Competitive tendering costs - are they really worth it?

摘要

Competition in procurement can add value. Some may find that strange for a champion of collaboration to say, but that is to misunderstand what we at Constructing Excellence mean by collaboration. Collaboration does not mean no competition. It should mean intelligent, healthy competition on the right measures of value, which is a positive force for innovation. The problem is that too often we see long tender lists, Dutch auctions and lowest-price awards. The release of new data from the MarketingWorks/Reading University bid cost survey (see pages 20-22) begs the question whether the amount of money spent on tendering is worth it, or whether we should adopt a much more streamlined, efficient way of selecting the best team to build the right thing on time for a fair price. Certainly it's a lot of money, so you would expect a compelling business case.