Tenders: Tender Glossary

Useful Links

• AusTender: Government Tender System
• Fairfax Tender Search
• Industry Capability Network
• SMH Guide to successful tendering in your state or territory

An evolving, constantly-updated glossary of tender terms. Is there one you've puzzled over that we've missed? Please contact us and we'll add it to the list.

• BID - A bid is an offer that is made for the acquisition of goods, services, or assets.
• BID, NO-BID ANALYSIS - is the process of analysing your prospects of winning business by eliminating opportunities for which you have little prospect of winning and concentrating resources (people, time and money) and those prospects that can be won.
• CAPTURE MANAGEMENT - according to the Association of Proposal Management Professionals capture management refers to three specific aspects of capturing prospective business as follows:
  Capture Plan - Documented analysis, strategies, and actions initiated following the pursuit decision that details customer issues, considerations relating to competitor and internal positioning, approaches to be implemented, and management tasks to be implemented to guide the capture of a particular opportunity.
  Capture Planning - A phase of the Business Development cycle or process focused on acquiring a specific piece of business.
  Capture Strategy - A plan to win a specific definable opportunity.
• COMPETITOR ANALYSIS - sometimes called the Bidder Comparison Matrix (Shipley Associates) is the process of assessing your company in relation to your competitors. It involves assessing and scoring issues or points of difference with your competitors from the viewpoint of the client to determine whether you have a real chance of winning the business
• COMPLIANCE (see REGULATORY COMPLIANCE) - compliance means conforming to a rule, such as a specification, policy, standard or law.
• ELEVATOR PITCH (see PITCH) - elevator pitch, a very short sales pitch such as that made during an elevator ride.
• EVALUATION CRITERIA - Benchmark, standard, or yardstick against which accomplishment, conformance, performance, and suitability of an individual, alternative, activity, product, or plan, as well as of risk-reward ratio is measured.
• EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI) - a formal registration of interest in providing an interested party with goods and/or services.
• REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (REI) - is a request to potential suppliers of goods and services to register their interest in supplying them. An EOI usually consists of a document describing requirements or specifications and seeking information from potential suppliers that demonstrate their ability to meet those requirements.
• INVITE TO APPLY (ITA) (See REI) - a request for an expression of interest- mostly a Government Tender term
• PITCH (SALES PITCH; see also ELEVATOR PITCH) - a pitch generally refers to a sales pitch and is a planned presentation of a product or service designed to initiate and close a sale of the same product or service. Sales professionals prepare and give sales pitches which can be delivered in any number of ways.
• REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) - is the process of collecting written information about the capabilities of various suppliers and usually follows a format that can be used for comparative purposes.
• REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) - see RFT
• REQUEST FOR TENDER (RFT)
  A typical RFT could include the following:
  Summary information outlining the products or services being called for; general information such as closing dates and time, and place that the bid is to be lodged
  General Conditions of tender including as: Tendering or bidding conditions - conditions imposed by the Tenderer with which you must comply in the response.
  Evaluation criteria - the criteria against which your proposal will be evaluated - these are often weighted.
  Tender Specifications detailing the scope of work to be undertaken
  Attachments or Appendices
  Draft Contract or Agreement
  Response Schedules that facilitate your response to the requirements of the tender.
• REQUEST FOR QUOTATION (RFQ) - is a request that a company publishes when they want to hire contractors to perform a job; the RFQ is basically their way of encouraging contractors to bid against each other. The company that issues an RFQ then selects one of the bidders to take the job.
• REGULATORY COMPLIANCE (see COMPLIANCE) - describes the goal that corporations or public agencies aspire to in their efforts to ensure that personnel are aware of and take steps to comply with relevant laws and regulations.
• STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS - is the process of ensuring that all stakeholders are taken into consideration when writing a proposal including the identification of Decision-Makers, Influencers, and their Issues.