At the end of another busy year of helping clients win work, I’m sitting writing my list to Santa about all the wonderful gifts I hope he will bring us bid professionals to make our work lives better next year.
We’ve all been very good this year – working long hours and juggling multiple submissions at one time, waiting for our subject matter experts to give us the information we need, using our expertise and creativity to submit compelling, winning bids.
We definitely deserve something nice this Christmas.
Here are three things on my list this year:
- Improved procurement timelines – In the last 12 months, we’ve noticed a big increase in the number of tenders that have been significantly delayed compared to their proposed publication dates on procurement organisations’ pipelines. This causes significant challenges in terms of planning and resourcing, and puts our teams under pressure when they are then issued without warning (particularly at peak holiday seasons like summer and Christmas). We are wishing the procurement elves will gift us this year with greater certainty around procurement timelines – along with better engagement with bidders to help us be prepared. Hopefully the new Procurement Act will solve some of these issues.
- More efficient ways of working – The process of bidding for work is still so inefficient and labour intensive. With such rapid development of technology (and AI in particular), it feels like procurement is stuck in the dark ages with clunky, outdated portals. And many bidding organisations still rely on disparate business systems and manual processes that cause huge inefficiency and cost to businesses. My wish this Christmas is for procurement teams to take advantage of new technologies to streamline the procurement process. I also hope the advancement of tools and technology available for bidders continues, so we can spend more time on value added activities that help our clients win more work.
- Greater recognition of our value – I believe the role of the bid profession continues to be vastly undervalued by colleagues and counterparts within organisations. I often make a distinction between ‘bidding’ and ‘work winning’, where ‘work winning’ is the objective while ‘bidding’ is the activity. Our expertise and insights of what it takes to win work – whether that is through capture, bid strategy, bid writing or design – make us a strategic enabler within our organisations. I’m hoping that Santa will share some of our gold dust with our colleagues this Christmas so we can get more seats at the top table and better influence how we help them win work.
Paul Johnstone
Paul is a ‘poacher-turned-gamekeeper’. He established Optimum Business Growth in 2020 after spending 15 years in procurement roles across financial services, manufacturing and the public sector. He has led strategic infrastructure deals and large Framework Agreements. He knows ’what good looks like’ to buyers, enabling him to help clients win profitable contracts using a more strategic approach to winning work. Paul has also developed the award-winning Bid Journey methodology.
