Case Study
Learning From Experience
Background & Situation
Having won a £5 Bn bid delivered over 5 years, (mainly sole source) but with some elements remaining competitive, our client wanted to ensure they were in the best shape to bid and win the bid again in 5 years’ time. The scope and size of the contract meant that work needed to start at least 4 years in advance of the bidding process. Part of the challenge is to convince the customer to retain the majority of the contract as sole source again rather than competitive bidding. Building trust and evidencing value for money is critical to help convince the customer to agree to a sole source contract again.
Benefits
Developing a robust and joint bid process with the customer, building trust through understanding each other’s drivers, pressures, and governance requirements.
Building understanding of what was needed in terms of approach, behaviour, and evidence by each organisation to help them deliver a more streamlined and effective bid response.
Improved relationships and removal of an adversarial behaviour that had built up during the first bid response.
Mutual benefits in terms of less stress, more collaboration, and a desire to jointly improve the way forward.
Joint ownership of the process by both customer and supplier.
What we did
- Individual interviews with each of the respective team members to capture the LFE, positive, negative and what 'good' should look like going forward, producing a summary report.
- Facilitated a workshop to prioritise the address, key issues, and key opportunities.
- Agreed action plans with owners and timeframes.
- Agreed joint activity to help get buy in from the key stakeholders and enable sole source contracting.
- Built a level of trust to enable a smoother, low stress bid process next time around and embedded a continuous improvement culture.
