System integration bidding management: how to hit the target

At present, most information construction projects in China are operated through bidding. The owner generally entrusts the bidding company to conduct public bidding or negotiation, and then determines the information system builder or contractor according to the evaluation results. For the owners, through strict screening and evaluation, we choose the manufacturers who have strength and can provide technical solutions and quality services with good cost performance. However, for manufacturers, how to mobilize all resources in a limited time, complete high-quality tenders on time, and complete the bidding is indeed a big challenge. I. Contents of project management subject to tender Generally speaking, there is no uniform standard for system integration projects, and different schemes are determined according to different customer needs, which often involves the comprehensive integration of various softwares (including proprietary software and third-party software) and various hardwares (including hosts and networks). Therefore, bidders should not only organize and dispatch the internal resources of the company, but also be familiar with and understand the needs of the owners, and form a good cooperative alliance with third-party product manufacturers or partners. Therefore, bidding management is not only the organization of bidding scheme, but also the communication with the owner, negotiation and cooperation with third-party cooperative manufacturers. 1, communication with the owner and early cooperation and communication with the owner are the prerequisites for bidding. If the bidder is committed to the informatization construction of a certain industry for a long time, has done similar projects with the owner before or has had sufficient communication with the owner, is familiar with the industry business and customer relationship, and can "know customers better than customers", then the preparation of the bidding scheme will be targeted, and the high-level scheme will be completed in time according to the contents of the tender and the real needs of the owner. On the contrary, if the bidder has never carried out information construction projects in the owner's field, or has not fully communicated with the owner, then the bidder will only organize the scheme from his own point of view rather than from the owner's point of view, which will often lead to great deviation from the owner's needs and lead to the failure of bidding. The communication and early cooperation with the owner is also directly related to the owner's trust in the bidder. Under normal circumstances, the owner will not hand over the project to a company that he has never heard of or knows little about, because it means great risks. On the contrary, if the bidder has had satisfactory cooperation with the owner in the early stage, the owner will often choose to continue the previous cooperation relationship with the tenderer in the new bidding construction project on the premise of the bidder's strength and technology. This will give bidders an absolute advantage in bidding competition, especially in those new bidding projects closely related to previous cooperation projects. 2. Cooperation with third-party product manufacturers or partners It is very important for third-party product manufacturers or partners to support bidders in bidding. In some large or complex projects, due to factors such as bidding qualification requirements and complex system technology, the qualification or technical strength of bidders alone cannot meet the requirements of bidding documents. In this case, bidders often seek and cooperate with other complementary partners for joint bid, which can better meet the requirements of the owners and increase the chances of winning the bid. For system integration projects, more than 90% of the bids are inseparable from the support of third-party vendors. Especially in some simple hardware or network integration projects, the support of third-party vendors to bidders will dominate the bidding competition. Therefore, which manufacturer and bidder can get much support will directly affect the success or failure of bidding. This often depends on the bidder's bidding qualification, own strength, industry relationship and previous cooperation experience with third-party manufacturers. 3. Preparation of bidding scheme The quality of bidding scheme is the direct basis for bid evaluation. So if you want to win the bid successfully, you must come up with a high-level plan. Bidding schemes are mostly based on bidders and are jointly completed by third-party manufacturers or other partners. Generally, it includes three parts: commercial part (including bidding quotation), technical part, project implementation and after-sales service part. For some large-scale integration projects, bidders often separate the bidding quotation from the business part and specialize in doing a part. For the business part, mainly including company qualification, bid bank guarantee, power of attorney, engineering experience of similar projects, etc., the bidder can make standard materials, and make local modifications or adjustments according to the different characteristics of the bidding project at that time in each bid. For the technical part, the project implementation part and the tender quotation part, there are great differences between each tender, which need to be treated specifically. This is also the work that bidders spend the most manpower and time in organizing bidding. Second, the process system integration of bidding project management The bidding management of the project involves the owners and third-party cooperative manufacturers externally, and involves the scheduling of personnel in different departments of the company internally. Moreover, the bidding period is relatively tight, and the bidding scheme writing and customer contact work are complicated and changeable. According to the above characteristics, some bidders began to try to introduce the theory and method of project management into bidding management, treating each bidding activity as an independent project, from project organization and construction, project planning and control, project summary and assessment. 1, the project subject to tender set up a project subject to tender according to the requirements of system integration project subject to tender, which can break the cross-leadership of bidders (such as sales personnel, technical personnel, business personnel, channel personnel, etc.). ) Within the company, form close cooperation with external resources (third-party manufacturers or partners), unify the objectives, and implement the division of labor and responsibilities within a given time, thus ensuring the smooth development of the bidding work. The bidding project team generally implements the project manager responsibility system and consists of three groups: customer exchange group, technical solution group and business group. During the bidding period, all grouped bidders are managed and dispatched by the project manager. 