Friday, 4 July 2025

Paper vs portals

If you do the X / Bluesky thing, follow me at @HousingITguy or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy


I was chatting only the other day about how ubiquitous procurement portals had become. Also how there are so many of the buggers. Having logins for most of them as buyer and sometimes supplier, I can see why they wind up bidders so much.

Also, I was working with a client a few months ago who   Used a countrywide (one of those devolved ones) portal and the password had been lost when a previous employee had retired, 2 years prior. Queue a morning wasted while a messy reset had to be done, only after handing over an acre of company information. 

Bidders should never wait right up to the deadline time (high noon this Friday probably). My advice is get in at least a day early in the event of portal down for maintenance, or major functions not working right. Generating ability to upload your submission documents, or identify what mandatory field you have omitted.

Oh what a simpler time it was when there was to be 5 people on a moderation panel and 5 full printed and sexily bound copies were needed to be sent in the post. I remember binder salesmen (yes, generally men), coming in to me as a supplier, selling their ‘binding dreams’. Some worked a treat, others lasted produced a sexy tender tone, with an approximate shelf life of a box of half a dozen eggs.

Those things used to weigh quite a lot and I remember Diane, the trusty tender producer needing to remember to bend her knees, in order to prevent a back injury that would be accident book material.

Missing a section could invalidate a tender. Often they were mandated to only be posted, no hand delivery permitted. One one tender that went out from my old shop, back in 2008 or so, the postie crashed his van which resulted in tender being damaged on delivery to deepest darkest Salford. It was swiftly rejected, despite offers of hand-delivery to mitigate. Yet no, rules were rules!

Also, from the paper tender memories, many a dote would go out for a HMS, then 4 months later for a FMS, then 4 months later for a Contractors solution. Irritating when you could propose all three. If you didn’t win the HMS up front, you might as well not bother with the other two. Tenders are a lot of work, why waste your time when the odds of success are so slim?

If you are a Contracting Body, try to VoG out for the lot if your soft-market indicates the combo for what you need is out there. Always scope the market ahead first. Otherwise you might need a few attempts to get your result. After many dozens, I don’t think I have had a single zero return as yet.

Digital portals are hassle, but after paper copies and the like, they may just be a necessary evil. We just gotta live with them !

 

 

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*** Join the discussion with Claire & Aiden ***

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Off the shelf or build your own - how to scope your options ?
Get in touch , I will drop in for a brew & bring the Jaffa Cakes 

       Related Post: Software contracts - such a minefield. What to be aware of and what to try to avoid..

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Barclay James Harvest - Paper WingsBarclay James Harvest - Paper Wings

(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting 
www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


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