精东影视

Now this might start as a strange story, so bear with me, you鈥檒l get the drift of my theme I鈥檓 sure.

Why is it, that assuming exactly the same product is available, if you went to buy it from say, Harrods as opposed to any other high street retailer such as Argos and the like, you鈥檇 expect to pay more for it at where?

Well Harrods of course, everyone agrees on that.

So far so good.

Then why is it that a current trend I鈥檓 picking up on is to line up the likes of Harrods and Argos against each other and expect Harrods to give you the cheapest deal? Now substitute those names with any diverging set of contractors or subcontractors or suppliers you care to name. Oh and then also have a very extensive list too, don鈥檛 just go to Harrods and Argos.

Now I can hear you all groan as you say we鈥檒l never win that project with 鈥橷鈥� on the tender list they are 鈥檅uying鈥� work all over, what an unfair listing.
Sound familiar?

What damage is this practice doing to the industry as a whole?

Well here鈥檚 my take on a bit of that.

Part of our State of the Economy Survey we carried out recently contained a question 鈥橶hat鈥檚 the single biggest likely area for costs to increase this year for you?鈥� We had the usual expected answers of fuel, steel, concrete and the like, see the recent 精东影视 article for more on that鈥� but, one of the other top answers was 鈥檛he increasing cost of putting together a bid to win a project.鈥�

Interesting.

Well we know for sure about that in a small way for our contribution of providing bills of quantities to contractors bidding on design and dump, errr sorry, design and build projects these days. Let alone the pqq鈥檚 that go before that, the subsequent bid team that is needed and the various documents that everyone seems to require for the bid and then no longer refer to for the duration of the project. As after all, who considers those when 鈥橷鈥� has put in a bid so much cheaper than anyone else鈥� you go with 鈥橷鈥� don鈥檛 you鈥� it鈥檚 such a bargain you cannot refuse it.

Now where does everyone think these costs end up?

Well on the face of it with the contracting party.

But in the long run?

Well the end user of course.

What a waste of time, money and effort.

Who advises clients on this?

Well professional advisers naturally. So come on guys instead of lining up Harrods with Argos, make the competition realistic and keep the numbers bidding to a sensible list. Stand up to Clients who insist on having you compile unbalanced tender lists. You鈥檒l be surprised about the outcome.

And a final thought, what practice came about as a result of extensive tender lists and contractors not wishing to decline a tender opportunity鈥�.

This article first appeared on Derek Mynott鈥檚 blog, which you can read