(a) public bidding by the tender unit to publicly publish advertisements or sign up for bidding, as long as the bidding unit meets the requirements of "pre-qualification", it can bid. There is no limit to its quantity, so it is also called unlimited bidding. Open bidding is divided into three forms: dead bid (fixed bidder), semi-live bid (bid evaluation) and live bid (negotiation).
(2) Inviting the tenderee to invite a number of construction enterprises (bidders) to bid. So it is also called limited bidding. Because this method is not conducted in public, it belongs to personal invitation, and bidders generally don't know which unit is also participating in bidding, which can avoid collusion between bidders to raise prices and use bidders to obtain lower quotations.
(3) Bid negotiation (bid negotiation) The tenderee directly selects a contractor, and the two parties negotiate to determine the project cost. This kind of bidding unit does not compete directly.
(4) Cost plus fixed remuneration The tendering unit and its designated organizer agree on a fixed profit or profit rate, and the cost is reimbursed according to the actual situation, that is, the contracting method of cost plus fixed remuneration.
Main methods of decision-making before bidding:
The contractor's bidding decision is a countermeasure to solve the bidding process. Decision-making runs through the whole process of the competition. For all the main links in the bidding process, we must make correct decisions in time to win the competition. Decision-making includes the following four steps:
1) Analyze the number of engineering tasks that an enterprise can undertake in a certain period of time under the existing resources;
2) Selection and decision of bidding project: When only one project is available for bidding, decide whether to bid; When there are multiple projects available for bidding, correctly select the bidding object and decide which project or projects to bid.
3) After the bidding of a project is confirmed, the project cost is evaluated on the premise of meeting the requirements of quality and time limit for a project, that is, the technical advantages and strength of the enterprise are reasonably evaluated in combination with the actual project.
4) On the basis of collecting information from all parties, determine the bidding strategy of high price, low profit or capital preservation from the perspective of competitive strategy.
Bidding skills
Usually, bidding skills are simply understood as the methods and skills used in quotation, and bidding quotation is a very complex system engineering, and its specific work is divided into several stages, each stage faces different or even very different situations, and each stage also has its own emphasis on the practical problems to be solved. We can't use the same standard to treat different stages of bidding, and of course we can't use the same skill to solve specific problems in each stage. Therefore, the content of bidding skills must involve every specific stage of the bidding process. According to the different situations and work objectives of each stage, determine the appropriate solutions and skills. Whether the bidding skills can be used scientifically and reasonably to make them play their due role in the bidding work is related to whether the bid can be won in the end, which is the key to the whole bidding work.
1, bidding skills before bid opening
(1) Pre-qualification stage
Usually, in public bidding projects, the owners will pre-qualify the bidding enterprises in order to grasp the basic situation of each bidder, exclude bidders who obviously do not meet the requirements and reduce the workload of bid evaluation. For bidding enterprises, it is also very important to fully understand the owner himself, the design and consulting units entrusted by him and the project itself before determining the bidding strategy. Its specific contents include:
1) The source and amount of funds for this project, and whether there is sufficient financial guarantee;
2) Whether the examination and approval procedures of this project are complete, and whether they comply with the relevant laws and regulations of the host country and local government;
3) Understand the customary practices of the owner in bidding and evaluation of previous construction projects, and his attitude towards the contractor, especially whether the project payment can be paid in time and whether the contractor's claim can be treated reasonably;
4) The organization and personnel of the owner's project management, the working methods and habits, business level and experience of its main personnel;
5) Understand the entrusted supervision mode, the division of responsibilities between the owner's project manager and supervisors, and the main working procedures;
6) Whether the qualification, work habits and methods of the supervision engineer and the attitude towards the contractor can handle the problem from a fair standpoint;
7) Prepare the "Pre-qualification Document" in strict accordance with the specified requirements, and pay attention to strict wording and exquisite decoration, so as to impress the owner. When filling in the "List of Completed Projects", those projects with great construction difficulty, novel structure, complex technology, excellent quality, short construction period, low cost and high evaluation should be selected under the true information, so as to fully display the company's performance and help to win the bid.
