Pre-Qualification Questionnaire Private & Confidential: Fill & Download for Free

The tendering system is used by a large number of private and public sectors organizations of the world to complete large scale projects and procurement contracts. While, in many cases, the tendering cycle takes place through the traditional system, most of the organizations nowadays follow an electronic system for the process of proposal evaluation. As far as I know, the core aspects involved in both the electronic and the traditional tender process are largely similar, only their platform is different. This factor is the same for tenders being floated in diverse industries, including construction, solar power, and bank tenders.Pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) and invitation to tender (ITT) are the key elements with the help of which tender proposals are evaluated in this system. The PQQ is basically aimed at eliminating all the bidders who do not have the adequate experience, infrastructure or skills to be considered for the contract. With the help of the ITT, on the other hand, the bidders try to identify the contractor who would be able to provide them with the best value for their money, among a pool of eligible bidders. This system is followed for various industries, including irrigation, railway, and bank tenders.

I've 16 years' experience of writing IT Managed Services proposals. The length of time taken depends on a huge number of variables. It can vary from a few weeks to multiple man months. To give you a proper answer that will be of any practicable use to you, I have to talk you through the key variables. You can then judge which model best matches your scenario.Key variables include:1. The sector. Public sector proposals (B2G) typically consume about three to four times the effort of private sector (B2B). That is because of the increased complexity, the service and security regulations, and the procurement process and regulations. Multiple gateways have to be stepped through. Not for the faint-hearted.2. The jurisdiction. Proposals to US are generally simpler than proposals to other jurisdictions (especially UK government). I've worked with a US corporation seeking to take on a UK government managed service; they were horrified at the level of detail expected in the UK. Having said that, the US corporation's experience was at the County and municipal level. US Federal bids would involve a higher level of effort. Even inside the UK, there is variation. Local government in England would be bigger and more complex than local government in Northern Ireland (bigger counties, more responsibilities). The biggest proposal I managed was for an ITO (IT Outsource) for a council in England: that was worth 250 million sterling. Another one I managed was to national government in Northern Ireland. That was worth 100 million sterling. I've also managed bids to UK / NI / Welsh / Irish national governments that were smaller.3. The procurement mechanism. EU procurement regulations apply to public sector procurement in the EU, including the UK and Ireland. Within the EU legislation, implemented as PCR 2015 (Public Contract Regulations) in the UK, there are different procurement mechanisms available, each of which carries a different burden of effort. Way up at the top of the heap is Competitive Dialogue, which involves large teams of consultants working to define and refine the IT Managed Service with the client, through a series of workshops and iterations of proposals. These stages are typically PQQ (Pre-Qualification Questionnaire), ITPD (Invitation To Proceed to Dialogue), ISOS (Invitation to Submit Outline Solution), ISDS (Invitation to Submit Detailed Solution) and ISFT (Invitation to Submit Final Tender) - the latter is sometimes referred to as BAFO (Best And Final Offer). Those procurements typically take a year or so to complete and have teams of 10-100 people working on them. Competitive Dialogue is used for large, more complex IT services. At the other end of the scale is the Open Procurement, which is much shorter and simpler (circa 4 weeks). That is used for much simpler service propositions, where the scope of services is much smaller and can be tightly defined from day one. There are variations in between those two extremes, including various procedures with or without negotiation. Somewhere in the middle is the Framework, where writing a proposal is required to get onto the Framework in the first place. Then a mini-proposal is required to win any Task Word Order or Work Package that comes up. G-cloud is a prominent UK example, where IT services are procured in the SaaS, IaaS and PaaS categories (Software / Infrastructure / Platform as a Service).4. The scale and scope of the service required. Large numbers of users and/or systems require more effort to design, specify and tender. The good news is that it's a non-linear scale of effort. At the larger end of IT Managed Services (you did say 'complex') there are economies of scale.5. Your company capabilities. For UK government, ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) will be a requirement. This frequently translates into ISO 20000 (Service Management) compliance. Ideally you'll have ISO 9001 (Quality), ISO 27001 (Security) and ISO 14001 (Environmental). Those certifications mean you will have reusable collateral on those topics, a defined approach that demonstrably meets professional standards and an understanding of what topics you need to cover in your proposal. Those will all help you reduce your writing workload.6. The presence (or absence) of reusable collateral aka 'boilerplate'. Having text and diagrams to hand will greatly simplify writing your proposition. However, some words of caution apply. You will need to check and customise your boilerplate to the particular opportunity in hand. Evaluators have a keenly attuned nose for boilerplate and can sniff it out a mile away, especially if it is generic or, worse, unsuited to their requirements.7. The security environment. Higher security levels of IT Services will lead to more effort in writing as you will need to draft in expertise on this topic. A CLAS consultant could be required. I've worked with some good ones, but even then they are a mixed bag. Material some generated was perfectly usable, but some required a rewrite.8. The effectiveness of your writing approach. The wrong approach can lead to huge editing / rewriting effort and even then can fail to hit the mark. You need an approach that is based on a strategy grounded upon your customer's needs and aspirations, but also taking account of your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) both for your company and for your competitors.9. Working environment. If you are multitasking, your writing effort will go up. Hugely. Every time you handle an interrupt, you have to disengage from the writing, process the interrupt, then pick up the threads of your writing and get back to into the 'zone'. All of which takes time.10. The quality of your Bid Management. This boils down to people, processes and tools. A well managed BM process with good industry tools will allow you to write FAR more efficiently. Otherwise time can be massively wasted on misunderstandings, confusion and technical gotcha's.11. The experience, knowledge and skills of your writing team. This can have a huge effect on productivity.In short, the correct answer for your situation will vary widely. For simpler proposals with all the above variables at optimum, I can crank out a reasonably complex ITMS proposal in about a month (call it 20 working days). For bigger, more complex proposals assembled in a less ideal environment you could be talking a man-year (220 days) or even more. Obviously, those bad boys would require a team to do.I hope that helps

So even though I never lived in England, I visited 3 times, and straight off I can tell you the cost of living is definitely lower in Portugal.People in both countries are quite nice and very social, although Portuguese, for being reserved are quite kissy, kissy on the cheek. British are way reserved. The weather in the UK is quite sub-par, ours here just awesome, even with this unstable, cloudy, rainy, but warm Winter weather, that is quite OK compared to the frigid cold of England!Food, wine, beaches, bread, sweets, coffee, fish, pork, seafood, potatoes, etc, are all of excellent quality and of much lower in price in Portugal. We also are simple. We don't dress super nice, we are humble people with simple tastes and no deep pockets, on average. We are also football crazy, like in England, but other sports have small followings, However, you certainly will not find cricket on our menu of federated sports.Goods manufactured “In Portugal” are generally of very good/high quality, unless you shop at the Chinese, Indian or Bangladesh shops.Culturally, it is NOT London or Bath, but there are plentry of good museums, archeological sights, castles, estates, historical towns, music shows, bars, restaurants, enough to keep you busy every day, for a year or more.It is SAFE, very much so. The major crimes are of the passionate kind, white collar, drug possession/trafficking, petty robbery, unless you are a politician or bank; then it is a pretty grand robbery! There are bank fees for everything; I am not sure on crime stats in the UK, but for sure they are much larger as the country is. Bank fees in England I am not sure about.Real estate in major cities like Lisbon & Porto is now absurdly expensive, especially for us Portuguese, however, comparing costs to England our prices are short change for most British. The same can be said for taxes, much lower in Portugal, but they can still take a bitebof your cash.Good transportation connections are everywhere and cheap. Interesting mixed society, co-existing old traditions, millenium mentalities cohabite with the super modern or hip.Now health care. For such a small country the social network here is not bad; it could way worse. I have never had a huge health problem, but there have been instances of neglect by the part of our SNS, yet for the most part, it is quite