Understanding a Tender/Bid Documentation

If your project is going through a normal tendering (some times, it is called bidding) process, you will usually be required to submit your proposal to address client's requirements specified in the Bid document. The bid document is some times called Tender document too.

So, what are inside a tender document? Usually it will consist of the following parts:

1. Tender cover letter
2. Tender instruction to vendor (instructing the vendor how to response)
3. General requirements
4. Product requirements
5. Services requirements

For a good sample of RFP, click here to access the website of Office of Medical Procurement.

Within the Tender document, there will be one part named Request for Proposal (RFP) which details down all the client's requirements (general requirements, product requirements and services requirements) on the project.

As the name implies, RFP will expect the vendor to propose how they want to address the project requirements. The proposal should show your distinction on your solution - how different is your solution.

There are basically two parts of the requirements. First, there will be requirements for the product or products required for the project. For example, requirements on the hardware or software required for the project. The second type of requirements are those non-product requirements. For example, study, design, training, testing and implementation are all services. When we combine these two types of requirements, we call it solution requirements.

There is very high chance that more than one vendor is proposing the same product. For example, two vendors may be IBM product sellers. But, the quality of service may be different. So, through different approach in packaging the solution, it can differentiate the quality of the vendor.

Nowadays, especially for projects going through tendering process, the client (or customer) will look out for better solution (which implies a better product range plus better quality of service).