Leads 2 Business Blog

7 Aug 2017

How to make the most of our Tenders?

by Taryn Duckham | posted in: Did You Know | 0

The Inside Scoop:

Ssssshhh, don’t tell the boss! I wanted to share some insider secrets with you. A brief look behind the scenes and into the research “engine room” of our company. I am hoping that you can use this information to your advantage. (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

As you know, Leads 2 Business is keenly focussed on smarter ways to do and create business opportunities.This approach is not just about the information we deliver to you, but an integral part of our business ethos. Each month we capture literally thousands of tenders, yes, you read it correctly, THOUSANDS!

With this much tender information being pumped out on a daily basis, we have to find a smart and effective way to prioritise researching the subsequent tender awards.

Steps to Action in Identifying opportunities

Go through the daily Advisory email thoroughly each day.

View the full details online.
Monitor & Request BoQ/ SI register/ Bidders Lists as soon as possible.
Set Reminders.
Email the researcher, if there are any discrepancies that you identify or if you need assistance.
Make Notes.
Download DTAs. (Daily Tender Advisory)
Keep a record of DTA numbers, instead of partial descriptions. This helps when searching.
Dismiss those unwanted DTAs, that are cluttering up your Search Result. (Be extra careful of dismissing DTAs by mistake)
Take advantage of our free online training, live support, telephonic support or in person training. (In person training is availble by appointment and only in selected areas)

Key Vocabulary to Understand:

Details Change:The details pertaining to the original tender have changed, please review the new details supplied in our notification.
Short Lead: This means there is a very short lead time or a very short time within which you can respond to this tender opportunity.
Awards: After the closing date, all the tenders are checked for basic compliance with the tender regulations. Non-compliant tenders are disqualified. The compliance of the products or services offered and the price is considered. Then all compliant tenders are listed in order of price. Those in the lowest price tender list are in the lowest price group. Preference points are given to suppliers on the list of lowest price tenders are first verified. Preference points are only awarded after the most expensive tenders have been excluded, as this makes the process faster and fairer. Those with verifiable information come out with the best preference points and are therefore awarded the contract.
Re-tenders: the issue of a second or subsequent request for tenders on a proposed contract.
Withdrawals: the contract has been withdrawn and there is no longer an opportunity to tender at this time.
Cancellations: the contract has been cancelled and there is no longer an opportunity to tender at this time.

About Taryn Duckham

I am a lover of awesome design, customer centricity and the art of influence. Being able to effect this through analysis, written or visual content and front-end design is part of my work, my great love of creatively solving problems that reach across as many parts of Leads 2 Business as I can.

21 Feb 2017

Featured Tender: Construction of Marikana Secondary School

by Eldary Carpenter | posted in: Featured Tender | 4

Construction of Marikana Secondary School

Contract Number: PWR151/14 – Department of Public Works and Roads

Description: Department of Public Works and Roads Mmabatho invites tenders for Construction of Marikana Secondary School.

Industry Sector: Renovations and Institutional

Industry: Building

Region: North West

Site Inspection: A compulsory clarification meeting with representatives of the Employer will take place at Corner Rose Avenue And Boikhutso Street Next To Marikana Primary School Coordinate S 25″42’30’S 27″28″2552″E on 02 March 2017 starting at 10:00.

Closing Date: 17 March 2017 at 11:00

Restrictions: It is estimated that tenderers should have a CIDB contractor grading of 8GB. Preferences are offered to tenderers who 8GB or higher. Telephonic, Telegraphic, Telex, Facsimile, Emailed and Late Tenders will not be accepted. Tenders may only be submitted on the tender documentation that is issued. Requirements for sealing, addressing, delivering, opening and assessment of Tenders are stated in the Tender Data.

If you are a valued Tender subscriber, Click to find more details about http://www.l2b.co.za/Tender/Construction-of-Marikana-Secondary-School/620757

If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit our website.
To view notes with screenshots on how to use our website, please visit our Wiki site.
To view more articles, please visit our blog.

About Eldary Carpenter

I have been with Leads 2 Business for 5 years and absolutely love working for such a dynamic company. I started off as a Content Researcher in the Tenders Department before being promoted to Customer Relations.

