Bid Coordinator

The Tender and Bid Coordinator overall purpose is to participate in all tender and bid document processing and ensure compliance and delivery on time of all tenders.

JOB DESCRIPTION

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

The Tender and Bid Coordinator will have an eye for detail, ensuring accurate administration and analysis of client’s requirements. You will be responsible for introducing and coordinating the bid response process, developing and maintaining a knowledge base of ‘standard’ answers and templates, as well as identifying ways to improve the quality, consistency and efficiency of the bid response process. To do this effectively you will need to liaise with other teams and senior stakeholders to ensure submissions are made on time and to the required quality.

The Tender and Bid Coordinator will compile, prepare, and submit a winning bid, whilst taking ownership of the end-to-end bid process. The Tender and Bid Coordinator is significantly involved pre-RFP, driving the Client Awareness Phase and ensuring all resources are aligned to the client’s requirements long before the Bid Phase gets underway. After bid submission, the Tender and Bid Coordinator remains involved through the presentation and negotiation stages, ensuring all lessons learned are fed back and implemented.

Responsibilities include the introduction and implementation of all necessary bid procedures, governance, and processes. This is a highly networked role that requires an ability to work under pressure and to challenging deadlines. It requires strong people management and commercial skills.

OBJECTIVES

MAIN FUNCTIONS OF THE JOB

• Analyse and complete RFQ’s, RFP’s, tenders, and technical survey’s.
• Assist Bid Manager with technical responses as and when required on behalf of the Sales department or clients themselves.
• Engage with various external stakeholders, other departments, and levels of management.
• Liaise with the departments on an ongoing basis with respect to Tender requirements and Tender status.
• Maintain bid database and bid information for easy use by internal staff.
• Format and compile bid submission documents.
• Administer and maintain the pipeline on Ozone CRM system.
• Assist Bid Manager in obtaining relevant information for client responses and projects.
• Maintain technical database of facilities/responses.
• Account Management functions as and when required.
• Form part of the bid teams and inputs from key stakeholders, typically engaging with sales, marketing, product teams, finance, commercial, legal and project management/delivery.
• Prepare and review the commercial aspects of the bid, ensuring all products/services are included in the final price to the customer.
• Contribute to the written proposal - both in terms of content and presentation (such as providing guidance around the executive summary).
• Ensure timescales are achieved at each step of the bid process, including all internal governance, while taking the initiative in setting realistic deadlines.
• Ensure on-time submission of compliant and commercially sound bids.
• Coordinate and plan all client presentations required as part of the bid submission.
• Drive continuous improvement, through post-bid reviews, both internally and with customers.

JOB REQUIREMENTS

SKILLS REQUIREMENT

• Proven ability in delivering winning technical bid and tender opportunities. Ideally has a background in solution selling and experience of bid management. Must be an excellent communicator and comfortable working at Exco level (internal and external customer).
• Analysing the tender document to understand the needs of the client.
• Planning bid preparation to ensure that deadlines are met.
• Editing or rewriting previous tenders to reuse relevant material.
• Liaising with other teams and senior stakeholders to ensure submissions are made on time and to the required quality.
• Excellent communication skills, especially written English grammar, spelling & vocabulary, combined with the ability to understand technical concepts and tender questions then provide clear concise responses whilst working to tight deadlines and challenging targets.
• Collating materials provided by various departments and ensuring a uniform tone across the overall document.
• Develop knowledge of business, its products and services by reading and reviewing previous bid and design documents and spending time with pre-sales, technical and commercial functions.
• Ensuring that the bid is accurate and delivered on time.
• Review and improve other customer materials and develop a consistent set of standards for other commercial functions to follow. Develop a set of standard templates for less complex bids.
• Strong time management and organisational skills.
• Proven technical knowledge to respond to tender/RFP queries.
• High proficiency with MS Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint).
• Strong teamwork and interpersonal abilities.
• Deadline-driven and committed to excellence. Proven ability to work to tight deadlines.
• Methodical with excellent attention to detail.
• Good communication and writing skills.
• Adaptable and flexible.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Completed Grade 12.
• Min 5 years data centre or ITC industry experience or IT technical exposure.