When you submit to tender you are effectively putting yourself forward to enter a working partnership with the company that has put the contract out. 

Many contracts held under the EU regulations will be fairly sizable, and therefore a solid working relationship is essential to both parties meeting their goals for a given project. 

Communication is key to not only making a successful tender bid in the first place, but also to completing projects on time and in a manner that everyone is happy with. 

There are a number of essential elements that should be communicated successfully in order to make a partnership work well in the realm of tendering, those elements are:

• A well set out contract in which all aims and expectations are laid out in a clear and easy to understand manner

• Timescales - everyone should be aware of timescales and deadlines, and if there are any issues at any point, they should be communicated to the other party as soon as possible

• The suppliers needs should be fully understood - the government authority should have enlisted the work of a given supplier based on their credentials for being able to carry out the work, and therefore they should be well aware of the strengths and limitations of that work force

• The clients needs should also be fully understood - when bidding for tenders, as we have already mentioned on the blog, you should only bid if you are sure you can meet the needs of the client. These will be outlined in the initial tender documentation so there should be no surprises when it comes to actually doing the work

The best working relationships are build on strong communication, which encourages trust and a mutual understanding that is essential to bringing any contract to its full and final conclusion successfully.