More than 676 000 European public procurement notices are published per year, including 258 000 calls for tenders, amounting to approximately EUR 670 billion. How to select the tenders that concern your business and how to maximise the chances of winning a contract?
A public contract may come from a European institution, such as the Commission, the Parliament, the Council, the European Court of Justice, the European Economic and Social Committee, the European Central Bank, the European Investment Bank, the Committee of the Regions… but also from ministries, authorities, national or regional agencies…
Every day, several hundred calls for tenders are published by these bodies in Europe for the purchase of supplies, works and services.
All public procurement in Europe is published on the European website Tenders Electronic Daily (TED).
Here are some practical tips to maximise your chances of winning a public procurement in Europe:
1. Identify opportunities by selecting contract notices
The TED — Tenders Electronic Daily platform makes it possible to select calls for tenders based on selection criteria relating to the payers (contracting authority), the countries, and the sectors or products concerned.
2. Prepare yourself by making a strict check list and retroplanning, taking a little margin from the deadline for submission of offers. Any tender submitted after the deadline date and time is not taken into account.
3. Carefully read the specifications (TOR — Terms of reference) and ask for clarifications if necessary.
4. Determine what the evaluators are looking for. Read the tender evaluation criteria carefully.
5. Form a consortium with a partner if it can add value to your tender, for example in terms of knowledge of the local market, or in relation to a skill, technique, or part of the specifications that you do not have sufficient control over.
6. Gather the requested documents (e.g. audited accounts, statutes…)
7. Entrust the drafting of the offer to an expert, either internally or through a collaboration with an external consultant.
8. Reply only to the specifications/terms of reference. Avoid adding items that are not requested.
9. Highlight your strengths, expertise and experience relevant to what is requested in the call for tenders.
10. Check and reread your proposal.
Enterprise Europe Brussels helps interested Brussels companies to use the TED platform by selecting the selection criteria for the payers (contracting authority), the countries, and the sectors or products concerned. A personalised search profile is established for the company based on its selection criteria on TED in order to allow it to receive by email the targeted calls for tenders that interest it. It also benefits from practical advice to optimise its chances of winning a market.
