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The bid manager term is commonly used from supplier perspective rather than customer perspective. If you consider the sales process from suppliers point of view, most of the times customers invites bidding by releasing tenders either in mass media or by directly communicating with suppliers. If customers directly communicate with suppliers to ask for quotation, it's called as Request For Quotation (RFQ) and if they publish it in mass media, it's known as tender.Now once the suppliers come to know about the tender they bid to get the order/project from customer. The bid manager in the supplying company should know what all information the bid should contain, the terms and conditions, price offered by competitors and what are the competitive advantages the company has over its rivals.Once the bid manager provides the customer with all the required information, customer will evaluate the vendors based on certain criteria and the bid is offered to one or multiple vendors.Summing it up in one sentence the role of bid manager is to convert the opportunity into actual order.

That is a good question and there is not a huge amount of consistency within the industry. I've seen the relevant department called:PurchasingContractsSupply chainProcurementCommercial Affairs, and evenFinanceThe relevant person could be a:Contract Specialist/advisor/manager/officerProcurement Specialist/advisor/manager/officerPurchasing Specialist/advisor/manager/officerSupply Chain Specialist etcCommercial Manager etcGenerally Contract/procurement specialists issue tenders and Purchasing Specialists are more tactical issuing requests for quotations.Cheers

My first trip abroad in a warship was as a cadet in 1969. My last trip was as an officer on the fleet staff in 1983. In between I made several trips as a ship’s officer. How were we supplied, who provided the supplies and who paid? I didn’t know and to be honest didn’t care. Not my problem.It didn’t become my problem until I took command of my first merchant ship in 1993. I had to purchase provisions and after examining quotations from various ship chandlers, chose one. One of the losing bidders asked why I had chosen a competitor and when I said he was giving me a discount said “You didn’t say you were paying cash.” This was my introduction to the world of discounts, 5%, 10% and in one case 30%. Victualling being the Master’s responsibility, it was usually done on a cash basis. I was handing over command of one ship and settling the ship chandler’s bill. I wrote on the invoice “Less 10% discount” and entered the net figure. Afterwards the incoming Master asked me “Isn’t the discount, the Master’s discount?” That’s one way to make a little extra money.This seems to be a common practice in some areas. In one port I had to pay a lot of money to get a bogus certificate that my cargo gear had been tested. I negotiated a price and the vendor asked “What’s your cut?” When I told him I didn’t want anything and said he should deduct that from the final invoice, he was surprised. His next question was “What’s your superintendent’s cut?”“Here’s his number. Call him and ask him yourself.”Fuel, water etc were the owners/operators’ problem. As a Master I would project my requirements and they would arrange supply. For stores and spares, the ship would raise periodic indents and leave it to the owner to arrange (or not) procurement and connection to the ship. In case of an emergency requirement I would contact the owner and obtain approval to purchase it locally. In case of an expensive item, the owner would arrange payment directly or through the agent.Sometimes supply chains cause problems. I was trading between Chennai and Vizag and was extremely low on diesel. Supply had been arranged at Chennai but didn’t materialise for some reason. I had just enough to reach Vizag and the owners said “We’ll arrange berthing on arrival.” That didn’t happen either and when I started screaming, was told “Conserve diesel.” Conserving diesel meant shutting down the generators. No light, no ac and worst of all, no cooking. Fortunately I berthed before the lights went out. Supplying diesel to the ship at anchorage would have been an expensive proposition.