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Explaining Key Tender Vocabulary

Vocabulary is an important element in our day-to-day lives and it determines how people respond or react to what is being said to them. The vocabulary of a tender is the language or jargon that is used when publishing a tender, these words are used in order to attract the right people and people that will understand what is expected of them.

The important key element of a tender is what is being done and where is it being done. The type of work being done has to be stated as this is essential in sourcing the right people for the job if the tender requires building the tender has to state that it is for construction and if the tender is for consultants the tender again will state “professionals”. Another element is the location of the work and the duration of the work. The work may be done in a city, town, province or national for the period stated.

In the tender sector, different companies do different works therefore categorizing a tender is important. The vocabulary also gives an understanding of the category the tender falls under meaning a tender can be categorized as IT or Building or Trades based on the vocabulary that is being used.

Tenders usually have restrictions on who can tender and conditions to tender, these restrictions are usually in tender jargon or tender language for example a tender may require a CIDB grading in order to tender. A CIDB grading is a rank given to a construction company based on the value and experience of its past construction projects. The rank is based on work, financial and general compliance criteria.

A tender is time-based like most things in the world and time waits for no man. It is important to note the site inspection and the closing date as this is beneficial. For some tenders, a site inspection is important and compulsory and one cannot tender if they did not attend the site inspection most tenders will not under any circumstances accept late submissions therefore time is a very important element to note and respect when tendering.

Is there any tender vocab we missed that you’d like covered? Drop a comment below.


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2 Responses

  1. shireen
    | Reply

    Very useful, but please add more tender terminology.
    For eg, often people confuse tenders and bids. Then there is also the difference between the bid evaluation committee and the bid adjudication committee.
    Difference between the specifications and the contracts section, because in some tender invitations, these topics are dealt with in the same documents.
    It would be helpful if you could publish an e-booklet on the tender terminology based on a typical basic tender document.

    • Sasha Anderson
      | Reply

      Hi Shireen, thank you for your comment, we will look at covering these in future posts. Please let us know if there’s anything else you’d like us to cover.

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