The Tender Manager’s Time Drain: Where Your Hours Go

December 16, 2024

In the world of tender management, time is money. Yet, despite the best efforts of many tender managers, hours are often lost to repetitive and manual tasks that could be automated or streamlined. For tender managers in industries like medical equipment manufacturing and distribution, this inefficiency can hinder productivity, increase stress, and lead to missed opportunities.

In this blog, we’ll dive into the everyday tasks that consume a tender manager’s time and explore how these time drains can be mitigated to improve overall efficiency and success in the tender process.

1. Document Gathering: The Paper Trail That Never Ends

Tender management starts with a mountain of documents. Tender managers spend a significant portion of their time gathering and organizing the required documents, which often include:

Compliance certifications (ISO, CE, FDA, etc.)
Financial reports (audited financial statements, solvency certificates)
Legal and regulatory documentation (tax returns, business licenses)
Technical specifications (product data sheets, user manuals)

This process is typically done manually, involving searching through multiple folders, databases, or even physical files. The result? Time-consuming searches and an increased chance of overlooking critical documents.

Time Drain: On average, document gathering and verification can take anywhere from 15 to 30 hours per tender, depending on the complexity of the documents and the company’s internal processes.

2. Compliance Verification: A Time-Intensive Necessity

Ensuring that all compliance requirements are met is crucial, yet it’s also one of the most time-consuming tasks in tender management. For medical equipment manufacturers, regulatory compliance is non-negotiable. Tender managers must:

Double-check the latest compliance updates
Ensure that all certifications are current and valid
Cross-reference compliance documents against tender specifications
Track expiration dates and renewal deadlines for key certifications

Even though this is critical to avoiding disqualification, compliance verification often involves a lot of manual checking and re-checking, which eats up valuable time.

Time Drain: Compliance checks can take anywhere from 5 to 10 hours per tender, depending on how many compliance documents are involved and the accuracy of internal record-keeping systems.

3. Proposal Customization: Tailoring Your Bid

Every tender requires a customized proposal, and tailoring bids to each tender’s unique requirements is no easy task. This involves:

Editing pre-existing templates to fit the specific tender’s scope
Gathering additional product or service information as required by the tender
Rewriting sections of the proposal to ensure alignment with the tender specifications
Coordinating input from different departments, such as legal, finance, and engineering

Customizing proposals takes time, especially when dealing with complex tenders. A single proposal may need several revisions before it’s ready for submission.

Time Drain: Proposal customization can take 15 to 40 hours, depending on the length of the proposal, the complexity of the tender, and the number of stakeholders involved in the approval process.

4. Tracking Deadlines: The Pressure of Multiple Timelines

Keeping track of multiple tenders with different deadlines is a common headache for tender managers. Missed deadlines can result in disqualification, lost opportunities, and a tarnished reputation. However, manually tracking deadlines and ensuring timely submissions can be overwhelming.

Tender managers often rely on spreadsheets, sticky notes, or email reminders to stay on top of deadlines. This leads to potential confusion and missed reminders, especially when dealing with several tenders at once.

Time Drain: Time spent managing and tracking deadlines can range from 5 to 10 hours per month, depending on how many tenders are being managed simultaneously.

5. Cross-Department Coordination: The Communication Breakdown

Tender management often requires collaboration across different departments: sales, legal, finance, product, and operations. Without proper coordination, delays and miscommunications occur, further draining time.

Tender managers must:

Coordinate with various stakeholders to ensure input is collected on time
Clarify tender specifications with product managers or engineers
Confirm financial terms with the finance team
Ensure legal terms and conditions are compliant with company policies

Miscommunication and delays in obtaining necessary approvals can extend the tender preparation time by days or even weeks.

Time Drain: Coordinating with multiple departments can add 10 to 20 hours per tender, especially when there are back-and-forth communications or waiting on approvals.

6. Tender Submission: Final Checks and Uploading

Once everything is ready, the final stage involves preparing and submitting the tender. This step includes:

Reviewing the final proposal to ensure all components are in place
Cross-checking all documents against the tender’s requirements
Uploading the tender to the appropriate portal or sending it via email
Confirming submission confirmation and ensuring the tender has been received

The process seems simple, but any errors in the final stages can lead to rejection. This results in additional time spent on last-minute checks and resubmissions.

Time Drain: The final preparation and submission process typically takes 2 to 5 hours, especially when dealing with complex tenders or submission portals that require specific formats.

7. Revisions and Post-Submission Follow-up: Waiting for Answers

After the tender is submitted, there may be revisions or clarifications requested by the tendering authority. In many cases, these requests require further back-and-forth communication and updates to the original submission.

Additionally, tender managers must follow up to track the status of the submission, respond to requests for information (RFIs), and keep their team informed of any changes.

Time Drain: On average, revisions and post-submission follow-up can consume 5 to 15 hours per tender, depending on the complexity of the clarifications requested.

Total Time Drain: The Cumulative Effect

When we sum up all the time-consuming activities in the tender process, a tender manager could easily spend 50 to 100 hours per tender—and this doesn’t even factor in the additional time spent on managing unsuccessful tenders or dealing with compliance audits. With several tenders in progress at once, this time quickly multiplies, leading to burnout, missed opportunities, and increased stress levels.

Conclusion: Saving Time, Gaining Success

Time is precious, and every hour spent on manual tasks in the tender process is time lost from more strategic activities, like identifying new tenders, analyzing competitors, and refining your bidding strategy. By streamlining repetitive tasks and embracing automation, tender managers can significantly improve efficiency, reduce stress, and increase the chances of winning tenders—ultimately driving business success.