Invitation to tender and tender documents

 Preparation of tender documents

A tender is a submission made by a prospective supplier in response to an invitation to tender. It makes an offer for the supply of goods or services, including a price and proposals for how the requirements will be satisfied if these have been requested.

Tender documents might include:

§  A letter of invitation to tender;

§  The form of tender (formal acknowledgement that the supplier understands and accepts the terms of conditions of the tender documents);

§  Preliminaries (providing a description of the project, allowing the supplier to assess costs which, while they do not form a part of any of the package of works required by the contract, are required by the method and circumstances of the works, such as general plant, site staff and welfare facilities);

§  The form of contract that will be used, contract conditions and any amendments. This might include a model enabling amendment if building information modelling (BIM) is being used, to make a BIM protocol part of the contract documentation;

§  Employer's information requirements if BIM is being used (defining the information that will be required for the development of the project and for the operation of the completed built asset);

§  A tender pricing document (or contract sum analysis on design and build projects). This sets out the way prospective suppliers should breakdown their overall tender price and is effectively an unpriced bill of quantities;

§  A drawing schedule;

§  Design drawings, and perhaps an existing building information model;

§  Specifications, and

§  On construction management contracts, tender documentation for trade contracts might include the construction manager's master programme.

Invitation to tender 

An invitation to tender (ITT, otherwise known as a call for bids^[1] or a request for tenders) 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).

The term "notice inviting tenders" (NIT) is often used in purchasing in India.^[2]

An ITT differs from a request for quotation (RFQ) or a request for proposal (RFP), in which case other reasons (technology used, quality) might cause or allow choice of the second best offer. An RFP is a request for a price from a buyer but the buyer would also expect suggestions and ideas on how the project work should be done. RFPs are thus focused on more than just pricing/cost, they entail a bit of consulting from the contractor or vendor. The closest equivalent to an ITT in the mainstream private sector is an RFP which, since public money is not involved, typically has a less rigid structure.