As some of our members know our partners, bids&tenders invited muniSERV.ca to speak at their users’ group meeting for public sector buyers on October 13th, 2016 – and we invited Keith Strachan, of SellToPublicSector.com to co-present with us.  We asked our members for some common bidder issues they’ve experienced when responding to RFPs – and we got some great ones from you – Thanks!  This is the update we promised to provide to you after the session.

The attendees included buyers from the municipal, healthcare and school sectors. The municipal buyers were from small, medium and large regional municipalities which provided a good cross-section of procurement perspectives.

We shared some of the common bidder issues we heard from you and then asked for feedback from the buyers in attendance. Here’s our presentation slides.

The attendees were very engaged and offered great feedback and solutions to the issues we raised on your behalf.  Here are just a couple of them:

Finding Public Sector Opportunities – A small consultant whose services are usually less than $20,000 may not find many opportunities on public tendering websites.  How do they spread the word and/or where do they post opportunities that fall below their RFP thresholds?

Buyers’ Response:  School boards and Hospitals have mandatory posting requirements for all projects and they all must be through a mandated competitive process.

Municipalities reported they have a difficult time addressing this because there is really no one place to post them. Some hold Vendor Days where they will invite vendors to come in and they will provide them with a list of all upcoming smaller projects.  Still others only circulate them to a list of their preferred vendors in order to save time.

Take Aways: 

muniSERV: We will be actively encouraging municipalities to post, not only their RFP documents, but now also any invitations to bid on these smaller projects, which typically are consulting and professional services.  

Consultants:  Check municipal websites for any upcoming Vendor Days and participate in them.  Also investigate how to become a preferred vendor in the municipalities in which you’re interested in finding work.

Complying with Requirements – Do you really need $5m insurance coverage?

We gave the example of a muniSERV professional who wanted to respond to an RFP for graphic design work but the RFP requested they have $5m insurance coverage, WSIB and a lot of requirements that didn’t seem to fit the small project.  They ended up not responding because they simply could not meet the requirements.

Buyers’ Response: Municipalities need to ensure they have all the bases covered so their legal and risk management teams will include the full standard requirements in the RFP document.  However, if the requirements appear unreasonable for the specific project, vendors just need to call the municipality and bring it to their attention.  The purchasers then will ask their legal and risk management teams to review the requirements and most often they will agree and reduce or eliminate the requirement all together if it’s not imperative or mandatory for the specific project.  If this happens they will then issue an addendum to the RFP to notify vendors of the reduced requirements.  

Take Aways:

muniSERV:  It is interesting to note vendors can make this kind of request and/or that buyers would alter their original requirements, if deemed appropriate. 

Consultants:  If some requirements seem unreasonable for a project you want to respond to don’t be afraid to ask the municipality to reconsider them. You may not need $5m insurance after all! 

Thanks again to all those who took the time to help us!  The presentation would not have gone as well as it did without your input!
 

Thanks too, to bids&tenders for the opportunity to present your bidder issues directly to the public sector buyers so we could learn from each other and continue to Bridge the Buyer/Vendor Gap!

Susan Shannon, Principal muniSERV.ca