3 little letters – but what do they mean?
Public sector tendering is very three letter acronym heavy. This blog seeks to demystify the acronyms.
Common Acronyms:
PIN
A PIN, or Prior Information Notice, is a notice published in the OJEU which sets out a contracting authority's purchasing intentions. It does not oblige the contracting authority to proceed with a procurement process, but informs the market that they should expect a procurement to be commenced within the next 12 months. Publishing a PIN is not mandatory unless the contracting authority is seeking to use a PIN to reduce procurement timescales.
EOI
This term isn’t used very often, but it stands for ‘expression of interest’. If a tender becomes available on an online portal, it’s usual for you to register an expression of interest to say you intend to submit a bid.
PQQ
This is often the first stage of the process – it stands for Pre-Qualification Questionnaire. This is the stage where the prospect will whittle down what is often several bidders to a few. It often asks questions around finances, insurance, policies in place and other background information. Occasionally it includes some quality questions like method statements etc.
ITT
An ITT is an Invitation To Tender and this is the main part of the tender. This is usually only offered to those who pass through the PQQ stage. This is where the detail is presented.
Which bits do I get involved in?
Pretty much the whole process:
Searching for tender opportunities.
Drafting your tender response
Project managing the process for you
Reviewing your response and assessing it as an assessor would against the stated criteria
You just need to decide where you think I will add the most value given the experience and time available within your team.
Could I help you?
Clients work with me for a number of reasons either, they don’t have enough time to dedicate to submitting the response themselves, they have been unsuccessful previously, they want a second pair of eyes to advise or simply they’ve never responded to a public sector bid before.
If you are interested in finding out more about how I can support you in your public sector tender responses and bids I’d be very happy to have a chat, you can contact me on hannah@whiteraft.co.uk.
