SmartTender.biz Services and Tools to Help You Win in Procurement

 

The SmartTender.biz platform is constantly working to improve its functionality and create convenient tools that help our users to successfully participate in public procurement. In this article, we will introduce you to all of the tools that you may need in your work and increase your chances of winning.

 

Servises:

1. 1. Free Legal Advice or Assistance
   2. Competitor Analysis
   3. Competition analysis
   4. Signing the QES for Each Document in the Tender Proposal
   5. QES Ordering
   6. Receiving Emails With Interesting Tenders
   7. Cloud Storage "My Documents"
   8. Telegram Notifications
   9. Integrated Document Management Service
   10. Bank Guarantee
   11. Purchasing Reports
   12. Instructions for Participation in Public Procurement
   13. Factoring
   14. Documents Watermarking

 

1. Free Legal Advice or Assistance

In the process of public procurement participating, you need to be able to carefully read the tender documents and submit a tender proposal in full accordance with its terms – so your chances of winning will be as high as possible. If you are just starting to work with public procurement or simply have certain questions regarding the submission of a proposal, you can use free legal advice from the specialists of our site.

 

SmartTender lawyers can also review your bid or prepare it for you, analyze the terms of the customer's tender documentation and point out implicit requirements, check your competitors' bids for compliance and help you with other legal issues.

You can order legal assistance on this page or on the page of the selected tender.

 

 

2. Competitor Analysis

To increase their chances of winning in procurement, suppliers need to build a specific business strategy and act following it. Our platform has developed a convenient tool that allows you to analyze your competitors: the number and types of trades in which the selected supplier took part, his position relative to other suppliers in your industry, and other useful information.

 

 

Knowing your competitors can help you understand their strategy, decide where to focus your efforts, and develop your promotion strategy that will help you stay ahead of other suppliers in your industry. Read more about how to use this tool here.

 

3. Competition analysis

This module is located on the page of the selected tender and helps to analyze the following information:

1. 1. Data on all purchases of the customer, previously published in the same CPV category, to which the tender, on the page of which you are viewing this information, belongs.
   2. Information about the completed purchases of the organizer in the same CPV category, to which the tender, on the page of which you are viewing this information, belongs.
   3. Data on suppliers that took part in the customer's purchases in the same CPV category, to which the tender, on the page of which you are viewing this information, belongs.

 

 

All this information will help you more accurately analyze what bids your competitors made and how much the price decreases in purchases by your category. Based on the obtained data, it is possible to build an effective strategy for participation in tenders. Read more about how to use this tool here.

 

4. Signing the QES for Each Document in the Tender Proposal

Increasingly, in the conditions of tender documents, customers indicate the requirement to sign with a qualified electronic signature (QES) not only the tender proposal but also individual documents in its composition. This can cause certain inconveniences for users of other sites since they need to use third-party services to sign documents with QES.

 

At one time, SmartTender.biz was the first to solve this problem and implemented a new tool – the QES signing for each file at different procurement stages, requiring the uploading of documents for the tender. Thus, users of the site receive the following three benefits:

• • save their time;

  • relieved of the need to upload confidential documents to third-party services and then store the signed files on their computer;

  • can sign files up to 49 MB – so they do not need to be additionally compressed with the risk of damaging the data.

 

 

Read more about how to use the tool here.

 

5. QES Ordering

On the SmartTender.biz page it is possible to order the qualified electronic signature which will be stored not on the token, but in the protected cloud storage (the network crypto module "Ridge-301"). QES is issued by the site's partner - DepositSign, which is the official qualified provider of electronic trust services in Ukraine.

You can order QES on this page.

 

6. Receiving Emails With Interesting Tenders

SmartTender.biz users can, immediately after registration, set up a subscription to potentially interesting purchases in the categories of goods, services or works in which they work. Depending on the selected options, notifications can be sent to the mail immediately after the publication of the tender or daily. You can also set up keywords, negative keywords, and additional details by which the site system will select purchase advertisements for distribution.

