Tendering drives the main Life Sciences markets in Europe, and the process is taking center stage in Emerging Markets such as Russia, China, India, South America for public sector purchasing, as well as being adopted by the private sector due to the demonstrable success on driving down pricing.
Effective participation in tendering is the first step to maintaining and maximizing market share, so it is important that the requirements are well known and well provided for.
Unique among commercial activities, the Customer defines every part of every stage in terms of the content, mandating the response format, and setting deadlines. The supplier gets one shot to beat the competition with the best price : no negotiation. Win or lose, supplier and pricing for the customer is fixed a duration that can last several years.
To make matters more complicated, tendering also requires that documents, deposits, guarantees and taxes be provided by the supplier in order to even qualify as a contender. The offered items themselves must also be fully described and qualified with through datasheets, certificates and perhaps even samples. The correct collation and submission of this information within the pre-established deadlines is mandatory, with sanctions running from exclusion from the bid, preclusion from subsequent public purchasing and even penal sanctions for the responsible parties. Back office activities are further complicated due to a complete lack of defined standards. Responding to a Tender is bridging the gap between the company sales structure and the complexity and specificity of the Customer driven engagement, each tender being a complete project in itself that must be planned and executed perfectly.
Given the importance of this activity, it is surprising to find that historically the investment from a technology perspective on this fundamental part of the sales-cycle is still in the “IT dark ages”, running unsupported, locally produced home-baked solutions, relying mainly on man-power in the race against the deadline. The reactionary provision of disconnected solutions addressing each specific issue and often conceived, created and maintained by the business personnel themselves (rogue Access Databases and Excel spreadsheets) is clear sign that there was simply insufficient awareness of the existence of market-tested solutions or that proactive implementation of consolidated Tender Management solutions has difficulty jostling for space within corporate environments.
However, the tide is changing. Economic climate factors are pushing attention to the revenue generation phase with a focus on improving the quality of the process, reducing manpower costs, increasing bandwidth and providing better guarantees that the bid will at least make it to the confrontation with the competition. As the source of a substantial part of revenue for many markets outside the US, and the analyzing of business processes performance, consolidation onto connected platforms that drive the process, Tender Management becoming the focal point and technology partners with the experience and market knowledge required to successfully implement a project are available.
Is Tender Management on your Roadmap? If not, perhaps it should be.
ABOUT
Feedback Processi Logici (www.fbk.it aka “FBK”) is a provider a Best in Class Tender Management tools that concentrates on the requirements of a Multinational customer in the European Life Science industry. The company’s Contract Manager suite offers editions tailored to satisfy the specific needs of the Medical Device, Pharmaceutical, and Diagnostic markets and is scalable to cover the needs from local operations up to and including a global corporation’s EMEA Shared Service Center.
Clients include Abbott Diagnostics, Biomerieux, Boston Scientific, BSN Medical, D-Group, Dompè Group, GE-Healthcare, J&J Medical, Nutricia-Danone Group, Oxoid-Thermofisher, Sanofi-Pasteur MSD, Smiths Medical, St-Jude Medical, and W.L.Gore. FBK is headquartered in Milan, Italy.
https://twitter.com/GoFBK http://www.fbk.it/
For further information please contact +39 0233 103 102 / sales@fbk.it
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For further information:
Mariateresa Rubino
Account Director
Simply MOD srl
Tel. + 39 02 36740549
mobile 389 4573163
mariateresarubino@simplymod.it
http://www.simplymod.it