(2) Study the bidding stage
When studying the tender, we should carefully "understand" the tender, that is, we should carefully study the contents and relevant terms of the tender:
1) Distinguish the responsibilities of the contractor and the quotation range to avoid omissions;
2) Understand various technical requirements and formulate advanced and reasonable construction schemes;
3) Investigate and understand the market price of labor, materials and machinery where the project is located in time to avoid making mistakes due to blind valuation;
4) Solve the requirements of completion date, total construction period and rewards and punishments, and make a reasonable construction schedule;
5) Payment of project funds, and whether there is advance payment for the project; Settlement method; Liability for deferred payment and interest payment, etc. In order to make a good plan for the use of funds;
6) Understand whether there are special requirements for materials, equipment and construction methods, so as to take corresponding countermeasures;
7) Understand the internal meaning of the composition of each item in the bill of quantities to prevent missing items;
8) Make clear the provisions of general contracting and subcontracting, so as to facilitate subcontracting and cooperation when their own construction capacity is insufficient.
9) Define the provisions on compensation for price increase during the construction period, so as to fully consider the interest risk and other factors when making quotation decisions;
10) For unclear questions, it shall be submitted to the tenderee for clarification in time.
(3) Field investigation stage
Broadly speaking, anything that can't be directly understood and determined from the tender documents and has an impact on the bid evaluation results should be understood and determined through on-site investigation as far as possible. The owner usually provides bidders who have passed the pre-qualification with an opportunity for on-site inspection. Bidders can send people to visit the site, ask questions that need clarification, and then get clarification from the owner. Of course, it is difficult to achieve this goal completely by only one on-site investigation. Therefore, before the on-site investigation, we should make full preparations and conduct a series of investigations, including: political situation, economic situation, legal situation, factor market situation, traffic and communication situation, natural conditions, construction conditions and other conditions.
(4) Investigate competitors
Know yourself and know yourself, and you will win every battle. Therefore, after you have a clear understanding of your own situation and engineering environment, you should try your best to find out the competitors' situation, fully grasp their advantages and disadvantages, make clear the main competitors of this bid, formulate bidding plans and choose bidding skills in a targeted manner, give play to your own advantages, limit competitors and increase the certainty of winning the bid.
(5) Price calculation stage
The problems that should be paid attention to in the calculation stage of bidding quotation, that is, the so-called bidding skills, include:
1) Carefully verify the quantities to prevent calculation errors. We can start from two aspects: on the one hand, we should carefully study the bidding documents, review the engineering quantity, thoroughly understand the design technical requirements, check for missing parts and correct mistakes; On the other hand, first-hand information is obtained through on-the-spot investigation, and all factors related to the project quantity are mastered, including collecting geological survey data and reports, and paying special attention to the influence of soil quality and other factors on earthwork. For example, when foundation treatment is carried out, cohesive soil will increase engineering quantity and cost.
2) The calculation of relevant rates should be flexibly selected according to the actual needs of construction, the management level of the bidder and various factors in the market, so as to make competitive quotations.
Usually, the specific bidding skills that bidders are willing and familiar with include:
1) unbalanced quotation
The unbalanced quotation method is relative to the usual balanced quotation (normal quotation), which means that after the total price is basically determined, the quotation of internal subprojects is adjusted in order not to increase the total price, not to affect the winning bid, and also to obtain ideal economic benefits during settlement. Items that can increase the unit price include: items that can be settled and collected as soon as possible; Projects whose number is expected to increase in the future; Items that must be done in the tentative project, etc.
2) The unit price of sporadic employment (daywork) can generally be slightly higher than the wage unit price in the project, because daywork is not within the scope of the total contract price and will be reimbursed when it occurs. However, if the tender documents have assumed the "nominal quantity of work" of daywork, it is necessary to analyze whether to quote a high price to avoid raising the total quotation.
3) Sudden attack method
Due to fierce bidding competition, in order to confuse the other party, the whole bidding process can still be carried out according to the general situation, and even some false information is deliberately revealed, such as announcing that you are not interested in the project, not planning to participate in bidding (or preparing to bid at a high price), showing the illusion that business is unprofitable, etc. A few hours before the bidding deadline, he suddenly went to bid and lowered the bidding price (or raised the price), thus making his opponent unprepared and defeated.
4) Low-price bid winning method
The method of winning the bid at a low price is sometimes called "desperate method". To adopt this method, we must have very strong strength or the backing of the state or a big consortium, that is, in order to occupy a certain market or strive for future advantages, we would rather make less or no money at present, or we can adopt the method of losing first and winning later, first quote the low price, and then use the claim to turn losses into profits. Using this method, we must first confirm that the owner determines the winning bidder according to the lowest price, and at the same time require the contractor to have strong claim management ability.
