Tender Writing – Case Study 4

Something that is often overlooked in the tender writing process is the need to read all of the documents provided by the agency offering the tender. The inexperienced tender writer will pay scant regard to most of the documents and focus more on the tender specifications document. This is a failed strategy and in this case study we demonstrate why it is important to read all documents.



We were contacted by a client who had started preparing a response to the tender and had commenced completing the tender response form but was having difficulty in completing the application. Our grant writer initially asked the client for all of the documents that related to the tender application and was promptly forwarded the application form. Our tender writer suggested that there must be more documents provided by the Council is Conditions of Contract, Technical Specifications of Offer, General Conditions of Offer and Special Conditions of Offer. The client advised that they had not downloaded these documents from the Council website and had just downloaded the application form. Our grant writer immediately proceeded to download all of the supporting documents and to read each one carefully. 

In the documents we identified some significant issues that the client needed to consider before even considering to prepare a response. These related to the payment terms as outlined in the contract, the requirement of an implemented QA and WHS management system and the need for the company to have an environmental management policy. On discussing these issue with the client – while the payment terms as outlined weren’t ideal they could accept the terms as outlined. With respect to the QA/WHS management systems while they did not have certified systems they did have systems implemented and therefore complied with this tender requirement. However they did not have an environmental management policy. 

This would have made the client’s response non compliant and under normal circumstances they would have been excluded from assessment as a result. We were able to identify this and advised the client we could prepare an Environmental policy and as such the response would then comply with the tender requirements. On further investigation of the supporting documents we also identified that the tender needed to be written using Arial 11 font and the client was using Times New Roman 12 – again this would have made the response non compliant and again they would have been excluded from consideration.     

On reading the supporting documents further we were able to identify that the tender response and supporting documents in fact needed to be hand delivered to Council as opposed to be emailed or lodged electronically. Again our client was unaware of this requirement which meant that the timeframe to complete the tender had suddenly reduced because the tender documents had to be printed and collated obviously and then the tender had to be hand delivered to Council as required and the Council offices were a 3 hour trip away from the client’s facility. 

Given the skill of our grant writer we were able to avoid these potential pitfalls and ensure the tender was completed in time to be delivered. As we have said many times – tender writing is more – far more than just filling out the tender response form. There is a strategy and skill involved and our highly skilled tender writers give our clients at Red Tape Busters the best possible chance of success.

Contact us at Red Tape Busters - http://www.redtapebusters.com/ should you require more information about this article or if you require specialist grant or tender writing experience to help your organisation or business win grant funding or achieve successes with tenders.

We are specialists in providing the following services :-
  • Lobbying

  • Tender Writing

  • Grant Writing

  • Resumes/Job Applications

  • Organisational/Business Development.

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