ISO 9001 & 45001; Bidding for contracts

As part of our ISO consultancy offer we support businesses in tendering for work and gaining access to supplier frameworks including the NHS framework. We have a proven track record in supporting a range of businesses across many industries with ISO 9001, 14001, 27001 and 45001.

In this article we explore the ISO certification process and how gaining ISO can support you in bidding for contracts.

ISO 9001 and 45001: the ISO certification process

Becoming ISO-certified can be an extremely challenging process. It involves planning, exhausting numerous resources, and a whole lot of determination if you want to pass the entire certification process.

Here are some of the ways to help you get certified:

The best way to get past the certification process is to implement ISO’s quality management system. All of the principles of ISO can help you pass the certification process. It’s essential to enforce a strong and effective quality management system that won’t give your company away during the certification process. Compliant is supporting businesses internationally in becoming certified by providing the framework, audit support and ongoing guidance to ensure success.

Ensure that people who need access to necessary documents get hold of them. During the certification process, inspectors can ask random members of your company questions regarding your business process, the core values, and many more. Though it’s not dreadful if someone can’t answer the inspector, it isn’t ideal. This could leave an impression that your company doesn’t have strong team engagement.

Review your quality management system. In case you have developed your own quality management system, review whether the system is efficient in terms of compliance and effectiveness. If necessary, take preventive actions. Do not wait for the auditors to reach you before you take measures required to correct a fault in the system. Make audits or watch interviews if necessary. Identify the strengths, as well as the weaknesses of your system, and work from there.

Do not hesitate to spend. Being ISO-certified can be costly. Auditors will not only be checking the physical aspects of your company, but they will also be evaluating the skills and capabilities of your team. If you’re not prepared to invest money, you can’t expect a positive outcome.

Choose a reliable implementation partner. There are many certification bodies to choose from for ISO certification. So why would you choose Compliant? Compliant is the certification body of choice, helping businesses across the UK to achieve their UKAS accredited ISO certifications, within timescales and to budget. We successfully deliver ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 22301, ISO 27001 and can help businesses to access funding for their certifications. We offer flexible payment plans and can pass cost savings from certifications bodies directly onto our customers.

Getting started in bidding for contracts

1. Find the right contract

Once you’ve made the decision to submit a bid, you may be asking how to find the ideal contract for your company. Websites are constantly posting leads and opportunities across multiple sectors. A sector-specific site posting exclusive opportunities in both the public and private sectors is one place to start.

You may save time by using a single, centralised, and user-friendly site such as Tenders Direct.

2. Do your research

When submitting a contract offer, one of the most crucial components is research. Make a list of all of the crucial dates as well and the paperwork you’ll require. These might consist of:

• Date and time of the final submission
• Questions for clarification deadline
• Date of site visits
• Documents that must be joined
• The submission format

Verify again that you meet the requirements in order to be eligible to bid on a contract. You don’t want to invest time and money into beginning a bid only to find out that, for example, your financial situation disqualifies you.

Verify that your company:

• has sufficient experience and satisfies the required turnover threshold
• fulfils the financial and economic requirements
• possesses the means to complete the task at hand

3. Make sure your price is right

A critical component of contract bidding is setting a fair price for your services. If you overcharge for your services, the contractor can start to doubt your credibility. Each contract has unique evaluation standards that are based on the requirements of the customer.  Although the weightings will vary, in general, you can anticipate a split between two or three aspects:

• Cost
• Quality
• Social value (for contracts with the public sector).

The methods used by the public and private sectors to award contracts vary. The laws and regulations that govern the public sector apply differently to the private sector. A private company is free to choose to award a contract based only on pricing.

But in order to receive awards, the public sector must adhere to a number of laws and guidelines.

4. Think about your Bid Strategy

Review the materials are you going to need and decide who you want to help you. Thin about:

• What tasks must be finished?
• Which tasks will be assigned?
• What is the activity timeline?
• What major achievements have you made?
• When are you going to interact with the team?

Now that you have developed the foundation of your strategy and the reasons why you would be successful in obtaining this work consider your positioning. Review your knowledge of the competition, and the buyer’s priorities. Finding these winning topics early on will guarantee that your responses take them into consideration.

5. Compose a high quality bid

Composing an excellent bid response is essential. As previously said, decision makers are concerned about quality even if it is weighed less highly than cost. When putting in a bid for a contract, you want to be convincing. Persuade the buyer that your company is the most qualified for the position. Take into account:

Assumptions

Additionally, avoid letting the decision draw conclusions from your writing. Making room for assumptions may lead to incorrect assumptions being drawn. Keep things simple and steer clear of excessively technical language. Never assume that they are familiar with you, your company, or your bid.

Style

Make sure to properly format your response using bullet points and subheadings. You can frequently divide the issue into smaller sections and use these as subheadings. This might assist in making sure you address and address every facet of the posed question. You can also keep your response organised by using bullet points. This will make you more popular with the buyer. Consider standing in their shoes.

When assessing bid responses, preference will be given to those that are well-organised. This makes you stand out from the competition more than just sending in a long text submission.

Word count

Aim to match the word or page counts as closely as possible in your response when submitting a bid for a contract. There’s a reason they are there. You can’t just write one paragraph in answer to a consumer who demands a thousand words. Make responses pertinent.

6. Sumit your bid

Never wait until the last minute to submit your proposal; instead, give yourself plenty of time. Unexpected problems, failed connections, and downtime of systems can all cause submissions to be delayed.

Aim to give yourself a day to submit your document.

Since systems differ greatly, there is no set procedure for submissions. Every time you submit a proposal, you might have to familiarise yourself with a new system. Define the portal’s end-to-end navigation at the start of the project, not the finish.

How do I win tenders with ISO?

If you would like a chance of securing work in the private or public sector, whether it be outright or as part of a framework then you have come to the right place.

We can provide information about evaluation processes, ISO certification and advice to improve the quality of your proposals including how to become certified. Our ISO procedure includes compiling information and carrying out a GAP analysis. This will assist in locating areas of non-compliance as well as any possible concerns that require attention.

All of the templates provided by Compliant directly address a clause within ISO standards. We will guide you through your bespoke pack and help you to understand which documents support certain areas of your business.

Our packs include processes, audit programmes, management reviews, a stakeholder analysis, a legal register, a SWOT analysis, a PESTLER, a RACI, a training matrix, a vendor management template, an aspects and impacts register, internal audit templates and a non conformity log.

When getting started we recommend familiarising yourself with ISO goals and determining the main gaps in the requirements ahead of your initial GAP analysis.

If you would like more information on how to become certified, we’d be happy to arrange a call to talk about your options. Alternatively, if you would like a quotation at any point just fill in our FREE quote calculator.