blog.tenderio.com In the framework of the Tenderio project coordinated by PEDAL Consulting, we prepared 9 strategies on how SMEs can participate and eventually win public tenders abroad. These strategies were formulated together with the IPPON, PPACT and SESAM projects.
Strategy #5
Teaming up with large companies.
Brief explanation of the tactic
An SME identifies a large company with the necessary resources and capacities, offering them a value in return for which they submit the tender together (and therefore significantly increase their success changes).
Real life example
An SME in Central Europe contacted a large enterprise in Greece with the offer to form the consortium and answer a tender for the European Commission together. Normally, a large enterprise would probably decline the offer due to the fact that they have all the necessary resources and there is no need to share the eventual profit
with other partners. However, thanks to the right timing and the strong arguments, the large company agreed to form the consortium and submit the bid together. In terms of the timing, an SME approached them only 10 days before the deadline (which is normally not enough time to prepare the winning offer ‘from the scratch’). Another aspect was that the whole burden of the bid writing was on the shoulders of an SME. Therefore, a large company did not really take any risk while an SME significantly increased their chances to be successful thanks to the teaming up with this large enterprise.