Strategic Bid Support

Teneo helps clients across multiple sectors secure mission-critical Business to Government (B2G) and Business to Business (B2B) contract opportunities.

Our specialist Strategic Bid Support team supports clients pursuing tendered opportunities within a diverse range of sectors. We support bidding for contracts in the UK and international transport sectors, technology and IT services, health and social care, construction, defence and across the wider government supply chain.

We offer a comprehensive set of services, which can either be an end-to-end engagement or focused on specific activities. This includes expertise in designing the bid organization and governance structure, determining the bidder’s strategic USPs, structuring bid responses, preparing supporting evidence and authoring the response itself. In addition, we assist our clients in building their commercial and pricing strategies and navigating the crucial phases of competitive dialogue and negotiation.

Within the transport sector specifically we have supported multiple concession, franchise and Direct Award processes in rail and bus – preparing bids for the UK Department for Transport, Transport for London, Transport for Greater Manchester and many other major UK and international transport authorities. Most recently Teneo has supported bidders in the bus franchising program in the North of England, the largest bus operating contracts in the UK.

Capabilities

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How We Support You

Pre-bid assessment and risk evaluation

We regularly offer an initial situation and readiness analysis, providing a deep understanding of ’right to win’ relative to competitors and helping to inform on whether to pursue an opportunity.

This typically includes an assessment of the contracting authority’s needs (specification and key requirements, wider objectives, funding environment) and the competitive dynamics in the supplier market (likely bidders, key strengths and weaknesses).

We can also provide an initial assessment of the likely revenue and margin characteristics of an opportunity, and often use this as a basis for the development of an internal business case to inform bid/no-bid decisions.

Example Case Study

Teneo completed an initial assessment of a rail opportunity in Oslo, Norway for an international transport-owning group. This included analysis of passenger demand in the wake of Covid and the resulting impact on rail travel across different segments of the city’s population.

Bid strategy development

We offer a clear, strategic and commercial approach to developing the overarching strategy for a bid. This is often a foundational component of our support and is considered a core Teneo strength. We support clients in ensuring all elements of the ultimate submission will be delivered in alignment with a coherent and compelling bid narrative and set of key themes. We work closely with our client’s internal teams and SMEs, and leverage our own independent perspective on the market, to develop key themes and differentiators as part of a clear and well-understood B2B or B2G contract bid strategy.

Example Case Study

Teneo supported a leading healthcare services provider bidding on a very significant national contract awarded by NHS England. Our detailed strategic planning phase identified key themes that would resonate with the commissioner and developed a detailed plan on how the client could best meet those themes. This required deep understanding of both local and national healthcare contexts, likely competitor positioning and an internal assessment of current strengths and weaknesses. Teneo then converted the strategy into a compelling articulation of its differentiation. The client successfully won all four Lots of the contract.

Bid & tender writing and workstream support

Bid and tender writing are specialist skill sets and core Teneo capabilities for winning B2B and B2G contracts. We have worked within and alongside client bid teams for almost two decades, leading the written narrative of bid submissions. We are highly experienced and effective in developing the initial structure of bids and in wireframing the individual responses in close collaboration with our clients’ internal teams and SMEs, making sure to always stay closely married back to the contract specification.

The quality of any response is crucial to securing a win. We deploy our highly successful team to author compelling delivery plans, working with client subject-matter experts to holistically draw together and embed strong win themes, cogent structure and articulation of the proposal, and relevant evidence.

We bring specific expertise in several key areas, including revenue growth, commercial incentives, customer experience and social value.

Example Case Study

Teneo recently supported a private sector bus operator in its bid for one of three new major bus franchise contracts in Manchester, UK. Teneo authored all the responses and our client received the highest scores of any bidder for any tranche.

Bid review

We also provide an expert bid review capability, acting in the role of ‘shadow evaluator.’ We appraise clients’ bid responses for strategic alignment, technical capability and specification compliance. Our reviews are swift and minimize interruption to the bid process. We provide targeted and actionable comments at both an overarching and detailed (page-by-page) level to support our clients in maximizing their potential score in evaluation. Typically, we provide bid reviews ahead of final internal governance, to allow sufficient time for iteration of comments and finalization.

Example Case Study

Teneo supported a leading international transport technology provider’s successful bid to operate a new national ticketing system in Ireland by reviewing c. 450-pages of documents spanning multiple requirements across customer experience, operations, ICT and innovation delivery plans.

Commercial and financial strategy

We provide expert analytical and strategic support to assess and navigate the commercial elements of a bid. This includes all key considerations towards the cost and/or revenue assumptions within the quantitative area of the bid.

We can provide expert financial and revenue modelling capabilities to lead the quantitative workstreams, or we can provide an independent assessment / critical review of client bid models.

Our work often includes forecasting contractual KPIs, risk and sensitivity appraisal, and guidance on price-to-win. We synthesise and report our findings and recommendations directly into the bid governance process (i.e., in a manner suitable for shareholder/investor review).

Example Credential

Teneo led the commercial workstream, including revenue forecasting and appraisal of contractual incentives, for a major UK transport operator bidding on a 7-year operating contract. This involved the ongoing development and iteration of a forecast revenue profile and the translation of this into the operator’s margin opportunity via profit-sharing and performance-based fee mechanisms.

Negotiation

Teneo has significant experience supporting negotiation with tendering authorities to provide ongoing support throughout this final process prior to contract award.

We support bidders with client engagement, inbound clarification questions, and final contractual and commercial negotiation.

Example Credential

Teneo supported an international rail operator in its engagement with Metrolink in California when it was short-listed as one of two final bidders.

Bid management

Sitting alongside all of the areas of support detailed above, we also regularly provide end-to-end management of the overall bid process.

This is a strategic and content-driven bid management role, providing a focused and effective ‘engine-room’ for the bid team. This function provides strategic project management both within the bid team and externally into governance and/or shareholder relationships. It also choreographs the critical processes of the bid, including solution development, response structure, integration of the quality and financial submissions, and the review and governance/SteerCo processes.

Example Credential

Teneo supported a UK-based software and technology provider throughout the course of its three-month bid to a central government authority. We embedded a senior member of the Teneo team within the bid leadership function to act as central coordination for the twenty-strong bid team.