Tender for construction and installation works: is it always necessary to arrange it when choosing a contractor and supplier

– How can I choose competent and reliable contractors for the project?

How can you find a suitable contractor for your project? What selection criteria to use and what to focus on: advertising in the media, reviews, recommendations? An effective tool to separate the wheat from the chaff, I believe the tender. What are its advantages when it is necessary and can you do without it?

Tender helps to choose the most suitable contractor or supplier

What is the meaning of the tender?

We are often faced with the tender in our life. Even if you go shopping, for example, for a smartphone, you hold a kind of tender.

Responsible people don't usually tell the seller:

– I've got 30 Grand, give me some phone for the money.

You study the characteristics of the models, then compare them with each other, look at the reputation of the manufacturer and brand. Yes, and look at the price, so as not to overpay when buying.

This can be considered an example of a tender procedure at the domestic level.

The same thing happens at the construction site. You don't tell the first contractor you get: here's 20 million, build me an office with all the money.

You will be looking for a suitable offer: budget, functionality, timing. The tender just helps to carry out search in an organized way, according to clear and understandable criteria.

How to find suppliers or contractors for the tender?

Information about potential bidders is obtained from various sources. The construction market is not as big as it may seem, so you should rely not only on open sources and presentation materials of companies, but also on reviews, as well as real projects.

You can just ask those who have recently implemented a similar project, and ask to share their impressions. Believe my experience: people are willing to make such contacts.

As an additional source, use independent expert opinions or assessments. They can give the management company that you invited to the project, or those industry professionals that you personally trust.

Study reviews, consult with experts, ask customers to gather information about the supplier

What are the criteria to choose a supplier or a contractor

The criteria for selecting a supplier or contractor must be defined, defined and measurable. Subjective feeling at the level of "like – dislike" - a bad adviser. Even if you are impressed with the portfolio, wait to give the order. First, hold a tender and make sure that your feelings are supported by rational arguments. As they say, the first impression can be deceptive.

It's quite another thing when you held a tender, selected three potential suppliers, talked in person, collected feedback and saw with your own eyes a couple of implemented projects. In this situation, you are much more likely to find the desired contractor who will do what you need, in the right time and with the right quality. My experience clearly shows that you can get such a result only at the tender.

The procedure allows you to determine the legal and financial purity of the company, to evaluate the work on real projects. As a result of such competitive selection, important details are revealed: the quality of work, their organization, who works at the construction site, who and how manages the workers, how the processes are organized, how good the final result is. These nuances will provide high-quality execution of the order.

How to organize a tender?

To conduct the tender, a package of documents is prepared, which include:

• terms of reference with a description of the object, project or works, which are displayed on the tender;
• financial justification of the contract price;
• design and estimate documentation, on the basis of which contractors carry out their own calculations.

An effective tender is conducted in several stages. I'll tell you how we do it.

Pre-qualification tender

At this stage, we collect the necessary information and, with the help of lawyers and financiers, we check the purity of the participating companies.

Then we inform potential participants about the future tender and ask to provide a certain package of documents. As a rule, it includes presentation materials, portfolio, documents of title, a signed letter of confidentiality.

We select those who will participate in the tender and notify them in writing. This letter is an invitation to tender.

Too much information

The main tender

The companies invited to the main stage have already passed the financial and legal purity check and signed confidentiality documents. They receive and study the tender task and project documentation. After that, prepare proposals. We carefully study them, select two or three suppliers, with whom we approach the finish line. In the final selection, we study the financial and legal nuances, collect real feedback, carefully get acquainted with the real, already implemented projects and listen to the opinions of people who have experience with this contractor. Based on the analysis of all the information received, we provide our recommendations to the customer, and he already makes the final choice.

When time is short, the tender is held in one stage, without prior preparation, but it means a lot of hustle and bustle. And such important decisions as the choice of contractor or supplier is better to make carefully to avoid mistakes. Therefore, I prefer a two-stage tender, so that you can carefully study the proposals.

When you can do without a tender

To be honest, I found out a long time ago that the most objective choice of suppliers or contractors is provided by the tender. Therefore, I see no reason to do without this procedure.

However, there are situations in which there is simply no need to choose suppliers:

• Nominated contractors. When the customer already has a designer or General contractor with whom he works and wants to deal only with him. As a rule, it is a long-term working relationship that suits both sides.
• Exclusive delivery. The tender is not held in the case when the work or service is so specific that it is performed by a single supplier or contractor. For example, a piece of furniture handmade. Such an exclusive supply is agreed upon directly, no tender is held for it.

If there are no nominated customers and you do not plan to buy handmade tables of exclusive design, the tender will help you. When used correctly, this tool makes life much easier.

The tender helps to choose the best possible option

Does the tender give a 100% guarantee of the right choice?

I will have to break the rules of etiquette and answer the question: "What can you get 100% guarantee?"Circumstances sometimes develop in such a way that the result is not quite as it was expected. The most common reason is the human factor. For example, the object came to other people, not those who did the work, received excellent reviews. And the result may be a little different, because the human factor makes its own adjustments even in a very good organization of work.

By the way, our quality control system, which I have already mentioned, will be very useful here. Daily monitoring of the state of work allows you to quickly identify the "pain" points, if any, and quickly stop them to prevent possible problems.

A properly organized and well-conducted tender allows you to find a truly conscientious contractor, a talented designer, a thoughtful designer and other responsible suppliers.

Therefore, I vote for the tender at any opportunity.