2. Planning and Control of Bidding Project Due to the complexity of bidding work, it will be difficult to ensure that all work is completed on time if a reasonable bidding plan is not formulated. It is very dangerous to think that bidding time is tight and it is a great waste or unnecessary to spend more time planning. Especially in the bidding of some large-scale system integration projects. The bidding project plan generally includes the time schedule plan, resource allocation plan, cost plan and emergency measures of each work. When making a plan, we should fully consider the bidding time limit and available resources, set milestones, find out the critical path of the project, and put forward emergency plans to ensure the smooth development of all work on the critical path. On this basis, other work that can be processed in parallel should also be processed in parallel, and the sooner it is completed, the better. The control of the project subject to tender is generally carried out according to milestones. Milestone span should be set at 3- 10 days according to the length of bidding time. The project manager should strictly check the timely completion of milestones, including the quantity and quality, cost and personnel of a milestone, find out the existing problems in time, and take remedial measures quickly for the work that fails to complete milestones on time. After submitting the bidding scheme, the bidding work is not over. In general, the bidder also needs to answer questions or explain the tender according to the requirements of the tendering company. Bidding projects with more bidders will be screened in the first 2-3 rounds, and the bidding company will initially select 2-5 short-listed manufacturers among many bidders, and then communicate with them specific business and technical plans to determine the final winning bidder. 3. Project Summary and Evaluation On the surface, whether the bidding fails or the contract is finally signed with the owner after arduous business negotiations, the bidding work seems to have come to an end temporarily. In fact, from the perspective of the project operation cycle, the project is not over, and it needs to be summarized, evaluated and assessed. Project summary is very important. Because every bidding work has many new features, and the people involved in each bidding work will be different, through careful summary and analysis, we can find out the success or failure of each bidding project and share it with those who have participated in the bidding work in the future, which can effectively avoid the same mistakes and make the bidding work have a higher starting point every time. Project evaluation, rewards and punishments are the last link of project management. Some bidders only pay attention to the early bidding work, but ignore the later assessment and rewards and punishments. Some are evaluated after successful bidding. In fact, project assessment is not simply a question of how much bonus or criticism to give, but an objective evaluation and recognition of everyone and every job of the bidding project team regardless of whether the project wins the bid or not. But in most cases, the project evaluation is oriented to the final result. General companies conduct first-level assessment on projects and project managers, and project managers conduct second-level assessment on members of bidding project teams. If the project wins the bid, the first-level evaluation score is higher, and the second-level evaluation score is correspondingly higher. On the other hand, if the project fails to bid, the scores of the first-level and second-level reviews will not be very high. Three, several key points of bidding project management There are many key factors that affect the success or failure of bidding projects. There are two main points here: 1. Attach importance to pre-bid analysis. In the face of numerous system integration bidding projects, it is very necessary to make a careful analysis before bidding. Because it can decide which bids to vote for, which bids not to vote for, which bids to focus on and which bids to participate in, so as to put limited resources and energy on those bidding projects with greater confidence. It is not advisable to buy the bidding documents and vote for the bidding project without any analysis. Pre-bid analysis mainly includes the following aspects, such as the company's existing customer relationship, the support of third-party manufacturers, the company's technical strength and qualifications, existing competitors and so on. In which aspects are the company in obvious advantages, which aspects are in obvious disadvantages, and whether the disadvantages can be made up. In this way, it is easy to make clear the situation of the company in the bidding project and take corresponding countermeasures. 2. Strengthening bid price management In the bidding of system integration projects, price is a decisive factor, especially those projects with pure hardware integration. It is a great pity that we often see some bidders reject their bids just because their bids do not meet the requirements of the bidding documents. Therefore, when making a tender offer, you must read the places mentioned in the tender documents many times, and it is best for two people to read them separately. In many cases, the tender documents will mention the tender price in several places. Only by stringing together the price terms in all these places will we really know how to quote, and missing any one may lead to quotation errors. The price between bidders is not a sufficient condition for winning the bid, and there are also examples where the highest bidder wins or the lowest bidder wins. But generally speaking, the lower or moderate price is close to the owner's investment estimate of the system, which will make the bidder in a more favorable position in the competition, especially when the software and hardware configuration and service terms are not very different. In fact, the bidding management of system integration project is a very complicated and arduous work. Every bidding is basically a case, and there is no general bidding model. Only by actively exploring in the bidding work, constantly summing up experience and learning lessons can we effectively improve the overall level of bidding management and achieve greater success in the increasingly competitive bidding.