Tender Process Snapshot
Within the cornerstone Article – “Tender Process” which spells out a sequence of the process. The Client has sent out a “Request For Tender: (RFT), The builder has done some type of review and agreed to submit a price. An estimating folder has been set up in the filing system. In your Document review, you have figured out if the tender is a Hard dollar or a D&C type tender and the level of documentation has been evaluated. There are other types of contracts and the tendering varies accordingly, however, the vast majority of tenders are either “Hard Dollar ” or “Design & Construct” type tenders. (Some tenders are a combination of both).
A generic “Request For Quotation” (RFQ) is drafted which has all the headline information, site-specific, tender rules captured. Then the tender RFQ is modified to suit either a Hard dollar or D&C type tender.
Depending on if you have access to a “Document Control System” of a “Document transfer App” the document control will vary to suit the cards you have been dealt with, but the fundamentals are the same.
You now either create trade packages in a document matrix within a document control system (you basically tick the drawing you want to send to the trades).
The Document APP – you combine the drawings int a packages “Zip” file and send accordingly. Emails and zipped documents work up to about 10 meg of data and greater than 10 meg you start looking at document control apps as a link attached to an email request.
Now another tip, It any of these packages have documents with embedded links to industry data of photos, etc… Most of your receiving subcontracts computers would naturally have Virus Protection that ma bounce you email RFQ into a Junk or Spam folder. So when your files get larger than 10Meg – you are looking at document transfer systems as Icloud, Dropbox hightails, etc.
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TYPES OF CONTRACTS AFFECTS
THE QUALITY OF THE TENDER DOCUMENTS
So the contract type normally points to the quality of the documentation. Documents for the hard dollar are normally good and D&C documents are schematic and poor.
Often in a D&C situation, there are fewer documents, so an estimator may choose to send out all architectural drawings and selected trade packages. This strategy will always instill criticism from smaller architectural trades. But in a hard dollar tender where the packages are normally defined – there is no excuse not to send out trade specific packages especially if you have access to a Document control system.
One thing that you need to understand – When you are sending out an RFQ to subbies – At that stage, you don’t really have a full understanding of the documents (at high Level you do – but the detailed – no).
So an estimator will often be safe than sorry – That is – attach the drawing in the set if you are not sure. So some trades will always complain about redundant documents to be sent at tender. But if you ring them and get onto the from foot, take a bit of ear bashing and then thank them as many times that you can during a brief conversation – things will roll on without too much disruption.
Tendering is like an endurance race with a few sprints in between. You can take your foot off the petal at all.
Hard Dollar Tenders / Documentation
In a hard dollar tender, the Client manages the design and documentation, authority fees and takes on all the design risk. The builder prices the set of documents at the tender, wins the tender on price and then if the documents develop into construction drawing drawings and there are changes or the documents are wrong in any way – then this is addressed via a variation. Hard dollar tender documentation is normally more developed having already had DA and CC approvals completed. These documents are easier to break down into tender packages and any ongoing addenda relatively easy to manage during a tender. The builder does not carry any design and construction risk, If is not on the documents – it is excluded.
Design & Construct Tenders / Documentation
The process of tender in very similar however the D&C Tenders carry the design risk and construction risk on a project that hasn’t been documented. So anything that is produced through the design development is priced as a risk element and normally covered off by benchmarking and preliminary sketches from the builder’s internal consultants. Often these documents have been submitted to for DA with no approvals, Architectural drawings, Basic concept civil drawings and a clients performance brief are what you price off.
TRADE PACKAGES STRATEGY
Your Trade packages are obviously linked to your pricing strategy – Hard dollar tenders would have one round of send outs and there may be a few addenda or information issued from the client.
The D&C tenders, on the other hand, are may have less documentation however the ongoing work through the duration of the tender is high and you would normally have at least two to three rounds of FRQ send outs however backed up by many by lots of additional information and tender instructions. Again- the documents can be very basic and need extensive Design management and estimating research to derisk the final a number for the Bid:
RFQ 1
- The bulk of the trade gets sent out in around one RFQ.
- Wet trades – You would ask for a schedule of rates and then confirm their price one structural engineering is available.
- Some Service trades like Fire services and Electrical you may ask for a subbie to provide a D&C quote. You would also request consultant fees to possibly to ratify the subbies design component.
- Other services trades – you normally get consultants engineers to provide a fee proposal, Design sketches and also a scope of works. The scope of works is important as you can use it as a checklist for services trades pricing the trade.
- Some architectural trades may need a BOQ to price. If you have the time I would hold off on those trades however if tender duration id slim – Send out the request with the understanding that you will potentially be plagued with emails and phone calls. But the phone calls will also help you prioritize your workload.
RFQ 2
- Any addenda ;
- Any information from a Site visit or tender notifications., or responses to RFIs;
- BOQs for requested trades, wet trades & the like, etc.;
- Scopes of works interpolated from consultant fee proposals;
- Consultants design sketches (structural , civil, Mechanical, Electrical, hydraulic and fire would normally be the head line help required)
Design & construct Challenges
You are responsible to finish the design and construction.
Here are the problems – What if you have a client who has tried to save money and have done just the bare bones to get a concept through the council.
Now during the tender, the competing builders who are pricing the project start asking a lot of questions.
One thing leads to another and an addendum gets issued by the client and document control now needs to be completed checked and any changed documents require to be sent out the relevant affected subcontractor & supplier.
As a general rule – When an addendum is issued it can take a good business day to manage the transfer of information and possibly another day of phone calls.
Now that is one addendum – What is there is 5 or 10. Does anyone want to become an estimator? If you are ever going to see a document control officer lose their shit – lots of addenda will do it.
Most tenders have a mandatory site visit when you meet the person who is running the tender – normally that is a clear indication of the pending difficulties especially if the person who is running the tender process is inexperienced (Green).
The subcontractors will complain and will be reluctant to tender. So the domino effect is the amount of Billing and risk will be high. Instead of pro-active tender, you are now in a reactive sprint. All the time allocated to finding the smarts in the project will be evaporated quickly.
Now bad tender documents issued by a client – doesn’t necessarily mean all bad news – it can also mean opportunity. The strategies on the state of the document, who the consultants are can be a license to write variation money.
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Tender Process – Click Here