Facilities Management Tenders: Everything You Need to Know

Facilities management (FM) tenders are often requested by a variety of public bodies, including local authorities, universities, and the NHS. Given the wide range of services that fall under the FM umbrella, such as cleaning, maintenance, security, and catering, these tenders are often quite extensive, requiring a great deal of detail in each response. As a result, FM tender writing and bid writing require significant effort and expertise to ensure that all necessary information is included.

Today we're going to tell you [almost] everything we know about Facilities Management Tenders to ensure you've got the best possible chance of winning your next tender.

What is Involved in Facilities Management Tenders?

Facilities management tenders can sometimes be divided into 'lots', each focusing on a specific area of expertise such as cleaning, catering, horticulture and groundskeeping, pest control, waste management, security, hygiene and washroom services, industrial and environmental services, and more. This allows bidders to concentrate their efforts on their chosen area of specialisation; or, alternatively, the 'buyer' may decide to appoint a single provider with expertise in multiple areas.

When writing a facilities management tender, it is important to cover key themes and topic areas, such as the service proposal, contract management, technology and innovation, and staffing.

The service proposal section should outline the bidder's strategy for maintaining multiple sites, the methodologies that will be employed to meet the requirements of the facilities management discipline(s), and how the bidder will deliver on those requirements.

Contract management involves the bidder's approach to communicating with the buyer and all stakeholders; including reporting on service performance, handling issues and concerns, and providing general communications and reporting.

Technology and innovation should detail the systems and equipment that the bidder will utilize to deliver the contract, and how innovation will be used to achieve time and cost efficiencies, as well as improved results.

In staffing, the bidder should describe their approach to recruiting, training, and deploying staff in adequate numbers to meet the buyer's requirements. The bidder may also need to address the need to pay staff at least the Real Living Wage or above and promote modern apprenticeships to contribute towards achieving social value.

Some facilities management tenders may specify certain turnover thresholds or require bidders to hold certain accreditations, such as CHAS, SSIP, or ISO accreditation.

The Challenges of Writing a Facilities Management Bid

With numerous opportunities for facilities management tenders comes intense competition, highlighting the importance of matching tender requirements to your level of experience and ability. Pursuing facilities management tenders outside of your expertise may result in a waste of your time and resources (and make you and your company look bad). Therefore, it may be prudent to win a contract in your area of expertise first, such as cleaning, develop a relationship, and then expand your services to offer a more comprehensive facilities management solution in the future.

Finding a relevant and appropriate facilities management tender specification amidst numerous options may require reviewing several specifications. An efficient system for sorting through information and making informed tender decisions can lead to a much better return on investment. Alternatively, you can utilise our Bid Scanning service (contact us here to discuss)

Developing multi-disciplinary solutions that generate savings and efficiencies is crucial to winning facilities management tenders, as demonstrated by the biggest FM companies.

The main challenge, therefore, is proving your ability to match up to these large businesses that claim to deliver the most productive solutions. Demonstrating how much more productive your services are in the long-term and how you have delivered solutions with better quality outcomes can be critical differentiators when it comes to winning facilities management tenders. Collecting all necessary credentials, facts, and statistics that clearly demonstrate your performance against the competition is therefore vital.

How to Win Your Next Facilities Management Tender

1. Ensure you read all the tender documentation thoroughly to fully understand the buyer's requirements. If there are aspects of the FM service you cannot provide, consider investing in those areas to tender for similar opportunities in the future.
   

2. Try to arrange a site visit to gain a better understanding of the site-specific requirements and identify opportunities to add value to your bid. This can also provide an opportunity to ask questions of site staff.
   

3. Demonstrate robust contract management processes, including a clear organisational structure and lines of communication, as well as experienced account managers who can handle this type of contract. Provide evidence of previous experience and adherence to SLAs and KPIs.
   

4. Demonstrate your ability to increase efficiencies and provide value for money by backing it up with facts and figures from previous/existing customers. Collect as much information as possible on your KPIs for your current customers.
   

5. Demonstrate your environmental awareness, including strict waste management procedures and commitment to a sustainable future. Provide evidence of environmental policies and procedures and calculations of carbon footprints or waste production for other FM clients.
   

6. Demonstrate that you have appropriate Health and Safety policies and procedures for each FM discipline, as well as staff training and qualifications in Health and Safety. Use evidence such as risk assessments and method statements.
   

7. Implement quality control measures, including quality assurance accreditation, quality equipment and staff, and monitoring of service delivery. Provide evidence of how you have acted on feedback to improve the quality of your facilities management services.
   

8. Demonstrate your ability to deliver innovative methods and continuous improvement to enhance the contract and deliver a better service. Provide evidence of how your innovative methods have saved your other customers money or delivered better quality.

If you take our advice, you should be able to write your next Facilities Management bid yourself. However, if you'd like some support, don't hesitate to utilise our Bid Writing or Bid Management services!