Bidstream has three elements which build upon each other.
| Bidstream Bronze | Bidstream Silver |
|---|---|
| Bidstream Gold | Bidstream Platinum |
Bidstream Bronze
The Bidstream entry level package, Bidstream Bronze, provides you with priority access to experienced bid staff when you have a sudden demand for additional bid resources that cannot be met from your available staff. When a resourcing need arrives, the Bidstream team will seek to get the best available experienced bid professional, appropriate for the task, on your site by the following working day.
Bidstream staff working on your site are always supported by the entire Bidstream team and their work will be overseen by an APMP accredited "Professional" bid manager. They have full access to the Bidstream resource set of tools, templates and infrastructure which they can employ on your bid wherever you need. Moreover, all Bidstream staff will assist the transfer of best practice bidding and tendering techniques to your team as part of their on-site activities wherever it is appropriate.
Bidstream Silver
Bidstream Silver provides everything you need to put a complex bid document together in a one week period. It includes:
- A Bid Manager (APMP accredited)
- 2 Bid Editors
- SANT Bid and Proposal support system
- Concurrence Catalyst electronic document presentation
- Proposal creation IT system with software and draft print capability
- Author’s guides and templates
- A key messages facilitated workshop
- A facilitated bid kick-off meeting
- Facilitated Pink and Red team reviews
- "First Pass" identification of the legal implications of the bid
Bidstream Silver - One Week Bid
The Bidstream team starts by bringing your key staff together to identify your strengths and the key messages for the bid, in order to ensure these are seeded throughout the bid document. We then use the industry-leading bid support tool, SANT (on our IT systems, if you don’t have the facilities), to input your client’s bid document, key market intelligence and any relevant templates, forms, reference materials, references, etc.
Next we hold a review (a Pink review) to ensure that the bid strategy is sound and that the proposed technical and management approaches support this strategy.
A short ‘bid kick-off meeting’ is held, in which the Bidstream team will involve your sales, technical and pricing staff. We can use either the stand alone Bidstream systems and software to capture and present your technical information and your pricing for the bid response, or we can use your own IT systems and existing processes and supplement these immediately if you have any elements missing. The bid kick-off meeting gets everyone fired up and working as a unified team, with roles and responsibilities clearly defined.
The bid manager monitors progress to keep the bid on track. The unified team works together to create persuasive bid content which meets the tendering instructions exactly as required. Should additional staffing be needed at any time, Bid Solutions will select the best available person with the right skill set to join the team.
Bidstream IT Infrastructure
Graphics, technical concepts and design information are passed to 24 Hour Company, who rapidly return high quality graphics for incorporation into the bid. This lifts the bid’s effectiveness in communicating complex messages, and gives a consistent, professional look and feel to the entire set of bid documents.
As the bid deadline approaches and the proposal is essentially complete, Bidstream will facilitate a Red review, which mimics the client’s evaluation process, to assess how well and how clearly the proposal presents and sells the solution.
Final changes are made and the bid is published as a physical document or in electronic form (web, CD, DVD or other electronic media) using the ConcurrenceCatalyst tool. This enables the evaluators to examine the bid information in whichever way they prefer and gives a highly professional look-and-feel to the electronic version of the bid.
Once the bid has been finished, the Bidstream team will work with your staff to transfer to your IT system all documents and data developed during the bid production cycle, so that the data can be reused for future bids.
By the end of the engagement, Bidstream delivers:
- A much-improved likelihood of winning the bid
- Improvements to team skills and processes through on-the-job learning
- Access to leading software applications at a nominal charge
- Your final bid documentation ready for printing
- The final bid documentation on CD/DVD prepared using the ConcurrenceCatalyst package
- Your bid data in a form ready to populate a SANT RFPMaster database
- All native source material for the graphics created
- A hard disk (or USB stick) with all the data and material produced during the bid process, ready to be incorporated into your archive systems
- Version information for all files to allow full recovery, audit and analysis at any point during bid preparation, and after the bid is completed
- Best practice advice and effective bid techniques training for the staff involved in the bid
Bidstream Gold
Bidstream Gold builds upon the work done in the Bidstream Silver package and turns the information created into a vibrant and compelling presentation for your team to deliver to the client as part of the evaluation process. It has the same features as Bidstream Silver plus full presentation support. It includes:
- All Bidstream Silver features
- A Bid Presentation Manager (APMP accredited)
- A proposal coach
- Presentation guides and templates
- Presentation software support
- Presentation preparation IT system with PC projector and draft print capability
Bidstream Gold - One Week Presentation Preparation
Your bid documentation is created with the Bidstream Silver package above and you deliver the finished bid to your client. Then, while your client is evaluating your bid, Bidstream helps your team prepare for the presentation. We facilitate a Presentation Messages workshop with your presentation team and create a storyboard of the key presentation elements. It is important that all the messages developed during the bid preparation phase are not lost, so this workshop needs to take place soon after the bid is completed, even if the client has not yet confirmed that your bid has been selected for the preparation stage.
The presentation support material is developed by your presentation team and Bidstream, incorporating any instructions from your client. The 24 Hour Company will work on the graphics and any other design aspects of the presentation.
The final presentation content is then fine-tuned. We use presentation and voice coaches to prepare your presentation team to deliver a high-impact presentation that will clearly differentiate your team from your competitors. When the presentation is ready, your team presents to your senior staff, with a review facilitated by Bidstream. Final feedback is incorporated and the team undergoes final coaching, if necessary, to ensure they will give a riveting and convincing presentation.
Bidstream Platinum
Bidstream Platinum includes all Bidstream Gold features plus additional pre- and post-bid support to develop every part of the potentially winning bid with the minimum impact upon your operational staff. It helps you to prepare for the bid and then capitalises upon all the work undertaken to make sure you get the best value you can out of all the effort expended, even if the bid is not successful. It includes:
- All Bidstream Gold features
- Opportunity analysis workshop
- Competitive analysis workshop
- Legal and Commercial Support
- Presentation Delivery Support
- Lessons Learned workshop and report
- Printing and Binding
- CD ROM/DVD preparation
Your bid documentation is completed using the Bidstream Silver package, and your team is prepared for the presentation with the Bidstream Gold package above.
With the Bidstream Platinum package, your tendering activities are initially validated by a positioning exercise to ensure the opportunity is right for the business and the chances of winning are acceptable. Win themes and strategies are worked out with your senior staff which lead to a communications and relationship plan being created for your team to follow. If possible, the bid specification is influenced to better reflect your knowledge of industry best practice.
From receipt of the formal bid documents, the Bidstream Gold package is engaged to create the formal responses required. Then, following the presentation of your bid to your client, we act as advisors during any follow-on negotiations with the client. Our advice on negotiation strategy and tactics will ensure that you win under the best possible commercial terms.
Bidstream Platinum - Pre and Post Bid Activity
Finally, and on completion of all the bidding activity, we work with your team and the client to capture all the good and less good points of the entire bid and presentation activity for you to use as the basis of improving future bid activity. Win or lose, this exercise gives you real value from all the work undertaken and is a clear Return On Investment (ROI) from which you can prepare your organisation to do even better in all future bids and tenders.
