InfoTown™
Tom's journey · Pre-Construction · Lesson 3

What did we actually send?

Before you start

In the story

Eight months later, nobody could prove what we'd promised.

Back to the story

The right way

One master

One master copy of the bid on the CDE. Everyone edits that one, and its status says how far along it is.

Submitted

What's uploaded is saved exactly as sent, marked as the submitted version, with the portal receipt beside it and the tender questions and answers kept with it.

Month eight

Kofi opens the submission: access road excluded, page 14. The client agrees.

One of the finalsFive versions, no receipt, and a promise nobody could prove.
The one we sentKept exactly as sent, with its receipt, and found in a minute.
Think like Tom

What was actually sent is a record, not a draft. Could you lay your hands on the exact submission, the receipt and the clarifications a year from now?

Continue Tom's journey

Story 4: Over the wall

The bid wins. The bid team moves on, and the delivery team never sees the commitments it made.
The right way, explained

The right way, explained

When the town signs a contract, the signed copy goes to the records office. Not the drafts, not "the one Jim had": the one that was signed.

If you're the information manager

If you're the information manager

Give the bid team a place on the CDE for the submission, and save the final copy as a record the day it goes. Then make sure the delivery team can find it.

In the town See it in the town: five versions called FINAL. Which one did we send?

Tom's view: the Records Office keeps the copy that was signed. The drafts can go.

The buildings, district by district Buildings sitting in their districts, left to right: Assurance with the Quality System, Engineering with the Design System, Information Governance with the Records Office (your organisation's CDE), Commercial with the Commercial System, and Operations with the Planning System. Beyond the edge of town, outside every district: the Quality System, the Design System, the Records Office (your organisation's CDE), the Commercial System, the Planning System with people talking outside, and a person walking past with a parcel stuck in their bag. ASSURANCEENGINEERINGINFO GOVERNANCECOMMERCIALOPERATIONS OUTSIDE ANY DISTRICT QUALITY SYSTEM DESIGN SYSTEM CDE RECORDS OFFICE COMMERCIAL SYSTEM PLANNING SYSTEM SOMEONE'S BAG
Look inside a buildingAround the districts

The Records Office

What lives here
IM calls it
Watch out for

The tender response is a record too!

Exactly what we sent, kept with the receipt and the clarifications for the life of the contract.

Sam's Heads Up The portal is not your archive

InfoTown good practice: The submission is kept as a record.

On your job: Tender portals expire and lock you out. Download what you sent, and the receipt, the same day.

For the audit What the auditor will ask
  • Show me exactly what was submitted for this bid.
  • Where are the tender clarifications?
For the audit What good evidence looks like
  • The submitted bid, exactly as sent, with its receipt.
  • The clarification log.
From the standard
ISO 19650 The tender response

ISO 19650 expects the tender response to feed into what's agreed at appointment. Keeping the exact submission as a record is InfoTown's advice.

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.