what a week it was

So last week I posted only two blog posts, because things were so manic at work I just wasn't getting the time to write blog posts.

I mean, I could theoretically have written them in the evening, but to be frank, I was so tired in the evenings I could do little other than watch a bit of telly and then go to bed.

So what was I so busy doing?

Well, I'd need to explain quite a bit about how my company works, but basically we were putting together a response to a particularly important framework.  But what is a framework?

Well, the fundamental idea is that when somebody wants something done (a piece of work) they put out an Invitation to Tender (an ITT).  That ITT sets out what they want doing and companies whose business it is to do that sort of work put together a response to that ITT.  The people who put out the ITT then assess the bids they've received and pick the one that best meets the assessment criteria and offers best value for money.

That company therefore wins the work.  You may have heard in the news about companies being awarded contracts and others not getting contracts they were expecting and having to cut jobs.  Well that's the basic process.

However, you will appreciate that in some arenas there are lots of companies able to do the same sorts of things.  You'll also appreciate that if you advertise things publicly potentially all of those companies will put in an ITT.

Also, when you put things out publicly you have to have all sorts of stuff in the assessment process that isn't hugely important, or is just the same as all the other pieces of work you want doing, but because it's a fully open competition you need to "tick the boxes".

So, to avoid that big process you can create an initial step where you compete a framework agreement.  This framework can take various forms, but generally they have different "lots" (areas of work) and companies bid to get a place on that lot / framework.  The idea is that you are effectively pre-assessing the companies in order to avoid the need to assess all the "boring stuff" every time and also to create a much smaller pool of suppliers.

The big advantage of this is that when each piece of work comes out it can be done in a lot less time and in a lot sleeker fashion.

And it was one of these frameworks that we were working on.

It's an absolute monster and covers a huge range of work that my company is involved in, so it took a huge amount of effort, so that's why I couldn't post.