BWL help Thames Water with a tender for the installation of monitoring equipment.
Client: Thames Water
Client employer industry: Water, Construction and Infrastructure sectors
Client contract value: £10M
Scope of works:
In June 2021, BWL was approached by a client who deliver solution-based services to the Water, Construction, and Infrastructure sectors. The client intended to bid for a project with Thames Water involving the installation of innovative monitoring equipment. The tender (Invitation to Negotiate – ITN) involved the completion of a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) and a technical questionnaire.
Although the tender was of significant strategic importance to our client, BWL prides itself on the approach we take to compliance, and whether the tender is right for the client or not, based on the information provided. BWL firstly assessed the specification and tender documents to ensure no areas of the bid would preclude the client from bidding or taking on any unnecessary liabilities. This included a full review of the terms and conditions as well as the agreement.
Following this review, BWL assigned a dedicated Bid Consultant who undertook a full review of the documentation and submission requirements, highlighting areas where existing content could be utilised from our library located in a shared cloud facility. In addition to the PQQ, the technical questionnaire response consisted of a series of quality questions covering Health, Safety and Wellbeing, Customer Service, Delivery Approach, Cost Management and Project Control.
As a new client, with no existing information on file, the Bid Consultant developed a request matrix to ensure the client could review all requests, gather the information, and return before the allotted completion schedule. Upon receipt of the information, the Bid Consultant was able to review the data and storyboard each response for the bid writing phase; making sure to not only answer the question/requirement but also align to the specification and contractual obligations.
BWL provided a series of infographics to ensure that all page count restrictions were met but also ensured that we emphasised the client’s undoubted credentials to deliver the works. Due to the technical requirements and having no pre-existing client information, we needed to have flexible systems in place for when we required additional information and points or clarity/elaboration. A project-specific ‘Teams’ site was set up to allow us to share and discuss storyboards and draft documents with the client in real-time and infill gaps with evidence and resource and technical information.
Once responses were in final draft form, the Bid Consultant handed the submission over to the Bid Director for in-depth evaluation and proofreading; a quality check is undertaken on every bid we develop for accuracy and continuous improvements. Post-review, all responses were then sent to the client for a final examination before the submission date.
Our client received the news in July 2021 that they had been successful and would need to attend a final presentation to “bring the tender submission to life” for which they required additional bid support services. We discussed their needs and supported them by creating company branded slides in line with Thames Water’s strategic ambition and the written submission and provided a guideline document with key prompts for delivering the presentation. We also debriefed the Managing Directors in the run-up to the presentation time via Teams to ensure they were comfortable and in a position to extol the benefits of their bid and their capability.
In September 2021, the client contacted us, thanking BWL for the bid support services, as they received the news, they had been successful and had secured a 5-year framework contract valued at £10M.