5) Joint Guarantee Law and Binding Law
Joint insurance law refers to that several powerful contractors unite to control the price tag in the case of many competitors. It is guaranteed that one company will win the bid first, and then the second and third companies will win the bid in the same way in the second and third tenders. This method of joint guarantee is rarely used in actual bidding work. Commonly used bundling method, that is, two or three companies with similar or similar main businesses will bid too high and lose their competitive advantage because of lack of experience, poor performance or excessive workload when bidding alone. In the form of bundling, joint bid complements each other's advantages, pursues advantages and avoids disadvantages, enjoys benefits and takes risks, which relatively improves its competitiveness and chances of winning the bid. This method is currently used in many large-scale projects in China. For example, the total investment of Shell's South China Sea project is 30 billion to 4 billion US dollars, including 280 million US dollars for styrene and polyethylene plants. Due to the large scale of the project, the owner adopted the form of bidding separately in units, and the general unit was managed by a consulting company. The competition was fierce, and the bidders were bundled. Finally, TECHNIP and Chiyoda bundled to win the bid.
6) Multi-scheme quotation method
For some quotation documents, when the project specifications or contract terms are unclear, the terms are unclear or unfair, or the technical specifications are too harsh, the contractor will bear greater risks. In order to reduce the risk, it is necessary to increase the unit price of the project and increase the "unforeseen expenses", but this will increase the possibility of being eliminated because of excessive quotation. The multi-scheme quotation method is to deal with this dilemma. The specific method is to submit two prices in the tender, that is, one price is in accordance with the original tender documents, and then put forward: "If some terms in the technical specifications or tender documents change, how much can this bidder's offer be reduced …", thus giving a lower price to attract the owners.
7) Proposal quotation method
Some projects, such as chemical and petrochemical projects, will have an important impact on the construction period and project cost due to different process routes and construction schemes. In the tender documents, the owner usually requires the contractor to quote according to the specified process plan. After comprehensive analysis of various factors, especially in order to beat competitors with similar performance, the contractor can put forward a recommendation scheme according to the company's engineering experience, highlight the advantages of the new scheme in improving quality, time limit for a project and saving investment, and list the total price and itemized price, so as to attract the owner and distinguish himself from other bidders. However, the technical scheme of the recommended scheme cannot be described too specifically, and the technical key should be kept to prevent the owner from handing this scheme over to other contractors. At the same time, the recommended scheme must be mature or have successful performance in the past, otherwise it will easily cause future troubles.
8) Quotation method combining fixed price and floating price
According to the fluctuation of price, exchange rate and inflation, fixed price, floating price or the combination of fixed price and floating price are determined.
2. Bidding skills after bid opening
Through the bid opening procedure, bidders can know the quotations of many bidders. However, low price does not necessarily mean winning the bid. It needs comprehensive review and recheck, and the winning bidder can only be determined after consultation. If bidders show their bidding skills in the process of bidding negotiation, they can turn the unfavorable factors of their bidding into favorable factors, thus greatly improving their chances of winning the bid.
(1) Reduce the list price
The bid price is not the only factor in winning the bid, but it is the key factor in winning the bid. In bidding negotiation, it is the main means for bidders to ask for price reduction in time. Usually bidders will prepare two or three prices. That is, prepare a moderate price to deal with the general situation, and at the same time prepare an alternative price to deal with the special competitive environment, which is also commonly known as price reduction preparation. Reducing the bid price can be considered from three aspects: reducing profits, reducing management fees and reducing reserve coefficient.
(2) Supplementary bidding preferential conditions
In the process of bidding negotiation, in addition to the key factor of winning the bid-price, many other important factors can be considered, such as shortening the construction period, improving the project quality, reducing the requirements of payment conditions, proposing new conditions, new processes, new construction schemes, new materials and new equipment, etc., in order to win the approval of the tenderer and win the bid.
(3) Effective publicity methods
Pay attention to publicize our company to the owners and local governments, invite them to inspect our company to prove our strength and potential, and inspect our performance, which is similar to the bidding project that has been completed or under construction, so as to gain understanding and support with the strength and reputation of the enterprise.