5 Oct 2016

Tender Timing – Site Inspections

by Claire Donaldson | posted in: Construction Chat, General, Life Lessons | 0

Site Inspections

Tender Timing – Site Inspections

When I do training with any new L2B staff member, it involves the talk through of how we publish tender notices on the L2B website. What goes where, why this format is used etc. The spiel for Site Inspections is as follows “The site inspection date is the most important date on a tender notice. If a subscriber misses the site inspection they can’t tender and we’ve right royally screwed up”.Okay, maybe that last part doesn’t get said aloud. A lot. But it’s the truth. The ability to tender hinges on attendance to a compulsory site insection or site meeting, briefing session or clarification session or information meeting. It goes by many names, but it means the same thing when “compulsory” is used. Hell, even when a tender advert mentions “non-compulsory”; the level of importance doesn’t diminish. These meetings are scheduled for a reason. They are there to offer clarity, and give opportunities for questions to be asked, extensions to be requested, to scope out who else is at the meeting (alot of side eye going on) and to let potential tenderers experience and witness any challenges there might be involved in the contract. These meetings can be quite simple and straightforward with just a few companies, and other times you can have meetings with hundreds of companies being represented. We see some of these site attendance registers, and wonder how these meetings are handled due to sheer number of participants.

Technically, there’s supposed be to a certain amount of time between the first publication of the tender advert and the site meeting, and then again between the site meeting and the closing date. Technically. This doesn’t always happen. There could be a variety of reasons. Very few of them can stand the light of day. But it is a reality that needs to be taken into consideration. Time is of the essence, as they say. Go through your Advisory emails each day, so there’s no surprises concerning missed site meetings. Set reminders for yourself, and Monitor the tender notice to be updated should any of the information change.

Be aware when the tender documents are available, in relation to the site meeting. Sometimes there isn’t a problem, and the tender documents are available right up until the closing date. Other times, this is a huge consideration. If there’s a cut-off date for documents, know that this date will be adhered to and inevitably means that ‘no-chancers’ will be entertained.

Always question any discrepancies in the site inspection. Always question any discrepancy in the tender notice. Period. Whether it’s a contradiction between the advert and the documents, or two different adverts for the same tender, anything. The earlier we can establish what the correct information is, the better off everyone is. Sometimes the problem is glaringly obvious and we get on the phone and sort it out as soon as possible and don’t need to be prompted by our subscribers. Other times, it isn’t obvious.

Should you be attending the meeting and need help with directions, if you need our assistance, please try and ask before the day of the meeting. The stress levels go way up when I’m trying to track down a Municipality staff member who’s half way to the middle of nowhere to get directions to said middle of nowhere site meeting venue. The panic is real, folks. We know the importance of these meetings and how attendance and non-attendance affects our subscribers.

Any and all dates on a tender notice carry weight, and must be taken seriously. If there’s any doubt or confusion, feel free to contact us so that we might assist. Get yourself to those meetings, as they are an excellent way to network, experience the competition and represent your company to Municipalities, Government Departments and Consultants.

“Eight percent of success is showing up” – Woody Allen

“The world is run by those that show up ” Robert Johnson

About Claire Donaldson

I started working at Leads 2 Business in February 2005, and have served as Head of Department of Daily Tenders from 2007 until the present. I oversee both the Daily Tenders South Africa and Africa Departments.

10 Aug 2016

Which Tenders are trending in Gauteng and do you know about them?

by Michelle Crosby | posted in: Construction Chat, Construction Events | 0

Searching for “Tenders”…

An online search is the easiest and quickest way to obtain any sort of inforrmation you are looking for and there are so many ways of searching.

There’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram..But.. as we can see by the results above, this may take a while as you would have to be very specific on what “Tenders” you are looking for ie: Lemon & Herb Tenders, Crispy Tenders, Mild Tenders and judging by the pictures and posts.. KT and Greta may be onto something #justsaying. And if you are anything like me…looking through all this might make you really hungry and now your thought pattern has shifted and the question is now chicken pieces or chicken pops!! hmmmm..oooh wait.. how about those nuggets, the ones with that delish little sweet and sour sauce (tummy rumble). On the other hand these searches may also give you helpful directions to your nearest KFC or chicken fast food restaurant… which in this case, is super helpful as my intention is to get this unforseen hunger taken care of!!

(25 min later…back at the office)

Right, so where were we. OH Yes!…So how do I search for “Tenders” and come up with relevant results? How can I search for trending construction tenders in my region?

Well, there is an easier way (certainly a more direct and to the point way).. a website and online platform that does it all for you where your hunger for chicken will not be awakened and where you can locate recent construction and building tenders with ease.. this platform is Leads 2 Business

Lets visit the website – www.L2B.co.za. Yes, you can access this from a desktop at your offices or onsite using your mobile. Super impressive right? I know.. I should know.. because I work here 😉 So who else better to guide you through this than me?