Read more about the email distribution service in this instructions.

 

 

7. Cloud Storage "My Documents"

If you are involved in several purchases at the same time or in a row, you have to upload the same documents over and over again for each tender. In this case, SmartTender has a tool that allows you to upload all the necessary documents to the cloud storage of the site, and then, if necessary, add them to your tender proposal. This way, you can be sure that you are downloading the correct files, and not forget about any of them. This is especially useful if you are going to submit your proposal on a day when you will not have access to your work computer.

 

 

Read more about this tool and its capabilities here.

 

8. Telegram Notifications

One of the most common mistakes suppliers make during procurement is accidentally skipping the auction. This is especially unpleasant if you have participated in a large tender or have been building your strategy for a long time. We suggest you protect yourself from such cases and connect alerts from the Telegram bot. It sends you notifications according to the list of your tenders on the SmartTender.biz and the specified parameters.

 

 

Read about how to connect a Telegram bot here.

 

9. Integrated Document Management Service

SmartTender.biz users can use the Signy electronic document management service already integrated with the site, for example, to sign a contract between the winner and the purchaser. This saves time and proceeds to the terms of the agreement as soon as possible. Signy also integrates with other popular EDM services, so you can comfortably work with contractors on the SmartTender.biz platform.

 

10. Bank Guarantee

To participate in the procurement, the supplier needs to provide the customer with tender security – confirmation that he will fulfill his obligations and will not refuse to sign or execute the contract. The most popular type of tender security is a bank guarantee. To arrange it, an entrepreneur must contact the selected financial institution.

 

SmartTender.biz does everything to save your time, so you can issue a bank guarantee in a few clicks from one of the site's partners. The function is available directly on the page of the selected tender. Read more about this here.

 

11. Purchasing Reports

Another convenient tool of the site – "Reports" – allows you to find out the following information at any time:

• • view data on purchases in which you participated both in the Prozorro system and in the Prozorro Market;

  • get a list of purchases for your type of activity for the selected period;

  • check payments for participation in tenders.

 

 

By default, about ten types of reports are available for generation in your account. If necessary, you can connect other types – for this, contact your manager at the SmartTender.biz.

 

Read more about how to use the “Reports” service here.

 

12. Instructions for Participation in Public Procurement

The "Academy" section is available on the SmartTender.biz, where you will find a list of step-by-step instructions for participating in public procurement, using useful services, or other actions that you need to take on the site.

 

 

Also here you will find a selection of all webinars from SmartTender experts, from which you can learn a lot of useful information.

 

13. Factoring

For a long time, SmartTender.biz has provided its users with the opportunity to order factoring from partner banks of the site.

 

What is factoring? In simple words, this is an opportunity to receive payment for the delivered goods within a few days (recall that usually, payment for the purchased item by government organizations can take up to 60 days). This is especially important for representatives of small and micro businesses who cannot afford to participate in large public procurement due to the need to constantly attract financial resources to ensure the operation of their production facilities or other processes.

 

Today six SmartTender.biz partner banks offer favorable conditions of financial factoring for suppliers. All you need to do is choose a financial institution from the list and send an application for a service. Bank representatives make a decision and give you an answer within 2 hours. In case of their refusal, you can send an application to another institution from the list of partners. For details and a list, see here.

 

14. Documents Watermarking

The main principle of the Prozorro system is absolute transparency of information about the progress of the purchase and all its participants. On the one hand, it is honest and progressive, on the other hand, it causes certain inconveniences for entrepreneurs. After the auction is over, all documents presented in the tender proposal and not protected by the "Confidential" stamp are freely available in the Prozorro database.

 

The main disadvantage here is that some government organizers still require suppliers to provide copies of passports, tax identification numbers, or other documents, which can be used by a third party without the owner's knowledge. To protect your documents, use a handy tool from SmartTender.biz – watermarking. Read more about this here.

 

Example of a document with a watermark

 

Use the convenient features of SmartTender and increase your chances of winning in public procurement!