Open Tendering
An open tendering process is an invitation to tender by public advertisement. There are no restrictions placed on who can submit a tender, however, suppliers are required to submit all required information and are evaluated against the stated selection criteria.
Select Tendering
A select tender is only open to a select number of suppliers. The suppliers may be a short list sourced from an open tender or be a compilation of businesses that the organization has worked with previously.
Multi-stage Tendering
Multi-stage tendering is used when there are a large number of respondents. At each stage in the process, the suppliers are culled to those who are most suited to the specific contract requirements.
Invited Tendering
An organization contacts a select number of suppliers directly and requests them to perform the contract, it is generally used for specialist work, emergency situations or for low value, low risk and off the shelf options,
Tenders can be issued through:
- Expressions of interest (EOI) - used to shortlist potential suppliers before seeking detailed offers.
- Request for information (RFI) - used in the planning stage to assist in defining the project, however, not used to select suppliers.
- Request for proposal (RFP) - used where the project requirements have been defined, but an innovative or flexible solution is needed.
- Request for quotation (RFQ) - invites businesses to provide a quote for the provision of specific goods or services.
- Request for tender (RFT) - an invitation to tender by public advertisement open to all suppliers.