Our website is full of building and construction information various upcoming projects and tenders in South African and African regions, this keeps you in the know and up to date with current trends and as the professional, contractor, sub contractor or any person involved in this industry, you know how important this is, that is a big advantage. All the details are there, what they are planning, what sort of consultants or builders a client is looking for. Who to contact, yes we give you the details of the people involved so that you can possible get involved.. and sometimes it’s who you know.. and we can help with that 😀

Lets talk about Trending Tenders. On our website we have an awesome feature called Market Intelligence. Here you can view trending tenders or projects in the regions of your choice and if you like graphs and charts, this is perfect for you. http://www.l2b.co.za/L2B-Tenders/Tender-Market-Intelligence

Another nifty feature you can use is Explore Leads http://www.l2b.co.za/L2B-Explore-leads.

Yay, finally, new building and construction tenders! You can click through the recently added tenders using the arrows on the side and to view more information on each one, just click on it. Yep, its that easy.

But you know whats easier??? Not having to do any searches.. yes, you heard me.

When you sign up, you create a profile of the information you want to receive, selecting regions, industry, keywords, tender, projects etc… and thats it… your part done. Sit back, relax and let us do the work for you. Every afternoon we will send you an email directly to your inbox of all the tenders / projects that match your profile. We obtain all this information from various sources such as newspapers, websites, online, the deeds office, town planning notices, word of mouth and many other ways 😉 We have our ways…

Now as a non subscriber you will be able to view some of the information and browse through our tenders and projects that we have online but this is very limited and all the pertinent information is only available to subscribers…

If you want to take the easy route and find out what’s happening where and when, why not take the leap and subscribe today. Contact me on MichelleH@L2B.co.za or download the forms at http://www.l2b.co.za/ by clicking on Subscribe.

Try it for a month, see what happens 😉

About Michelle Crosby

I started my journey at Leads 2 Business in the Directory Department in 2012. I was then promoted to the Private Projects Department in 2014 and was recently promoted to Projects HOD this year.

3 Aug 2016

Which Municipalities produce the top Tenders in Gauteng?

by Claire Donaldson | posted in: Construction Chat, Uncategorized | 0

Gauteng which means “place of gold”, is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. It was formed from part of the old Transvaal Province after South Africa’s first democratic elections on 27 April 1994. It was initially named Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging (PWV) and was renamed “Gauteng” in December 1994.

Situated in the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province in South Africa, accounting for only 1.5% of the land area. Nevertheless, it is highly urbanised, containing the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, its administrative capital, Pretoria, and other large industrial areas such as Midrand and Vanderbijlpark. As of 2015, it has a population of nearly 13.2 million, making it the most populous province in South Africa.

As of May 2011 Gauteng is divided into three metropolitan municipalities, and two district municipalities which are further divided into seven local municipalities.

Metropolitan municipalities:

City of Tshwane (http://www.tshwane.gov.za)
City of Johannesburg (http://www.joburg.org.za)
City of Ekurhuleni (http://www.ekurhuleni.gov.za)

District municipalities:

West Rand (http://www.wrdm.gov.za) containing Randfontein (http://www.randfontein.gov.za), Westonaria (http://www.westonaria.gov.za), Mogale City (http://www.mogalecity.gov.za) and Merafong (http://www.merafong.gov.za)
Sedibeng containing Emfuleni, Lesedi and Midvaal

Westonaria Local Municipality is set to amalgamate with Randfontein Local Municipality after the 2016 Local Elections, set to become the new Rand West Local Municipality.

Below are some Tenders and Projects of interest involving the Municipalities of Gauteng:

City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality:

DTA 589550 – Construction of Phomolong Multi-Purpose community centre.

PPA 12354 – Tshwane Hammanskraal BPO Park – Phase 1 to 3

City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality:

PPA 16853 – Construction of roads and a stormwater management system for Vlakfontein Extension 2 in Gauteng.

PPA 16068 – Upgrading of road Intersections in Matholesville extension 1 and 2 in Gauteng.

City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality:

DTA 588075 – Technical Resource Teams (TRT) consisting of a multi-disciplinary professional team to render full built environment related consulting services

PPA 15240 – Ekurhuleni IRPTN / BRT – Infrastructure (Phase 1)

PPA 17402 – Etwatwa Sewer Pipes

Randfontein Local Municipality:

DTA 585051 – Rehabilitation of Roads in Mohlakeng and Toekomsrus Phase 4

Westonaria Local Municipality:

DTA 591181 – Simunye: Construction of Internal Streets with associated Stormwater for Westonaria Local Municipalty – Phase 7

DTA 591176 – Roads in Zuurbekom (Phase 2)

DTA 591187 – Construction of Westonaria Borwa Switch Station (Phase 4)

Mogale City Local Municipality:

PPA 15434 – Magaliesburg WWCW

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauteng

http://localgovernment.co.za

About Claire Donaldson

27 Aug 2014

T is for Tender

by Marlaine Andersen | posted in: Construction Chat, Frequently Asked Questions | 0

There is much excitement when a Project Status moves into Tender Stage. This means the project is going out to tender – tender for construction! Whoop whoop! Things are happening, construction is going to commence shortly. If, however, the Project goes out to tender for the professionals the Project Status will remain in Procedural stage as this is a tender for professional services to conduct feasibility studies, EIA studies etc.

