Some experiences of trying to tender for Government business

We have been responding to a number of tender opportunities in the area of web design and development, and have found the whole process extremely frustrating.

First, we have completed Pre-Qualification Questionnaires (PQQs) for about a dozen opportunities. Although similar in some ways these are sufficiently different to take quite a while to complete. And mainly they are asking bureaucratic questions which have little or no relevance on our ability to do the work. Very few are online, and many require hard-copy submission.

Because of the formal nature of the process, it is not possible to have a discussion about what is required and how we would think they should approach the tasks. ("Variants accepted: No").

Finally we passed one assessment, only to find we were one of 57 companies invited to tender ! And that the "web design" element was integrated with print design in a way which made it impossible to respond. What a waste of time.