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  • A request for tenders is a formal, structured invitation to suppliers, to bid, to supply

  • products or services. In the public sector an official fee is needed to fortify and secure

  • the tender bid engagement/win documents, such a process may be required and determined in

  • detail by law to ensure that such competition for the use of public is open, fair and free

  • from bribery and nepotism. For example, a government may put a building project 'out

  • to tender'; that is, publish an invitation for other parties to make a proposal for the

  • building's construction, on the understanding that any competition for the relevant government

  • contract must be conducted in response to the tender, no parties having the unfair advantage

  • of separate, prior, closed-door negotiations for the contract. An evaluation team will

  • go through the tenders and decide who will get the contract.

  • As a consequence of the scale of the tender process the majority of RFTs are published

  • by the government sector, but companies in the infrastructure and utilities sectors may

  • also publish RFTs. RFTs may be distributed to potential bidders

  • through a tender service, allowing businesses to receive and search live tenders from a

  • range of public and private sources. These alerts are most commonly sent daily and can

  • be filtered down by geographical area, or by business sector. Some tendering services

  • even divide types of business very finely in their own way, by CPV codes. This enables

  • a business to find RFTs specific to what that business can supply.

  • The closest equivalent to an RFT in the mainstream private sector is a request for proposal,

  • which, since public money is not involved, typically has a less rigid structure.

  • An RFT is usually an open invitation for suppliers to respond to a defined need as opposed to

  • a request being sent to selected potential suppliers. The RFT often requests information

  • following on from other information gathered previously from responses to a Request for

  • Information. This will usually not only cover product and service requirements, but will

  • also ask for information about the suitability of the business.

  • An RFT is usually expected to conform to some legally standardized structure designed to

  • ensure impartiality. And the tender bid winner is entitled to take responsibility of the

  • contract business supply documentations formalities and settle any tender bid engagement charges

  • for official recording. Related proposal types

  • Other members of the family include: EOI - expression of interest

  • IFB - invitation for bids ITT - invitation to tender

  • ITV - invitation to vendors RFA - request for applications

  • RFD - request for documentation RFI - request for information

  • RFO - request for offers RFP - request for proposal

  • RFQ - request for quotation or request for qualifications

  • RFN - request for negotiation References

  • External links Average tender win rates by industry

  • Types of tender and bid writer

A request for tenders is a formal, structured invitation to suppliers, to bid, to supply

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