Responding to a public tender: the SME guide to winning (not just taking part)

Tenders are published on online platforms, free to consult:

• BOAMP: the French official bulletin of public procurement notices.
• TED (Tenders Electronic Daily): contracts above the EU thresholds.
• PLACE: the French State purchasing platform.
• Regional buyer profiles (Maximilien, Mégalis Bretagne, e-marchespublics, AWS, etc.), where small local contracts are also found.

Set up alerts with your trade keywords and CPV codes on at least two sources: a national one (BOAMP) and a regional one. A contract under 90,000 euros excl. VAT may only be published on the buyer's own profile.

The most common mistake is to answer everything. Each response costs 15 to 40 hours. Keep only the contracts that match your trade, your production capacity and your area: if you win, you will have to deliver.

The tender file (DCE, dossier de consultation des entreprises) gathers the documents provided by the buyer:

• The tender rules (RC, règlement de la consultation): the rules of the game. Award criteria and weighting, documents to provide, deadline date and time, submission terms, possible site visit. Read it first.
• The CCTP: the technical specifications.
• The CCAP: administrative terms, duration, penalties, payment terms, price revision.
• The commitment form and the price schedule (BPU, DPGF or DQE): the financial documents to complete.

A DCE often runs to 50 to 200 pages. Six pieces of information must come out of it within an hour: the deadline date and time, the criteria and their weighting, the exact list of required documents, the execution deadlines, the eliminatory technical requirements (qualification, certification, minimum headcount) and whether a site visit is mandatory.

Allow 2 to 4 hours of manual reading per file. These are the hours a DCE analysis tool saves.

Before investing dozens of hours in writing, answer four questions honestly:

• Fit: does your business really match the need? Do you hold the required qualifications, certifications and insurance?
• Capacity: can you deliver this contract on top of your current commitments, with your teams and your cash flow (French public buyers pay within 30 days of receiving the invoice, 50 days for hospitals, sometimes later)?
• Competition: is there an incumbent? What prices were awarded on comparable contracts? The essential public procurement data (DECP) tells you.
• Profitability: once production, staff and administrative costs are included, is the margin still acceptable?

A single clear no is enough to pass. Over a year, rigorous contract selection weighs more on your success rate than the writing quality of your proposals.

Your response has two parts, usually submitted together: the application (who you are) and the offer (what you propose).

Since October 2018, responses to French public contracts above the procedure-exemption threshold (40,000 euros excl. VAT for the general threshold) are electronic: the file is submitted on the buyer's platform, before the deadline date and time, to the minute. A late submission, even by one minute, is rejected.

• Submit the day before, or at the latest on the morning of the deadline: platforms slow down in the final hours.
• Check the required formats (usually PDF) and the maximum file size.
• An electronic signature is only mandatory if the RC requires it at submission; it is generally requested from the successful bidder at award.
• Keep the platform's time-stamped acknowledgement of receipt.
• A backup copy (USB key or paper) can be sent in parallel, under the conditions set by the tender rules (art. R. 2132-11 of the French procurement code).

For an adapted procedure with a 4 to 5 week response period, here is a split that leaves a margin:

• D-30 to D-25: read the DCE, send questions to the buyer (allowed until a few days before the deadline, the date is in the RC), decide GO or NO GO.
• D-25 to D-20: site visit if planned, collection of application documents, requests for missing certificates.
• D-20 to D-8: write the technical proposal, price the schedule.
• D-8 to D-3: cross-review, check every document against the RC list, sign the documents.
• D-2: submit on the platform, archive the acknowledgement of receipt.

Tax and social certificates and the Kbis can be obtained online in minutes, but an up-to-date qualification or insurance certificate can take several days: request them as soon as you decide GO.

The time needed to respond to a tender manually:

• Reading the DCE: 2 to 4 hours.
• GO or NO GO decision: 1 hour.
• Application documents: 2 to 4 hours.
• Technical proposal: 8 to 20 hours.
• Pricing, review, formatting: 2 to 3 hours.
• Submission: 30 minutes.

Total: 15 to 32 hours per file. At 5 responses a month, that is a full-time job devoted to tenders. For a company of 5 to 20 people, that time comes out of production or out of the owner's day.

So the question is not only how to respond better, but how to respond to more contracts with the same time.