The public sector Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has £6bn to prepare the capital’s infrastructure, while the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) oversees £2bn of budget, most of it privately funded. Procurement will follow a public sector-style model through the Games’ Compete For website (see Useful Sites box-out), with LOCOG’s major procurement to commence in 2009. The Games will bring 7,000 direct contracts and up to 75,000 contract opportunities, comprising some lucrative print production. So how can UK printers, large and small, reap the benefits of Olympic opportunities?

The official Olympic procurement policy says it will encourage the involvement of… small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), though it accepts that larger contracts will undoubtedly go to the larger companies. However, the policy document states: As the major opportunities for smaller organisations are within the supply chains of its major contractors, the ODA will encourage those contractors to open up their opportunities. Major suppliers will have to advertise sub-contracting work on Compete For.

Tricky process
But beyond one-off Olympics opportunities, how can UK print tap into the public coffers? Public sector contracts offer the kind of regular bread-and-butter work that keeps the presses rolling. One firm with a strong public sector pedigree is 68-staff Redlin Print. Nick Faint from the Chelmsford-based printer says: Why wouldn’t you want to work with a customer with guaranteed money who wants to work with you for four or five years?

Another key driver is that public sector work can be largely recession-proof and tends to stay on local shores. But the catch is that bidding for, and winning, such contracts is complicated and inflexible, requiring a process-driven approach that stops many printers in their tracks. A common misconception is that it’s just another price battle anyway. Wrong, says Faint, who won a recent local authority contract without quoting the lowest price. We were third or fourth on price, but we came through on the quality of the way we would deliver the service, he says.

Price can be only a small part of the criteria. For a recent London Development Authority print contract, only 5% of the tender was weighted on price. The rest of the win hinged on quality, which provided 45%, and a massive 50% on accreditations and policies. Chris Patefield, director of regional support body PrintLondon, says: Increasingly, public sector buyers want to know what kind of company they are dealing with before they even consider price or quality. Above all, government bodies fear being splashed across the red-top tabloids for dealing with questionable suppliers, making accreditations and policies must-haves for the public sector. The reason tenders turn into price wars is that when policies are compulsory and quality is taken as a given, cost is the only variable left.

Certificates do count for a lot, but before you start waving your FSC badge or your ISO 9001 out the front of City Hall, you need gauge whether you are ‘fit to supply’. At PrintLondon’s recent workshop on public sector procurement, Larch Consulting managing director Lucy Jeynes suggested a good first question would be: could we win it? Jeynes says, for example, that public sector bodies subscribe to a standard business rule to not place work with a firm if it would account for more than a quarter of the supplier’s sales. So, if you’re a £4m-turnover printer, putting in the hard yards for a £1m tender would be a waste of time if you’re out of the running before the contest even begins.

But while financial fitness and policies reign supreme, client relationships are still important. Being golf buddies with a public sector print buyer may not be a ticket to government-funded jobs, but Jeynes says: Although they don’t have these contracts in their gift anymore, the better contacts you have, the more likely you are to find out when work is available. ‘Keep selling’ is Jeynes’ motto. Get your boots on and do the footwork, she says. Sure, a win may hinge on stringent criteria, and schmoozing the buyer may not help, but it’s important to stay in the customer’s line of sight.

Public sector procurement people are looking for the ‘safe and appropriate’ choice. They are accountable to the masses, and will veer toward printers with the type of transparent and open structure that promises reliability and respectability. One such name is London-based Abacus Lithographic Printing, which has more than 20 years’ experience of public sector work. Paul Belcher, from the 20-staff firm, says: The public sector needs to be perceived as doing the right thing socially and environmentally, and surrounding themselves with like-minded suppliers. Tendering is a process that is adopted so there is an idea it is free and open. However, Belcher concedes: I’m not sure this is the case in practice − for practical reasons, who would want to deal with a wide array of suppliers?

Incentive to qualify
You might be fit to supply, but more and more public sector work is in the hands of a closed list of suppliers thanks to procurement frameworks. The cross-government print framework, originally led by the Department for Transport (DfT) but now handled by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), came into force on 1 April 2007. It guarantees that print firms included comply with stringent qualification criteria. The upshot is that the work, carved into 10 different lots, such as Litho SRA1/B1 and Web Offset, could be worth £1bn to those 60 printers that qualified as approved suppliers. It’s also boon for customers, says St Ives, which is the only printer to have been approved across all 10 lots. Alan Warner, St Ives customer service director, public sector, says: The OGC believes that, on average, it can save companies 77 days and associated costs by bypassing the pre-qualification stages. Savings of these types mean frameworks are here to stay. Warner adds: The OGC is part of the Treasury. There’s a huge drive from Alistair Darling downwards to use these frameworks.

