Bid review
Helen: What does the client actually ask for?
Helen's journey · Lesson 2
Cut it to win it
Before you start
In the story
They cut the people who look after the information. Then paid for it ten times over.
Back to the story
The right way: Priced in, like the scaffolding
The tender
It asks for an information plan, a shared place for files, checking and a proper handover. So an information manager and a document controller go in the price, like scaffolding and the site cabins.
Bid submitted
The bid team finds the three per cent somewhere it can explain to the client later.
Cut to winNobody managing information, a fortnight of rework and a payment held.
Priced inAn information manager and a document controller, like the scaffolding.
Ask this
Who on this job manages information day to day, and is it in the price?
Continue Helen's journey
Story 3: What did we sign?
Helen signs The Glasshouse contract. It makes promises about information that nobody reads.
The right way, explained
Information management is the town's roads, and document control is its post office. Close them both and the traffic still has to move. It just goes down the back alleys, slower, and someone ends up paying for the crash. Usually you.
If you're the information manager
Put your role in the bid with days a week against it, like the scaffolding. If you're "covering" five jobs, tell Helen before the client finds out.
In the town See it in the town: who keeps the routes open, and what happens when they're cut?
Helen's view: cut the Transport Authority and the routes close. The traffic doesn't stop. It finds the back alleys.
- 1 The proper routes between buildings, closed. Nobody is planning them, building them or keeping them open.
- 2 The traffic doesn't stop. It squeezes down the back alleys, and nothing it carries leaves a trail.
- 3 The Transport Authority: the people who plan the routes, build them, open them to traffic and keep an eye on them. Cut to win the bid.
This is the Information Management Function!
The Transport Authority: it plans the routes, builds them, opens them to traffic and keeps an eye on them.
Sam's Heads Up Spread across five jobs is not a role
One information manager "covering" five projects is a rumour, not a role. Somebody has to be on the job day to day, or the shared place turns back into email within a month.
Before the bid goes in, check who is named for information on this job, and how many days a week they're actually on it.
The briefing Four lines for the board
The point
Information management and document control are part of delivering the contract, not overhead to trim.
Why it matters
Cutting the roles doesn't remove the work. It spreads it across engineers paid to do something else, and leaves nobody accountable.
What the standard expects
When a client asks for ISO 19650, the bid has to show who will manage information and that the team can actually do it.
Your decision
Keep the information roles in the price, or accept the risk in writing.
For directors What a tender has to show
When a client asks for ISO 19650, the tender response is expected to show more than a price. In plain terms, the bid should show:
| The bid shows | In plain words |
|---|---|
| A plan for managing information | How we'll run information on this job (the pre-appointment BEP) |
| That the team can do it | People, skills and IT, checked for every firm in the team |
| A plan for day one | How the shared place, rules and training will be ready before work starts |
| The risks | What could go wrong with information, and what we'll do about it |
For you: if the information roles aren't in the price, the bid is promising things nobody is paid to deliver.
Based on the ISO 19650 series: the ideas come from the standard; the plain-English wording, examples and advice are InfoTown's. ISO 19650 is © 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.