A Sheffield fire alarm and extinguisher contractor contacted us on a Friday with a fire and rescue authority maintenance tender closing in nineteen days: six quality questions, 60 percent quality, reserved for firms in the local postcode area. The engagement letter was signed on the Monday and the plan was fixed the same day: evidence pack and portal access by day four, all six answers drafted by day eleven, client comments by day fourteen, independent review on day seventeen, upload on day eighteen, a day before the deadline.
The evidence pack is the whole job. For a maintenance contract that means the four insurances, BAFE and SSIP certificates in the bidding entity, engineer names and technician certificates, a sample service report and certificate from the field system, the asset list, call-out job sheets from the last 12 to 24 months, the policies the ITT asks for, a sample RAMS and three warm references. Incumbents hold all of it and rarely assemble it; the bid is won by the firm that does.
Fixed fee agreed before we start, scoped to the question count and the deadline. If the tender is not winnable for you, we say so on the first call. What we do for fire safety contractors, and how fire safety contracts are won.