Sebakwe Select Tender Management

What do we do? - ON-TIME, ON BUDGET

It is (almost) never too late to call in Sebakwe - in one case we transformed a losing bid into a winning proposal over a long weekend!

Allow Your Team To Do What It Does Best

Our clients recognise that they do not have the in-house strategic expertise and experience required to craft a winning bid or proposal.

They have seen bids fail, teams destroyed, budgets overrun, and deadlines missed when trying to put complex bids together in-house. Managers and key staff are already working at full capacity. Add in the hours and stresses of preparing a bid, and something always breaks - either existing standards drop and customers are lost, or the bid is not the best it can be.

Sebakwe's systems ensure that the RFP is delivered on time, and within the agreed budget. Any budget variances have to be approved by the client before they are committed to.

Deadlines are set at the start of the process and are tracked on a daily basis through Sebakwe's purpose-designed system. The progress is shared with all participants, and is usually in public view in the dedicated project "war room," to keep management in the loop.

Advantages Of Outsourcing

Strategic insight

Independent and objective analysis of strengths and weaknesses of both the client's proposal and that of competitors in the market-place

Experience of having done it before - many times

A focused and dedicated team which has one objective - to deliver a winning proposal on time and within budget

Plugging into an existing network - we have the team, the contacts and the suppliers in place

Operational management and staff continue doing their jobs with minimal disruption

Independent company can work across traditional silos within companies - it is outside of company or group politics

"Success is 10% inspiration, 90% last-minute changes."

Unknown

What do we do? - PREVENT D.I.Y FAILURES

Why doing it yourself can be a bad idea?

Sebakwe has, on a number of occasions, been called in at the last minute when clients have realised that, while they have the ability to gather all the information required, they do not have the experience to package that into a winning bid or tender. Having first worked as part of the internal bid team, and now as an external project team, we have been able to pinpoint some of the compelling reasons why companies should bring in additional expertise to package their bids:

Insufficient strategic insight

Sebakwe is strong on strategy because of its wealth of experience in winning a wide range of bids, proposals, and projects. We know what has worked in the past. We study the RFP and the dynamics around the bid until we fully understand them - and then develop innovative winning solutions.

Lack of expertise

Your management team is, undoubtedly, highly qualified, experienced and capable. And, yes, you may have qualified project managers on your staff. However, it is unlikely that they equal the resources and experience of Sebakwe when it comes to bidding preparation and presentation.

One of the reasons for our success, however, is that we also do not go it alone. We work closely with our clients' management team, use internal resources to save costs, and tap into the company's knowledge of the industry to complete the winning bid.

Lack of time

Executives are focused on the day-to-day running of their departments or companies and do not have the spare capacity required to work on a bid or proposal full-time. This is the reason that deadlines arrive so quickly, with work undone - or not done to a winning standard. A core Sebakwe competency is the ability to work with the executive team to help them provide the information required and to make informed decisions.

Internal focus

It often takes an impartial external observer and analyst to identify strengths and weaknesses. The English phrase "not able to see the wood for the trees" says it all. We provide that insight and are not afraid to tackle hard truths.

Organisational politics

All organisations are governed by a set of internal dynamics formed through inter-personal relationships, historic inter-departmental rivalries, long-forgotten agendas, and the overall company culture. As external consultants, we carry none of that baggage and are not aligned in any way - except to produce a winning bid.

"If you deprive yourself of outsourcing and your competitors do not, you're putting yourself out of business."

Lee Kuan Yew