But if, like most printers, you haven’t made it on to a framework, yet don’t want to spend years waiting for it to re-open, there are still public sector opportunities. DfT print and publishing manager Chris Cameron says that – unfortunately – many public sector bodies continue to procure independently of the OGC framework. So it’s not the end of the day for suppliers that haven’t made it on, adds Cameron.

Survival of the fittest
There are a host of websites to keep you up to date with opportunities across the EU (see Useful Sites box). Though it can be hard graft, there are a few simple steps to streamline the approach, depending on the type of tender. If it’s a ‘restricted tender’, then the first taste will be a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ). This pass-fail stage aims to reduce the pool of potential suppliers, and a failure here immediately precludes a bidder from trying for the work. The PQQ looks at things like financial standing and business probity. You may also have to attach back-up documents, such as a Certificate of Incorporation, policy documents and audited accounts for the past three years. Larch’s Jeynes advises companies to compile electronic and hard-copy versions of any documents relevant to a PQQ and put them in an obvious, easily accessible place. Don’t just scrabble them together at the last minute, she advises. That way, you’ll never need to waste time completing standard paperwork as the deadline looms. Imple-menting this procedure will also help with an ‘open tender’, where anyone is invited to submit a full-priced tender without any pre-qualification.

Regardless of whether you’re submitting a PQQ or a complete tender bid, remember to adhere exactly to the instructions. Many a bidder has come unstuck over the smallest of errors. Public sector procurement departments follow rigid rules, and even the smallest deviation can mean failure. For instance, bids generally must be unidentifiable − printing out the submission on your fancy new letterhead might brighten up the page, but it will also mean an instant disqualification.
It can be even more disheartening when a failed bid has been composed by the sales force, whose time would’ve been better spent out on the road selling. Abacus’s Belcher says his firm took weeks to put together an unsuccessful Olympics bid, made more trying by not having a dedicated department to deal with these kind of documents, which turn out to be a waste of time. If you’re determined to win work through tenders, Jeynes suggests setting up a dedicated role or department to look after them.

She says you can avoid wasting time by going back to the original question ¬ could we win it? – and only put in the effort if there’s a chance you could. She also advises to ask for feedback, not only when you miss out on a contract, but also if you win.

One-off opportunities like the Olympics roll around only rarely. For the nation’s sporting hopefuls, the Games are the highlight of an otherwise packed competitive calendar that offers a broad scope for smaller successes. London 2012 will not be a golden opportunity for all the UK’s printers, but being fit to supply will have you in with a chance of climbing atop the public sector podium all year round.

TOP TIPS
• Register on e-procurement sites
• Find out when closed lists and frameworks re-open, and put a reminder in your Outlook calendar or forward planner
• Keep all documents needed for a tender in an easily accessible place
• Ensure you are ‘fit to supply’ before putting together a bid
• Read the rules for every bid and strictly adhere
to them
• Take a systematic approach to tendering
• Build relationships with public sector buyers and first-tier suppliers
• Always ask for feedback, whether you win or lose

JARGON BUSTER
CPV Common Procurement Vocabulary: these codes were introduced by the EU to standardise the classification of goods and service

PQQ Pre-Qualification Questionnaire: tender bodies use these to decide whether a supplier is fit to bid for a contract. Also called an RFI (Request for Information)

RTP Request to Participate: sent by the potential supplier to the tendering body before being invited to submit a bid

ITT Invitation to Tender: a means to invite a bid or proposal from a prospective supplier. Also called an RFP/RFB (Request for Proposal/Request for Bid)

EOI Expression of Interest

USEFUL SITES
Supply2.gov.uk
www.supply2.gov.uk
Government-backed service for contracts under £100,000. Tasked with becoming the first port of call for public sector buyers and suppliers. Local tender alerts are free, and users can upgrade for regional and national alerts

CompeteFor
www.competefor.com
The main online brokerage service for buyers and suppliers to the London 2012 Games, with close ties with LOCOG and ODA, that will provide access to some 15,000 Games opportunities

Tenders Electronic Daily
www.ted.europa.eu
EU-backed service that lists all tenders across the EU above the £138,893 upper threshold. Users can register for tender alerts

Sell2Wales
www.sell2wales.co.uk
Covers small and large Welsh public sector opportunities. Joint venture by the Welsh Development Agency and Welsh Assembly Government, but open to all UK suppliers

Free tender alerts
www.publictender.co.uk
www.tendersdirect.com
www.in-tend.com