. What does tender management include?
• Analyzing the requirements within the ITT.
• Designing a solution that meets these requirements.
• Managing the staff that will write the tender.
• Developing a compelling proposal that will meet the requirements and stand out from other bids.
• Producing a pricing structure that will win the bid as well as produce a profit by the end of the project.
• Minimizing risk and maximizing the impact of the tender.
• Sticking to tight deadlines.

Tenders Are Not that Standardised

There are standard bid management processes available to manage these activities and one published bid methodology. There are also some computerized systems that will manage the workflow of a tender management process but bid management is nowhere as formalized as project management. This makes experience proposal writers with a history of winning highly sought after. A tender or bid writer manages risk very well and is always organized and able to manage staff within a very highly charged environment.

Framework Tender Agreements

Such is the popularity of tendering that framework agreement tenders are now being offered. This is where a company tenders to receive a framework agreement that then provides them with the opportunity to tender for future work with the organization. These framework agreements are particularly popular with government tenders and large companies and are often found in information technology and staffing. Tenders can be low level such as a cleaning service or they can be highly prized, such as a bid for a multi-million dollar new computer system but they all have the same structure and processes. They start with the ITT request for bids and end up with a negotiated contract. A good bid manager knows how to manage the process, whilst juggling staff, information overload, searching for missing information and managing time frames.

Tender Management System: What it Does, Features, Benefits & Cautions?

A tender management system, either manual or electronic, is required to ensure an effective and efficient process for:
a) the buyer wishing to source products or services and
b) the seller wishing to bid to supply a company.
Managing tenders is very time consuming exercise and a lot of paper work is involved. Manual systems have some merit but are prone to errors and cannot deal with growing volumes of tenders to be managed by both buyers and sellers.

MobileERP Tender Management Systems

What does a MobileERP tender management system do? It manages:
• the information content of a tender being issued;:
• the administration process of both issuing tenders and receiving of bids;:
• the content and structure and production of the bid submission and time and resource management for the bidder:
• the record keeping and audit trail of changes;:
• a repository of all documentation.:
Benefits of tender management systems for the buyer:
• The sourcing professional is often under pressure for time so it is important that the administrative tasks are streamlined and minimized. Securely managed tenders can be issued to selected bidders error free and on time:
• Master templates can be available for all types of sourcing activities to cut down on drafting times:
• A full audit trail of change and updates, questions and actions is kept:
• Tenders can be sent out and received electronically via an on-line portal with or without attachments:
• Costs are reduced in the preparation and the distribution of the documents and the responses:
• Reduced likelihood of poor submissions and costly delays due to suppliers not being in possession of the latest versions and updates:
• Security and limited access via passwords :
Benefits of a tender management system for the bidder:
• Forthcoming tenders can be accessed early through subscribing to tender companies and having an early warning system. Chasing these documents is very time consuming.:
• It can serve as a database of key information e.g. text, photos, graphs etc that are needed to build in to the bid submission:
• Previous bids are all kept in one place for reference:
• Detailed records are kept of times and dates of submissions, win and lose statistics with interrogation facilities:
• Less time needed searching for the relevant information and statutory forms and attachments:
• One place where you can search for best practices to re-use for other bids :
Features in MobileERP tender management system:
• Ability to manage the entire process from issue of the tender to awarding the contract.:
• Issuing tender requests on-line to qualifying registered companies either for free or for a fee:
• Automatically notify participating companies with any changes to tender or specifications.:
• Access control allowing for limited procurement persons to manage the tender process using passwords.:
• Capacity to store and retrieve historical tenders.:
:
A simple electronic tender management system that permits procurement organizations to manage the main activities in sourcing is a good place to start. It should at least be able to compile online tender documentation, allow the pre-qualifying of suppliers, be able to invite and receive bids. A really good feature is to have a function that allows internal messaging and provides collaboration tools. :

What is Pricelist?

A statement or list of the prevailing prices of the merchandise, stocks, specie, bills of exchange, or other matter dealt in issued statedly or occasionally by dealers to their customers and often giving other particulars (as import or export duties and drawbacks).

Marketing Mix Setup-Products, Pricelist and Scheme Automation

What is Pricelist or Scheme Strategy?

