A SmartBuyer facilities specialist worked alongside the organisation’s Facilities and Procurement teams to deliver more than ten cleaning and facilities tenders, building the scope of works and holding each one to quality and price.
tenders delivered
CLIENT
Large
enterprise
CATEGORY
Cleaning
& facilities
SPECIALIST
FM tendering
& scope
OUTCOME
10+
tenders delivered
Cleaning and facilities contracts are mostly labour, so a supplier’s price depends on the hours, frequencies and standards it assumes. When the scope is loose, each bidder fills the gaps differently, so bids look comparable but are not, and the lowest price often reflects the thinnest reading of the work. The difference returns later as variations, disputes and service levels nobody can enforce.
Tendering one contract well is a craft: specification, pricing schedule, staff transfer data and evaluation weighting. Tendering a run of them means applying that discipline across different services while keeping suppliers on a consistent footing. Ad hoc tendering, or a default to the cheapest bid, would repeat the same gaps every time.
A large enterprise with a run of cleaning and facilities services due for tender, where quality and price both mattered and each scope of works had to be clear enough to hold suppliers to.
Client identity not disclosed.
The specialist combined Facilities’ knowledge of the services with Procurement’s ownership of the process, so each tender began from a scope the business had agreed and suppliers could price consistently.
SCOPE
Specify the work precisely
Wrote each scope of works to state frequencies, standards and responsibilities explicitly, so every supplier priced the same work and unclear wording could not later be used to justify extra charges.
TENDER
Structure bids for comparison
Issued each requirement with a standard pricing schedule and clear instructions, so credible suppliers returned bids in one format and price differences reflected the supplier itself, not differing assumptions about the work.
AWARD
Weigh quality with price
Scored bids on quality and price together and checked that the winning price could sustain the standard promised, so each award was a deliverable contract rather than a low opening offer.
10+
More than ten cleaning and facilities tenders were taken from requirement to award, each built on a scope of works suppliers could price consistently.
Contracts held the standard the business needed at a competitive cost, because awards followed agreed scoring and not the lowest bid alone.
Facilities and Procurement have a scope and evaluation method, used across the whole run, that can be applied to later cleaning and facilities tenders.
Specification as the control
In cleaning, the specification is the main control on cost. Because each scope fixed the required standard in writing, any variation request had to be justified against that wording and not against an assumption. A supplier that priced vague wording tends to recover margin later; precise wording removes that opening and lets different services be compared with one another.
Evaluation weighted to value
Applying one evaluation method across the run made each outcome easier to defend to stakeholders, because every bidder faced the same criteria. Set the weighting before bids arrive, and state it in the tender documents. Choosing it afterwards invites the cheapest bid to win, or lets a favoured supplier be scored upwards once prices are known.
Complete
Complete
Complete
Specialist support without a permanent hire
SmartBuyer matches organisations with experienced specialists across 250+ categories, giving budget owners access to focused facilities and tendering expertise exactly when the work demands it.
500+
specialists
Experienced category specialists who have scoped and run cleaning, facilities and other service tenders inside large organisations.
250+
categories
Focused coverage across facilities, cleaning and the wider services spend base, matched to the tenders in hand.
Flexible
engagement
Specialist cover for a single tender or a run of them, scoped and costed before any work begins, with no permanent hire.