We reviewed tender evaluation reports from PPRA to get insights on the Dos and Don’ts of tendering in Kenya. In the process, discovered many businesses lose out on tenders because of simple mistakes in their bid submissions. These real-life case studies show a good number of SMEs losing out on tenders due to little things that affect their constant readiness to tender.

Common mistakes such as forgetting to attach a required document or attaching an expired document. Others submit without serializing the tender proposal while others just forget to fill and sign certain pages on the documents. Simple mistakes but detrimental your chances of winning a tender.

At Scale, our goal is to ensure that you are always up to 80% ready to apply for any business. But achieving this alone doesn’t mean you are ready to start winning tenders like a pro…not yet anyway. But want to be certain that any tender done using our platform doesn’t lose because of these common tendering mistakes.

How Does the Tender Readiness Index work?

Over the last couple of months, we reviewed thousands of Government and Private Sector tender and their award evaluation reports. From which we compiled a list of the most important documents that these organizations usually ask for when requesting proposals.

Without these documents, your chances of winning bids will definitely reduce drastically. We then combined this information with the important functionalities in Scale. This way, we make sure you are ready for any opportunity coming your way.

The following is what we currently use to check and validate your readiness score:

1. Are you receiving relevant tender opportunities notifications?

Simplify how you find tender tenders that are right for you to apply for. Just update your business settings and we will get those tenders to you and on time. You can also update your Sector or Industry-specific keywords and we will deliver those opportunities straight to your inbox.

2. Are you following any Procuring Entities?

Sometimes we may have preferences in terms of procuring entities that we have worked with previously. Or the ones that we hope to work with maybe even those we are already prequalified with. Following these procuring entities ensure you never miss any tender opportunity that they publish. Follow entities under your business settings.

3. Do you have all the Mandatory documents and are they all Valid?

Procuring entities usually classify Mandatory documents as ‘Required‘ meaning that without which, you get automatically disqualified from the tender process. These documents include Certificate of Incorporation, KRA PIN Certificate, Tax Compliance Certificate, Business Permit, LPO/Contracts, Reference Letters and Audited Accounts.

Further, our system checks whether all documents you upload to our Document Management System are valid. Our aim is to ensure you do not submit expired documents. We do this by sending you alerts in advance if any of them need to be renewed. Expired documents usually lead to automatic disqualification during tender evaluations.

And There You Have It!

The Tender Readiness Index is a smart approach for identifying and tracking the most important things that your business needs to do or have to be successful at winning tenders. This Index is now readily available for all our Scale customers. It will always be visible on your dashboard, clearly showing your score; either Low, Medium or Excellent.

Do you want to increase your chances of winning new business? Sign up today and let’s get your business 80% ready for any opportunities because in business, time is money and you need to save as much of it as you can!