But, back to the tender for construction. This could be an invited tender and this is limited to preferred contractors only who are invited by the developer to tender on the contract. These tenders are very hard to obtain information about as they are, well, invited. “Invited” also translates as code for “big secret, don’t tell anybody anything!”

Open/public Tenders are published in newspapers and the media and these are open to general contractors who may only be limited by their CIDB grading. With publishing of the Tender notices comes site inspection dates (which are generally compulsory) and site attendance registers. The Tender closing date is perhaps the second most important date after the site attendance date. The Tender notices (DTA) that are listed on the Projects include a hyperlink which links the Project and Tender. Once the Tender has closed and the bids are in, bidders lists are then requested and if successfully obtained, the bidders list is attached to the DTA and the Project as a document.

On average, it takes about 3 – 4 months for Tenders to be awarded, (but it can take longer. Much longer in Africa). Once 3 months have passed, it is time to follow up on the Tenders and see if any awards have been made and this is when the fun begins.

It involves phoning the contact(s) listed on the Tender, usually in the Procurement Department and hoping they are willing to release details of the awarded company. When phoning African countries, this could involve many calls and being transferred to several different people and then finally being told…. “No, you cannot have the award details”. So, I wait (after all, “good things come to those who wait”) and try again in another couple of weeks or months depending on the forcefulness of the ‘No’. Sometimes, I get lucky and if the Project is big enough to warrant media attention, and an article appears in a local newspaper giving details of the awarded company I am able to update the award details on our database. Alternatively, more phone calls and emails, until eventually (sometimes only once construction has commenced) a kind person will relent and give me the award information. Other times, sadly I am not so lucky……

But I digress …… back to getting the award information….

When obtaining the award information, it is important to get the spelling of the awarded company’s name correct, usually using the NATO phonetic spelling which is: Alpha for A, Bravo for B, C for Charlie etc. However, it appears that not everyone is able to recall this list when it comes to spelling and in Africa there appears to be many variations to this list, including the use of animal names – and I have had some more unusual phonetic names, including “J” …. for Giraffe and “A” for ….Umbrella!! Really!?!

T is for Tenacious, E is for Excellent, N is for Never giving up, D is for Diligent, E is for Enduring and R is for Relentless: T E N D E R

About Marlaine Andersen

Leads 2 Business Advertising Co-ordinator and Digital Designer

25 Apr 2014

What is a Tender?

by Claire Donaldson | posted in: General | 4

When I started at Leads 2 Business, it was called Daily Tenders. I didn’t even know what a tender was, until I did some research before my interview. That was 2005. Every day since, has been tender notices, in one form or another. Government tenders, Invited Tenders, Quotations, Bids, Request for Proposals, Expressions of Interest, Pre-qualifications; not to mention Requests for Information and Supplier Database Application notices. Show me a contract number, and I can probably guess which Municipality put it out. Not a trick that goes down well at parties, I admit; but oh so impress in the office. So what’s the difference in the those I mentioned above? Let me tell you…

Government Tenders – Government money, government timing and no one answering the phone at 15:00 on a Friday afternoon.

Invited Tenders – Not publicly known, but invariably someone hears about it from their cousin’s wife’s nephew who heard about it in a bar somewhere. All hush hush. But not hush hush enough, if we get to hear of it. And we hear a lot.

Quotations – Smaller values, shorter tendering periods; and impressive in the sheer quantities that the Municipalities pump out at any given time.

Request for Proposals – “How do we do this?”

Expressions of Interest – “Who would be willing to do this?”

Prequalifications – “Prove you can do this”.

Request for Information – “Tell us why we need this thing, how to use it and for how much”

And let us not forget the various incarnations of the Tender Award – “You’re kidding, right?”. “Call back in two weeks”. “It’s already completed” and everyone’s favourite “Who are you? And why do you want this information?”

(Disclaimer: Definitions are humorous interpretations, and are not to be taken seriously. Unless you have had anything to do with tenders. Ever. And then you get it).

Construction Tenders

How to make the most of our Tenders?

How to make the most
of our Tender Leads…

The Inside Scoop:

How do we know?

How to Monitor a Tender

Ways to get our attention

Tools you can use