Constructionline cutting council costs for construction tenders

However, they still fear that another £650 million a year could still be being wasted across the two sectors through the unnecessary duplication of pre-qualification questionnaires.

Constructionline recently conducted a survey, and from the results were able to establish that construction suppliers spent an average of 4.5 hours completing a single PQQ submission, which on average costs £147 in time that could have been spent elsewhere in the company. For any business which bids regularly into either the public or the private sector, it can be accepted that the annual cost of tendering for this business could cost thousands and thousands of pounds.

For buyers in the construction industry, reviewing PQQs is a similarly time-consuming exercise. From the results of the survey it was found that each PQQ costs buyers around £300 in staff time and admin to review.

“In the last year alone, we have helped our members make efficiency savings in excess of £165 m, which raises the question of how much more could be saved if the entire industry adopted more efficient processes for construction tenders,” stated Philip Prince, Director of Sales and Marketing at Constructionline.

Suppliers only have to complete one PQQ to become a certified member of Constructionline, and the information embedded within the pre-qualification questionnaire is assessed against industry standards and held on an internal database which is searchable by potential buyers in the industry. Over the past year alone, over a quarter of a million searches were conducted by buyers in the database.

In an effort to continue to streamline the costs associated with tendering, buyers can make a request for a company’s Constructionline membership number, which will allow the PQQ stage of the exercise to be bypassed. This provides cost and time savings to both the buyers and the would-be suppliers. This process has been used over 500 times in the past year alone.

“Our aim is to make pre-qualification as simple as possible for both suppliers and buyers, which we hope will deliver more efficiency savings for our industry,” stated Prince.

If you are looking to become a certified member, and would like to submit the most competitive and persuasive narrative in your Constructionline PQQ, why not contact us today to discuss how we are able to help you be increasingly invited to tender for contract opportunities.