a decent system. You pay €4 for most MD visits, €0 for lab work, a bit more for certain Eco’s MRI’s, or scans, and meds are also subsidized, this of course under SNS, the government sponsored health coverage. Private practice and hospitals are quite good, with a regular consult at about €45-75 and insurance premiums at about €120–140 per month with wide coverage. Because of my cardiac issues (resulting from living AND working in the USA for about 40 years) I take about 10 different meds; my cost out of pocket per month, €45. The suggestion would be for someone with a significant medical history to take out additional insurance, which as stated, in Portugal is not that expensive, the thing is, if you declare your pre-existing, it is not covered. Most insurances make you fill out a health questionnaire, is most people lie in order to have coverage. Hopefully they will not need to use the private for the pre-existing, otherwise,bthey may eventually drop you. The medical facilities are quite good, and many Britons came on over for medical vacation holidays. The NHS in England is very good, but the private care is very expensive which in Portugal is still manageable for some. Example a bariatric sleeve surgery done by some of the best surgeons in Porto will cost you 8.0000€, hospital and all included; try that in private practice in England.Now the economy. Inflation has lowered, but prices do go up quite often in Portugal, not sure in England where is expensive. Gas is super expensive in Portugal, but our country is small, so it's doable. Cars are a high cost ticket item if you purchase new & registration taxes are not cheap along with the upkeep, but the latter are way cheaper here than in the UK, including insurance which is not that expensive with a clean record or even with a fender bender; this is, if you don't drive a Jag or hit one. If you drive over from England in your own car much less costly overall. Everything else non EU manufactored is costly in Portugal like household items, which are expensive for us with our low salaries, along with household appliances. Food shopping in markets and supermarkets is cheap, especially bread, fruit, sweets, green veggies, wine, beer, potatoes, grilled chicken, coffee, all quite good.The quality of life is certainly better in Portugal, unless you are unemployed. That is one of the major issues, if not THE issue for young adults and older folks. The average salary is a over 900 euros, but if two people work with two kids, you can wing it, but not easy especially if you live in Lisbon or Porto. In the countryside it gets much easier, as prices are cheaper and many people cultivate a vegetable patch/garden. It is beautifully quiet and bucolic but not highly manicured like in England; we are after all, economically poor compared. Our retirees get very little invest of pension payments, although, they do get some help with electricity bills as energy costs in Portugal are high. Up North in the Minho province, mom’s town of Vila Nova de Cerveira has a program administered thru their own city hall, where if you meet earning qualifications they will pay for your electric bill, etc, but not sure if that is just for citizens, and not sure about those types of costs in England. Portuguese have a much tighter family structure, as we continuing to help many of the younger & older folks, but there is much more that needs doing by the government to fully address unemployment and retirement issues.Finding a job in Portugal that pays well is the a major issue, unless you go into business for yourself, and it is real hard finding a job unless you have a good connection somewhereEducation in Portugal is quite good and private school is excellent. The curricula is strong and Secondary Studies, math scores, got much better lately; we used to duck at math. Children learn English as kids, so communication with the English/Brits is quite enhanced, but with other foreigners too, since the kids take on another foreign language. Education is free except for public university costings about 800+€ per year, plus books and extras, like housing if need be. It is hard to enter public unis because of the very high (minimum) test scores required, ensuring only the best go to higher education, so the competition is fierce! Students or parents pay for books, materials, registration/matriculation fees (800 per year for citizens) transportation, accomodation and food for the out of towners, but it is still cheap compared to other countries, especially the USA. It is not Oxford or Cambridge but it can be Universidade de Coimbra, (2nd oldest in Europe) Universidade de Evora, Minho, Porto, etc. If you don’t meet the high scores required to enter public higher learning, you go out of the country or you stay in country and fully pay for private owned universities. Overall, education in Portugal is quite good, except when teachers go on strike, which then it becomes total mayhem! So, even though I am Portuguese (and you think biased!) looking at the costs vs. quality of life ratio, Portugal is the winner!