Bidder Conferences are common for major projects and programs that are intended to be performed as Cross-Corporate Project Business activities. They are used once the owners of the project have decided to buy work items from the sellers, who may be product vendors and/or service providers. A Bidder Conference reflects the project owners’ intentions that all vendors have an equal understanding of the project's requirements and the procurement processes before they submit their offers. This ensures that the bidding process is fair to all parties involved.
Typically, before RFQs (Requests for Quotation), such as RFPs (Requests for Proposal), ITBs (Invitations to Bid), or similar, are sent out to potential bidders. A Bidder Conference is organized as a key part of the bidding process by the owners of the project, who now become the buyers. Often, participation in the Bidder Conference is a prerequisite to being allowed to enrol and join the actual bidding process thereafter. Therefore, in most cases, the Bidder Conference is held during early stages of the bidding procedure.
Common Stages of Bidder Conferences
Invitations to Bidder Conferences often implement strict rules that are communicated to the invited sellers.[i]
A common key element of the Bidder Conference is the presentation of the project. Bidders are also introduced to the procurement process, including the buyers' Terms and Conditions (T&C) of purchasing, and any compliance requirements that apply to the bidding process, and later to the execution of the project. Sellers are also familiarized with the contract partners to whom they will have to submit their offers and within the timeline of their expected contributions to the project, specifically, the submission date of the offer.[citation needed]
Then, the Conference enters the Question & Answer (Q&A) session, during which bidders raise questions and are given the opportunities to discuss the factors or matters they have identified upon reviewing the project that they wish to be clarified or adjusted. An important aspect here is that while one seller asks a question, all other sellers have equal access to the question, as well as the answers given in the responses by the project owners.[ii]
The Bidder Conference is an invaluable opportunity for both parties to exchange views and ideas, as well as to get to know one another at the early stages of the project.
The most critical intention of a Bidder Conference is to ensure that equal information is available to all the sellers, and that no discrimination takes place. In industrial Project Business, this is considered as a matter of fairness and good governance. In government projects, these are often part of the legal requirements. If a bidder who has lost the business against a competitor, can make a case at the court of law that the bidding process was discriminatory, the bidder can then protest the buyer's decision. The project will come to a halt, wasting both money and time, until the court has finalized its decision. Even if the buyer eventually wins the court case, the project in question has already been delayed and its budget has been exceeded. Therefore, a Bidder Conference is often used in government procurement to make the project “protest-proof”, as it is a process to document that all bidders had access to the same information.
The Bidder Conference is more often than not open to all prospective bidders, either collectively or independently. The Conference is often compulsory and forms a significant part of the entire bidding process.
During the Bidder Conference, minutes are taken and distributed to the participants upon the conclusion of the event.
Following the Conference, sellers will either formulate their intentions to offer their products and services and become the actual bidders or elect to withdraw from the entire bidding process.
A common next step is that the sellers will respond to the RFIs (Requests for Information), introducing themselves and revealing information about their businesses to the buyers. If they are accepted as bidders and/or potential contractors, they will then contact the responsible individuals for their business areas, obtain the RFPs (Requests for Proposal), ITBs (Invitations to Bid), and/or similar procurement documents, and submit their offers in the form of Bids, proposals, and/or other types/format of offer documents.
Bidders whose offers will be accepted by the owners of the project will become future contractors, and the project owners will become the customers. This is what makes the Project Business relationships distinctive and unique.
In today's[when?] business world, the Bidder Conferences are more often held remotely using modern communication technologies, such as video-conferencing and other tele-conferencing software and platforms. Enabling Virtual Bidder Conference functionalities is a crucial feature in most of the Procurement Portals. Virtual Bidder Conferences permit bidding contenders the opportunities to engage wherever they are located geographically, thus making the whole bidding process much more competitive and more cost-efficient.
Synonyms
A number of terms are used interchangeably, among them:
A project plan, according to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), is: "...a formal, approved document used to guide both project execution and project control. The primary uses of the project plan are to document planning assumptions and decisions, facilitate communication among project stakeholders, and document approved scope, cost, and schedule baselines. A project plan may be sumarized or detailed."
The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is a set of standard terminology and guidelines for project management. The body of knowledge evolves over time and is presented in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, a book whose seventh edition was released in 2021. This document results from work overseen by the Project Management Institute (PMI), which offers the CAPM and PMP certifications.
A request for proposal (RFP) is a form of reverse auction that solicits a business proposal by an organisation interested in the procurement of a service or product from potential suppliers. It is usually part of a complex sales process, and made through a bidding process.
