The opportunity to tender for new contracts is not something that comes along very often, so when it does, we may not have all the skills and experience that we would ideally like to have.
But a project delivered through such a contract is something that you will have to live with for a very long time, so it pays to get it right – and this starts with the contract tender specification.
Recently we assembled a few experts with years of experience in contract tendering to talk about the process and highlight some of the pitfalls that could get in the way of writing a good specification.
Presenting and taking questions from the audience were:
Jimi Dicker, security consultant at Triplej Solutions
Graeme Etheridge, lead consultant at Truth Monkey Consulting
Oliver Martin, Public Space Surveillance Manager, London Borough of Hackney and Honorary Chairman of the CCTV User Group
Dawn Holmes, security consultant and non-executive director of the CCTV User Group
Ilker Dervish, consultant at Comfort Zone and vice chairman of the CCTV User Group
Peter Webster, director of the CCTV User Group
Key recommendations to emerge from our hour-long session included:
Understand the key purposes and outcomes of what you want
Allow enough time to do it properly (this is often a lot longer than you imagine)
Build a team of subject matter experts, internal stakeholders (such as legal, procurement, IT and finance) and external stakeholders (such as police, residents and other interested parties)
Specify at the right level of detail for the project, but don’t over-specify to the point of excluding potentially suitable vendors
Work through the lifetime of the project from inception and commissioning to operations, maintenance and decommissioning to determine what is applicable to this contract. Consider breaking the package down into smaller component parts, such as maintenance
Plan for and commission complete user acceptance testing (UAT), operational and administrative tests and inspections before making final payment – and plan to withhold a percentage for remediation
Don’t be afraid to ask for advice from your peers – especially from us at the CCTV User Group!
Watch the recording of the session for more insights into writing contract tender specifications.
You can also download a copy of the presentation slides from the link below.
* Graeme and Jimi will be running a workshop on procurement at Vison 2022, the CCTV User Group’s annual conference, on 25-27 April. Click here for more details: CCTV User Group | Vision2022 Conference | UK