We understood that successful stakeholder engagement would be key to meeting this challenge. Prior to starting the tender process, we advised the client to formulate a detailed business change roadmap which was distilled down into changes by Directorate. This formed the baseline requirements for tender.
We ran the tender process through a small joint team which reported into the Executive. Our strategy was to award to seven suppliers on market standard contract terms and conditions, with the goal that five of the suppliers would then service the requirements of the client’s five main Directorates. This was to maintain competitive leverage and provide pseudo exclusivity. The supplier would only be awarded further work on the basis of continuing successful delivery within that Directorate.
Established terms and conditions were then reviewed to ensure they were fit for purpose. To ensure supplier consistency, we introduced the terms and conditions early in the bidding process and made their agreement a prerequisite to the tender (this element was before the 2016 UCR changes, but to clarify the case study relates to activities still ongoing with the client in 2019).
Three pyramid models for small, medium and large projects were used to create the lowest rate benchmark across all submissions. The best and final offer stage was structured in a way that stipulated the target percentage reduction needed by each bidder to align them as closely as possible to the lowest rate benchmark.
Each Directorate was allocated a Barkers Contract Manager (BCM) who provided advice on the most appropriate commercial model to be used for future activity based upon the requirements, project complexity and client dependencies.
Finally, we led the setting up of appropriate governance. Application of the governance model ensured risks and issues were managed effectively, and that all parties remained aligned from a relationship and strategy perspective.