Would the Members of RE be interesed in?

[WebRam]

Would the members of RE be interested in this?

eTenders.

This would be an area where you could review projects and bid for work.

Explanation
A major issue within any procurement process is who to invite to tender and then the process of finding the best people for the job. As a contractor, a major issue is being aware of all the projects out there that you could bid for and marketing/selling yourself to get the opportunity to bid. This is where we at RE believe we can add some value to the process.

We are currently evaluating the benefit of creating an 'eTender' area on the site where consultants, buying teams or even end users can post their up and coming projects, allowing all of our forum members to submit interest in tendering so that they can receive the project scope of works, enabling them to bid directly (hopefully avoiding £000's in advertising/selling costs for the opportunity).

We anticipate the process to be something along the lines of:

Customer posts details of a pending project (project title, brief description, outline scope of works and deadline for tenders).
Interested parties (must be a forum member) submit their interest through an online form which goes directly to the customer (no one is able to see who has responded apart from the customer).
The customer then dispatches directly to any responders their full tender briefing document.
Interested parties submit their tender response direct to the customer in the usual way (not through the web site).We feel this will give project owners more choice of who to use (and save them time and cost in accessing a vast contractor base) and give all the businesses who are forum members opportunity to access more potential work on a 'level playing field'.

[US Iceman]

Hi Dez,

This might be of interest to those members doing service and installation work. The only potentially problematic instance I can see is if you or the RE site are seen as being, or held, responsible for the parties work.

If you have some statement addressing what might become a liability issue I don't see any reason why this would not be a good idea.

Mike

[WebRam]

Hi Mike, you are correct.

If the interest was there, we would have a secure section for this, with the correct precautions

Dez

[frank]

I've got to say that I personally wouldn't be really interested in it.

I've had numerous years of being ripped off by Mechanical Services contracting companies and have spent the past 10 years telling them all to get *******, while steadily building up a secure and trusted client base. No one in between me and the cheque, no time wasted writing defensive letters or arguing final accounts. Oh joy.

I'm not going to get mega rich doing this job but at least I'm earning a decent wage, peace of mind, plenty of sleep at night and a profit share each year.

At my age, I'm looking to start taking it easy and looking forward to spending more time in the sun - not starting from scratch again.

The last thing I want is to start working for unknown clients. Just my two' penneth worth.

[danfridgeman]

Good idea i think. I would find this very appealling, work in every 1s county. Cant really go wrong!:D Can it?

[danfridgeman]

Great idea, im in!

[Andy]

Hi Dez:)

E tenders usually go down to price, it's not the way I do business, I like to meet the client, usually the owner and talk to him face to face, sell the job on quality not buy the job with a low bid.

It would not be the way to go for me, people usually ask me or the company I work for to bid as we are seen as the right way of doing it. Indead I have often designed the system, specifed it and our quote has been used as the specification for the job.

Just my thoughts:)

Kind Regards, Andy:)

[Dan]

If it is similar to what we call "reverse auctions" in the US, I have no interest. Regardless, not being in the UK, my per diem would knock me out of the running. :)

[racs]

I think you may be opening up the proverbial can of worms, from my side of the fence quality of product goes out of the window and usually the companies that win this type of work either go bump and re-open a month later with their aunt nelly running things :rolleyes: or drive the price down ridiculously low then vanish, leaving the more reputable companies to mop the mess up, or is that condensate? lol

[Packman]

I agree in essence with the general opinion that e-tenders drive price and quality down, I think there are no winners as the customer often ends up with a poor job and no support to correct as the suppliing company has 'ceased trading'.

[GENGUS]

hi
The small refrigeration company i work for have recently been involved with an e-auction for service work at a number of food processing factories. In a nutshell we lost contracts and regained some contracts on reduced terms and conditions. The auction was driven by people who have no understanding of our business or how its operates, putting unrealistic maintenance costs and then having you competing against your competitives prices online.

[wambat]

For small business's I believe word of mouth and quality of work is a better option, That way, a face to face meeting and agreement is more indicative of each others character. I believe this is more appropriate for the smaller business man, such as most of us.