The Project Management Institute is a U.S.-based not-for-profit professional organization for project management.
A business proposal is a written offer from a seller to a prospective sponsor.
Purchasing is the procurement process a business or organization uses to acquire goods or services to accomplish its goals. Although there are several organizations that attempt to set standards in the purchasing process, processes can vary greatly between organizations.
E-procurement is a collective term used to refer to a range of technologies which can be used to automate the internal and external processes associated with procurement, strategic sourcing and purchasing.
Project Management Professional (PMP) is an internationally recognized professional designation offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI). As of 31 July 2020, there are 1,036,368 active PMP-certified individuals and 314 chartered chapters across 214 countries and territories worldwide.
Construction management (CM) aims to control the quality of a project's scope, time, and cost to maximize the project owner's satisfaction. It uses project management techniques and software to oversee the planning, design, construction and closeout of a construction project safely, on time, on budget and within specifications.
In the United States, the processes of government procurement enable federal, state and local government bodies in the country to acquire goods, services, and interests in real property. Contracting with the federal government or with state and local public bodies enables interested businesses to become suppliers in these markets.
Industrial marketing or business-to-business marketing is the marketing of goods and services by one business to another. Industrial goods are those an industry uses to produce an end product from one or more raw material. The term industrial marketing has largely been replaced by the term business-to-business marketing (B2B).
A request for quotation (RfQ) is a business process in which a company or public entity requests a quote from a supplier for the purchase of specific products or services. RfQ generally means the same thing as Call for bids (CfB) and Invitation for bid (IfB).
Construction bidding is the process of submitting a proposal (tender) to undertake, or manage the undertaking of a construction project. The process starts with a cost estimate from blueprints and material take offs.
Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) is a procurement process established by the United States Congress as a part of the Brooks Act and further developed as a process for public agencies to use for the selection of architectural and engineering services for public construction projects. It is a competitive contract procurement process whereby consulting firms submit qualifications to a procuring entity (owner) who evaluates and selects the most qualified firm, and then negotiates the project scope of work, schedule, budget, and consultant fee.
The project management triangle is a model of the constraints of project management. While its origins are unclear, it has been used since at least the 1950s. It contends that:
The quality of work is constrained by the project's budget, deadlines and scope (features).
The project manager can trade between constraints.
Changes in one constraint necessitate changes in others to compensate or quality will suffer.
Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) is a credential offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI).
A reverse auction is a type of auction in which the traditional roles of buyer and seller are reversed. Thus, there is one buyer and many potential sellers. In an ordinary auction also known as a forward auction, buyers compete to obtain goods or services by offering increasingly higher prices. In contrast, in a reverse auction, the sellers compete to obtain business from the buyer and prices will typically decrease as the sellers underbid each other.
An invitation to tender is a formal, structured procedure for generating competing offers from different potential suppliers or contractors looking to obtain an award of business activity in works, supply, or service contracts, often from companies who have been previously assessed for suitability by means of a supplier questionnaire (SQ) or pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ).
An ‘‘‘electronic bidding system ‘‘‘ is an electronic bidding event according to defined negotiation rules (eAgreement). A buyer and two or more suppliers take part in this online event.
A request for solution is a commercial document that describes a technological or organizational situation and demands a solution to possible suppliers of this solution. This document is normally issued by the organization which would benefit from the solution. The buying organisation keeps a dialogue with would-be suppliers to determine together the best solution.
References
[i] E.g.: Public Services and Procurement Canada – Standard Acquisition Clauses and Conditions (SACC) Manual, sec. 3.115. Bidders' Conferences, https://buyandsell.gc.ca/policy-and-guidelines/supply-manual/section/3/115 (Retrieved 19 January 2022)
[ii] E.g.: Notes from a Bidders' Conference Q&A Session: https://moed.baltimorecity.gov/news/press-releases/2021-09-23-bidder%E2%80%99s-conference-questions-and-answers (Retrieved 19 January 2022)
[iii] “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge” (PMBOK® Guide), 6th Ed., page 87, published by Project Management Institute, PMI
[iv] “Project Business Study Book”, page 78, published by the Project Business Foundation, https://my.project-business.org/resources/Documents/Project_Business_Study_Book.pdf (Retrieved 19 January 2022)
[v] IGI Global Dictionary, https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/bidders-conference/2417 (Retrieved 19 January 2022)
[vi] “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge” (PMBOK® Guide), 6th Ed., page 87, published by Project Management Institute, PMI
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