The marketing mix is a very important concept of marketing which involves the 4 main elements i.e people, promotion, place and price. However, the second most important factor in the marketing mix after product is the type of pricing being used. This is because the type of pricing can alter the distribution and the promotion mix as well.

When establishing a new company or even after years of existence on the market, it is a big challenge to set up the right price for your products and services. The dilemma is, if you set the price too high you risk losing customers or not attracting customers at all, and if you set it too low, you will probably have no return on your investment and very low margins.

There are several factors which need be taken into consideration before setting up prices, and these factors are influenced by current market supply and demand, competition levels as well as other political and economic influences. During the price planning process, your main focus should lie in finding the right price point where you can maximize your sales and profits. This usually depends on your individual marketing goals and objectives.

11 different types of pricing strategy should be implemented by Marketing Manager based on product and market conditions.
1) Premium pricing e.g. Audi, BMW, Merc etc. pricing
2) Penetration pricing e.g. Reliance Jio 4G/5G etc.
3) Economy pricing e.g. Walmart type pricing
4) Skimming price e.g. Apple iphone, Samsung Note etc. with competitive advantage
5) Psychological pricing e.g. $4,99 than products costing $5 as sold by super markets
6) Neutral strategy e.g. Rarely used, keeping the same price for life cycle of product.
7) Captive product pricing For example, the ink for a printer is a captive product sold at higher price, where the core product is the printer sold at low price.
8) Optional product pricing e.g. Food purchase in AirAsia Airlines.
9) Bundling price:e.g. Ever hear of the offer of 1 + 1 free? Free Shaving cream with Razor. Used to get rid of excess stock.
10) Promotional pricing strategy: e.g. Promote new product for limited period low pricing.
11) Geographical pricing: e.g. variations of prices depending on the location, taxes and transport cost

What is Transfer Pricing?

Transfer pricing can be defined as the value which is attached to the goods or services transferred between related parties. In other words, transfer pricing is the price which is paid for goods or services transferred from one unit of an organization to its other units situated in different countries (with exceptions).

What are Transactions subject to Transfer pricing

The following are some of the typical international transactions which are governed by the transfer pricing rules:
Sale of finished goods;
Purchase of raw material;
Purchase of fixed assets;
Sale or purchase of machinery etc.
Sale or purchase of Intangibles.
Reimbursement of expenses paid/received;
IT Enabled services;
Support services;
Software Development services;
Technical Service fees;
Management fees;
Royalty fee;
Corporate Guarantee fees;
Loan received or paid.

Purposes of Transfer Pricing

The key objectives behind having transfer pricing are:
Generating separate profit for each of the divisions and enabling performance evaluation of each division separately.
Transfer prices would affect not just the reported profits of every center, but would also affect the allocation of a company’s resources (Cost incurred by one centre will be considered as the resources utilized by them).
The profitability of a subsidiary depends on prices at which the inter-company transactions occur. These days the inter-company transactions are facing increased scrutiny by the governments. Here, when transfer pricing is applied, it could impact shareholders wealth as this influences company’s taxable income and its after-tax, free cash flow.
It is important that a business having cross-border intercompany transactions should understand transfer pricing concept, particularly for the compliance requirements as per law and to eliminate the risks of non-compliance.

What is Rate Analysis?.

In Order to determine the rate of a particular Item, the factors affecting the rate of that itm are studied carefully and then finally, a rate is decided for that ite,. This process of determining the rate of an item is termed as the analysis of rate or rate analysis.

Purpose of Rate Analysis

Following are the two main purposes of carrying out the rate analysis of an item:
1. To determine the actual cot per unit of items.
2. To examie the item for economic processes and economic uses of materials involce in making the item
Importance of Rate Analysis:
The process of rate analysis gives a clear picture of various factors, tools & machinery and services involved in manufacturing of finished item. For example in case of brickwork, raw material is brick which is purchased at certain rate, then using mortar bricks are layed. In laying og brick materials such as cement, sand, water etc. is required and all activities is performed by Mason and Vhisti etc as required, Now final analysis of rate of brickwork is determined considering all these factors.
Refer CPWD Standards of civil engineering.