[fixit]

HI
E tenders, Dont know? would like to see one, why not make one up and put it out to the members and see what comes back.

[Chopper]

Hi,
I am of the opinion that it will make the contracts very, very competitive and the cheap tenders put forward will obviously be of a lower standard.
On the other hand, if the contact details are being given and the contact is accessable then thats when you can approach them and try to sell your "product".
There is nothing more frustrating than when you are undercut on price, but know the customer is not getting the quality and service you have offered.

Regards

Chopper

[JimmyMurphy]

I agree with Andy and Dan fully. Thats not how any reputable company should do business

[Chris Burton]

A section might be for guys to post jobs they cannot commit to for a geographical or workload commitments, a sort of on line jobshare.

[Perseus]

I have to agree with Andy and Dan, reverse auctions in the states have made supermarket projects a commodity.

On the other hand, a system to put the customers in touch with the contractors and get the word out on the jobs is a good idea. Particularly on some of the specialty projects...and for the specialty contractors. If a project of any considerable size and significance is worth anything the contractor should at least get in the car or hop on a plane and visit the customer. The only way to best serve everyone involved is to properly check out and quote a project. If the customer is going to make all decisions on price and not even take into consideration past projects and the contractors reputation then it probably wouldn't be a good job anyways (a good contractor is proud of his customer list, that and word of mouth is his best sales pitch).

I guess it depends on the intent, and how it would be set up.:confused:

[Samarjit Sen]

In our country, small business set up are facing dirty competition from reputable and larger firms. You would be surprised to know that we have lost a number of jobs only on price basis. These big refrigeration houses, will quote a price which is absurd and you can very well see clearly that the customer is being set up for being taken for a ride. No one wants to lose in business. Because of the firms brand name, they get the business and make a mess of the job.

Instead of setting up e tenders which will not help anyone except the customer to get a sloppy job done, I feel if a free consultancy for the customers are set up, where they can refer their requirement and the forum give them the proper guidance. This is what are country requires. It is not that we do not have consultants, but 95% of them are not even aware of the difference between a refrigeration project and an air conditioning project.

[Renato RR]

If someone dont like biding then dgust dont.But if costumer wants that way of dealing with things we must play his game or give up job without fight.

Renato

[winfred.dela]

Hi Guys,
I am new here, but one of the reason I enjoyed each day visiting this site is the openness of the members in sharing ideas.

. . . This openness might be lost if there will be bidding or competition between members.

. . . I believe most of us has its own loyal client based that we may not need to go far from our base.

. . . Also, auctions are for BUYER's interest and not for us that SELLS.

. . . I usually don't work if the price is tight (this is what usually happens in auctions) because I may not be able to deliver the Best Service.

[Andy]

Hi:)

I have an ebid to complete, we are on a list of one off the supermarket multipiles. On the email it states we can refuse to tender, but then they take us off the list, nice people:(
I will tender it, but it will be at a good margin, I'm sure our competitors will do the same (especially if I phone them up and agree that)

On the bright side it reduces the paperwork, as I generate all my quotes digitally anyway.

Kind Regards Andy:)

[taz24]

tender it, but it will be at a good margin, I'm sure our competitors will do the same (especially if I phone them up and agree that)


Isn't that ilegal http://www.refrigeration-engineer.com/forums/images/icons/icon5.gif
Cheers taz.

[NH3LVR]

It certainly would be illegal in the United States.

[absrbrtek]

Its called collusion or price fixing, it is illegal in the US. Its been tried before, however theres always one company that low balls it anyways to get the work. It certainly would be illegal in the United States.

[Andy]

Hi:)

didn't quote the job anyway:) but that is a good point about the price fixing, never thought of it that way:o

But is that honesty shown to us by our customers if we leave out something by accident that causes us to get the job and make no money on it;)

Anyway it would be impossible to price fix as there would always be one dishonest, dishonest person that puts in the low bid because he wants the job:D

Kind Regards Andy:)

[Abe]

Article 80 and Article 81 of the European Treaty would make it illegal.
The Office of Fair Trading site has some useful guidelines