Crown Estate Scotland architectural services – review

Our review service complements our core bid and tender writing services, offering clients a cost-effective method of enhancing the quality of submissions/responses produced in-house. Undertaken by one of our directly employed quality reviewers or senior bid writers, who have typically worked on hundreds of submissions across various sectors.

Approach

The bid review service comprises of:

• An initial compliance check to verify the responses satisfy the buyer’s requirements in terms of formatting and presentation
• A detailed, line-by-line review of each response, with edits and comments detailing where and how content can be strengthened throughout
• Suggestions on potential enhancements to the formatting and presentation of responses.

Overview of the project

Our client, a global architectural and engineering firm, were bidding to design, plan and provide cost analysis for the new Montrose ZeroFour estate and its infrastructure. The buyer’s aim was to develop a mixed-use business park, creating a hub for the blue and green economy, and support sustainable economic growth in Angus, Scotland. As such, the quality questions focused on achieving the specification whilst delivering sufficient return on investment, requiring bidders to:

• Demonstrate their understanding of the buyer and developments of this type
• Evidence comparable experience and relevant staff knowledge
• Provide a methodology for managing and delivering the project.

Upon receipt of the tender documents, we provided a no-obligation, same-day quotation to review approximately 12,000 works of written narrative across nine separate responses and return a full set of marked up documents within two-working days. This ensured our client had sufficient time to enhance the responses based on our edits/comments before the tender deadline. To maximise the time available to the client to enhance their submission and avoid any sense of being overwhelmed with feedback, senior bid writer, Stephen Murray, issued the reviewed responses in batches as they were completed with a covering email summarising the main points.

Key themes identified in our review

Highlighted to the client via a series of edits and comments, our review included:

• The importance of answering the question being asked rather than providing content which is informative but not directly related to the buyer’s requirements
• Providing additional, practical details on how we will achieve the buyer’s objectives and the various benefits this will deliver
• Evidencing the organisation’s capabilities by including details of relevant examples to add credibility to our proposals, showing why these represent the right solution
• Using assertive rather than passive language to present a compelling and persuasive case for our appointment
• Maintaining consistency in terms of writing style and tone to improve flow and readability, helping our key points stand out to the evaluator.

This case study highlights how submissions can be enhanced by engaging a professional bid and tender writing consultancy to undertake a review service.