Tender Pre-Qualification

The single biggest issue you have in any business is the expectation that the product you are selling is going to meet the client’s expectations. “Communication of a dream”. 

Moving forward, clients are not experts in drawings, building codes, Councils, etc and they hire consultants to place their concept, their dream and expectations onto paper. Huge leap of faith for many clients.

And when the project is finally built after all the stakeholders get involved – will they be happy with the result? Questions for many clients could almost be impossible to answer. 

The selection of a design team was hard – now that has to choose a builder and can that builder meet that expectation or dream? 

Most clients are not experts in design or the building industry, they have an overall concept but who do they choose for their design and building team. These decisions could be one of the most important financial decisions of the client’s life.  At the outset, there is a mountain of potential for risk. So how do you reduce the risk? 

One way is is to send out an audition process called a pre-qualification to tender. This is a way to check the builder qualifications and select a select few to tender on the pricing.  So the pre-qualification process allows the client time to focus on the builder’s character, staffing, ability to complete the project, insurances, etc.  It also gives the client time to address one thing at a time.  It would also give the builders interested to have a glance at the drawings and ask queries about the documents that may help the design team improve the tender documents from a build-ability direction. 

Now, this only works if the builders selected in the process can actually commit to the tender request at the time when the tender documents are available.

A week in building terms is a long time indeed, so a lot can happen between the first expression of interest (EOI) or pre-qualification. 

So the pre-qualification is often a list of questions in the form of schedules so the client can compare builders like for like (apples for Apples). These questions are basically nothing to do with price, more capability.  Now if these questions went are with a standard tender request – these schedules would be called “Non-Priced Criteria”.  

In a standard RFT, there are two sides of any tender –  non-priced criteria & priced criteria. 

A pre-qualification question is very similar to non-priced criteria. Questions at this pre-tender stage would include: 

• Introduction of the future tender documents
• Site Restrictions & site-specific challenges. 
• Quality standard and other accreditation
• Past Performance & Relevant Experience 
• References and testimonials 
• Key Personnel
• Current commitment & resourcing 
• Insurance details 
• Local subcontractors and suppliers
• Aboriginal Participation Policy
• Drug & Alcohol policy. 

These documents are basically documentary evidence and references that can prove that a builder can actual walk the walk.

Now assuming you have a list of builders that you are happy with and have met all the client’s criteria – the process can continue onto the tender documents strictly based on price.  This process is greatly dependent on timing plus there is another issue with this approach. 

What if the builder has fantastic pre-qualification documents and they are crap at tendering? 

I think in theory the pre-qualification process has benefits for the client and builder however may limit the fishing pool for the best builder for the job if they, unfortunately, were unable to submit an EOI in the time frame or just wasn’t aware of the potential project to tender. 

Within the non-priced criteria, the builder would delve into how they would actually manage the project and over and above the list above the builder may also submit additional items such as: 

• Construction Management Plan 
• Task Appreciation & Methodology
• Staging plan and  Site establishment
• Others.