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Promoted by BidWrite
The complexity of defence acquisition, sustainment and maintenance programs means many talented organisations get ‘lost’ in the formative engagement process. For BidWrite, communicating the skills, experience and capabilities necessary to succeed in Defence is all part of a day’s work.
For Australian contractors and suppliers, the capability and platform acquisition, sustainment and modernisation plans of the Australian Defence Force presents opportunity not seen since the Second World War.
However, navigating the complex requirements of Defence, including the intersection of government procurement and potential engagement with multinational primes through to small-to-medium size enterprises, means tendering for Defence work can be an overwhelming experience.
Entering this world requires a specific set of skills, experience and a passion for solving challenging intellectual problems with some of the most technical pieces of equipment ever built, while also being a compelling, plain English communicator.
Dr Rodger Manning, managing consultant at BidWrite, tells Defence Connect, “At the end of the day, Defence is about acquiring the best value capability for the ADF. Our job is to help companies win tenders by presenting their value in the best possible light and helping develop their people so they win more often and more efficiently. But the role we play is invisible to many. We’re like the coaches and backroom staff in the locker room.
“As tendering specialists, working with clients who are looking to win Defence contracts really enables us to demonstrate the full range of what we can offer. The size and complexity of contracts means we can really get stuck in and the diversity of the work is fantastic. We work across large scale acquisition and support programs, through to contracts involving small regional bases.”
Dr Manning adds, “While it is critical for our clients to get the tendering process right, because Defence is an ecosystem of constant innovation, evolution and improvement, we think it’s equally critical to help them deliver the best capability for Defence itself.”
Supporting this, BidWrite’s services span the full tender life cycle, from pre-tender positioning activities (known in the trade as ‘capture’), right through to tender award. Whatever you need help with; whether a specific tender submission, bid process optimisation or staff training, all services are ultimately designed to help you increase your chance of success. And as Dr Manning notes, “When guided through the process by specialists who are familiar with what works and what doesn’t, you quickly develop skills you can put to good use in future tendering opportunities.”
When asked about the most common Defence tendering mistake he sees, Dr Manning doesn’t need more than a second to respond: “By far, the most common thing we see organisations do wrong is that they make it all about themselves. They are so busy trying to explain how good they are, that they forget that the focus of the proposal should be all about the needs of Defence and of course the warfighters who will benefit from the products and services being procured.”
He adds, “So in a typical consulting engagement where we’re providing support for a specific tender submission, our client sees us driving the process to ensure that they meet the deadline with as little stress as possible, arranging and compiling all the various inputs and translating complex, confusing information into plain English. But where the real magic happens is when all these functions are unpinned with an absolute focus on addressing the needs of the client, in the most persuasive manner possible.”
This was most recently exemplified by BidWrite’s support of Naval Ship Management’s (NSM) winning bid to expand on the company’s experience maintaining the Royal Australian Navy’s fleet of Anzac Class frigates, to include the fleet’s largest ships, the two Canberra Class landing helicopter docks (LHDs).
For NSM, the technical expertise to deliver the $1.5 billion contract was without question. However, their commitment to submitting a comprehensive solution that fully articulated their in-house technical capabilities required some extra support.
As Dr Manning notes, “In our line of work, we meet many organisations who are excellent technical operators. Our role is to help them persuasively communicate all they can offer within the disciplined and often rigid tendering framework. That’s what we specialise in, and when combined with domain expertise of our clients, the result tends to be the best of both worlds.”
As active participants in Australian Defence’s market testing and industry engagement program, NSM first met BidWrite at a Centre for Defence Industry Capability (CDIC) event. After considering their options, NSM chose to work with BidWrite due to its deep experience in Defence tendering, range of in-house bid support skills and practical approach to winning.
To assist NSM’s proposal, BidWrite was tasked to augment NSM’s internal capability across a number of bid management, writing and production roles during both the EOI and RFT stages of the tendering process.
This collaboration resulted in NSM securing the contract to support the LHDs and their LLCs, and has served as one of the key examples of BidWrite’s offering and position as the premier tendering and bid support contractor for Defence procurement, sustainment and acquisition.
When asked to pinpoint what makes a service like BidWrite’s so valuable, Dr Manning offers a simple reply: “We increase your chance of winning.”
However, there are a few more layers to that, with Dr Manning explaining, “Our staff come from a huge variety of industry and educational backgrounds, with people ranging from technical PhDs through to marketing, IT, engineering, communications and visual design backgrounds.
“Another key element is that we’re allowed to ask the silly questions, questions that often uncover gold when it comes to the process of communicating value.
“I’ve worked as a proposal specialist for 24 years and when asked what makes a good proposal consultant, the three attributes that appear time and again are an inquisitive mind, an ability to empathise with the client’s perspective and a competitive desire to win.
“When combined with the communication skills necessary to understand and shape the customer’s offering to meet the very specific and complex needs of Defence, this makes for a very potent mix.”
BidWrite was founded by two ex-ADF personnel, one a tendering specialist, one a procurement specialist, purely to provide specialist support to organisations to help win tenders.
Twelve years on, BidWrite has a national presence, with offices in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. To ensure continuity for clients, the company operates a permanent staff model and is growing rapidly in response to the ever-increasing need for professional and practical tender and proposal management support.
