A presentation day is an important part of your tender, whether you are running a Public Contracts Regulation 2015 (soon to be The Procurement Act 2023) compliant process or a below-threshold Request For Proposal process. The presentation day is where your shortlisted suppliers get the opportunity to expand on their proposals and answer any questions that you and your school or Trust representatives may have. After the presentation day you can then finalise the scores of all suppliers, and move to award to the successful one.
Ahead of your presentation day there are some key things to consider:
Logistics:
- Have you put together a timetable for the day, informing each supplier of what time they should expect to present? Each bidder should be allocated time to give their presentation and also time to answer any questions that you may have at the end. For example, you may choose to allow each bidder 25 minutes to give their presentation and 25 minutes to answer questions. Don’t forget to allow yourselves a short break between presentations. This is important as it gives you an opportunity to reflect on what you’ve heard and make notes.
- Have you provided the suppliers with information about parking, access to the site etc?
- Do they need to supply you with Enhanced DBS information pre-visit?
- Have you identified a suitable meeting room with a table and sufficient seating to host your panel plus the bidder representatives? It will also need access to a projector and a large screen for presentation slides. You will need to inform bidders if they are required to bring their own laptops or will need to use a school one. Make sure you choose a location where you won’t be disturbed!
- Who will be taking notes? You will want to make sure that you capture any key clarifications and panel feedback during the presentation. Don’t leave it until the end of the day, as all the presentations will merge into one!
What to say (and what not to say!):
We recommend preparing some questions prior to the day which may of course change depending on the presentation content. Questions are usually triggered by the bidder responses in the written Invitation to Tender or Request for Proposal submission, challenges you may have with the current service and how these might be addressed, and any areas of focus important to you. It’s perfectly acceptable if you don’t ask the same questions of all bidders as they may not be relevant to all – it’s just good to have some to start the ball rolling. But don’t worry if you don’t have any in advance, in our experience something usually crops up during the presentation.
Once the bidders have entered the room for their presentation session, don’t forget to cover these points before starting:
- Confirm presentation timings (especially is you’re running behind schedule)
- Who will be taking notes
- Introductions (panel and bidders)
If your incumbent is presenting, and you are not happy with the current service, you may want to explore this. But be careful not to turn the session into a contract monitoring meeting – ensure they have plenty of opportunities to explain how they plan to deliver improvements.
And of course, be very careful not to discuss the details of other bids in front of competitors especially their pricing.
Catering Presentations:
Catering presentations require a little bit more planning due to the food tasting requirements (yum!). As well as their presentation, bidders should also have an opportunity to provide some sample dishes for you to taste. The panel should take part in this, but you can also open this up to a small number of student representatives too should that be appropriate.
Ahead of the Presentation Day you will need to:
- Provide a list of food allergies or intolerances for anyone planning to taste the food
- Arrange for bidders to have vehicular access for a large car or small van to unload food and equipment
- Arrange for two additional meeting rooms for the food sampling. Two rooms allows for one bidder to be setting up while another is presenting and clearing away – it takes time! These rooms will need at least two tables for the bidders to present the food samples. No chairs are required as you will usually stand for this element of the presentation. The room should be of a sufficient size to accommodate up to five individuals from the bidder and the number of school or Trust representatives attending (including students). The bidders will need a power supply but will not need kitchen facilities or heat as they will bring anything of this nature themselves.
Online Presentations:
Some presentation may be better held online, for example MIS or HR Admin and Payroll tenders. This allows presenters to share their screen and walk you through the systems they are proposing. It also means that you can have more people attending the presentation. And from an environmental perspective it’s great as no one needs to travel.
If you are holding your presentation online, you will need to:
- Arrange a short ‘introductory’ session for the panel to ensure everyone understand what is going to happen and what their role is in the day.
- Set up and share in advance a separate online meeting link for each bidder. This is essential to ensure that bidders are not able to view their competitors’ presentations.
- Set up a final online ‘wash up’ session for the panel
- With permission for the bidders, arrange to record the sessions so that they can be re-watched post presentation day or shared with colleagues who may not have been able to attend
After the Presentations:
The panel can discuss and review the presentations and consider any further moderation to the draft scores. You can send bidders further clarification questions too.
Once you have finalised your scoring and agreed your winning bidder you will need to inform the successful and unsuccessful bidders formally. This may be by email for an RFP, or through the Notice of Intent to Award (NOITA) correspondence for an above threshold tender.