Win the workWin the work: Monday, 9am…
Go or no-go
The tender pack lands. The meeting talks price, programme and risk. Then Sam, the information manager, asks the question.
Sam: Have we read what they want from us on information?
Stage 2 · Win the work · Stop 1 of 11 · The right way
Should we bid?
The back alley's bill so far: 12 weeks · See the bill
The right way
The decision
The client's system is new to the firm: training, licences, about three months of learning. Helen, the divisional director, says bid, with that priced and the risk written down.
Sam: We can do this. It isn't free.
Get readyGet ready: Week two of the job…
No surprises
The trained team logs in on day one. The three months were priced, and spent before site opened.
An hour on priceThe system turns up in week two, and nobody's paid to learn it.
The order read firstThe system was priced, learned, and boring by day one.
Now there is: The order, read before deciding to bid (the exchange information requirements). A bid decision that names it, and the risks that come with it.
What's going on here
Deciding to bid is deciding to deliver everything in the pack, including the information. Reading the order before the go or no-go meeting is how the firm finds out what it's signing up to, while saying no is still free.
In the town See it in the town: what has this firm actually agreed to?
The tender pack has left Client Town and landed in the contractor's bid room, and with it the order. Before anyone prices the job, someone has to open the order and ask what it really means for this firm, including the client's system nobody here has used. Read now, the order shapes the bid decision; left unread, it arrives on site as a surprise guest with a manual as thick as a brick.
Fix it Already bidding without reading the order? Read it today.
- Find the part of the tender pack about information and systems.
- List anything the firm hasn't done before, like a new client system.
- Price the learning, and write it on the bid's risk list.
A note for the information manager: The cheapest moment to find out what the order costs is before the go or no-go, while saying no is still free.
Try it on your job
At your next go or no-go, ask one question: what does the client want from us on information, and have we priced it?
ISO 19650 From a tender pack to a decision
| ISO 19650 says | Means | In the town |
|---|---|---|
| Exchange information requirements (EIR) | What the client asks each firm to deliver: what information, in what form, to what detail, and when | The order, arriving in the bid room inside the tender pack |
| Prospective lead appointed party | A firm bidding to lead the delivery and answer to the client for the information | Sam and Helen's firm, deciding whether to bid |
| Not from ISO 19650: the bid or no-bid decision | Commercial practice: deciding whether to tender, weighing price, programme, risk and capability | The moment the order should be read, before the firm commits |
Based on the ISO 19650 series: the ideas come from the standard; the plain-English wording, examples and advice are InfoTown's. ISO 19650 and its UK National Annex are © ISO and BSI. You'll hear the same language across the industry. Read more for free in the Information Management Initiative (IMI) Framework guidance from BSI and nima. For the full requirements, use the standard itself.