Advice to Procurement Professionals: Get Visual
Three ways to use visuals to simplify bid documents: use a picture (e.g. for a schedule), use a form (e.g. for experience details), use a spreadsheet (e.g. for bidders’ questions on the RFP).
Advice to Procurement Professionals: Consider the Order of Questions
Think about the critical-path order of all questions: What do you need to know first? The organization example given here illustrates an entirely preventable problem: The order of the questions doesn’t help evaluators understand the answers.
Term: Debrief
A meeting with the client after the conclusion of the procurement (usually after contract award) to receive feedback on your proposal. (Should you bother to go? Yes. Always. Win or lose.)
Advice to Procurement Professionals: Remember What You Want
This second in my series for procurement professionals focuses on remembering “what you want” – and asking for just that, just as specifically as you can.
Term: Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN)
A mechanism used when the Canadian government proposes to award a contract sole source, that is, without using a competitive process. The ACAN notifies industry of the proposed award and lays out the process and schedule by which companies can contest the decision if they consider that they are also qualified to do the Work.