The back alley's bill so far: 18 weeks · See the bill
In the bid room I'm one pack among many. Somewhere in me is everything this client needs. Find all of it before you price me.
The wrong way
Four weeks to the deadline. Tom, the bid manager, wants it quick. Sam, the firm's information manager, answers the thirty pages with BIM in the heading.
Tom: Can we just answer the BIM bit? The rest is boilerplate.
Page twelve, where Grace, the client's asset manager, set out the data the owner runs on, sits in a maintenance appendix. Nobody reads it, so nobody prices it.
The bid goes in on time. Thirty pages answered beautifully. Page twelve waits quietly in its appendix, unpriced.
Tom: Lovely. Done by Friday.
Wes, the handover manager, asks for page twelve's data. It was never asked for from a single supplier. Forty PDFs arrive. None has a serial number.
Six weeks of chasing suppliers who've already been paid. One answerphone says the supplier has gone fishing.
Wes finds the old tender pack in a cupboard and opens the maintenance appendix. The cobweb is still there.
Wes: Page twelve. It was in the pack all along.
Thirty pages answered beautifully. One appendix, unread, cost six weeks at the other end of the job.
+6 weeks on the back alley's bill: Page twelve unread at the bid: the asset data never asked for, and six weeks chasing it at handover.