Public Bids / Competitor Tracking

The Public Bids / Competitor Tracking window is an invaluable tool that ensures no bids slip through the cracks due to oversight. It offers more than just monitoring bid due dates and awards; it provides essential insights into your competitive landscape. This window not only tracks how frequently your company competes with others for business but also allows you to compare your pricing against individual competitors over time, especially when collecting public bid prices published post-award. Even for projects that aren't formal bids, logging information about your competitors and project outcomes helps create a comprehensive history of your company's wins and losses over time.

Accessing the Public Bids window is straightforward. You can right-click on a project from any grid or tree listing projects, then navigate to the Modules submenu and select "Public Bids." Alternatively, within the Project Information window, click on the "Modules" section in the left "hamburger" menu panel and choose "Public Bids / Competitor Tracking." This flexibility ensures a seamless integration of this valuable tool into your workflow.

Whether you're handling a formal bid or simply tracking your competition, completing the following information is crucial. Even in cases where there isn't a specific Bid Due Date, providing this information, including any available project specifications, is essential. The project type plays a pivotal role as e-manage|ONE uses it for fair comparisons. Only product types from other projects that match your project's type will be compiled for analysis.

Please refrain from filling out the "Bid Submitted" field unless you are dealing with an actual bid and have officially submitted it. Your bid amount should only be recorded as the final bid amount after the bid submission process. This practice ensures your data accurately reflects your bid history and aligns with your project management requirements.

Filling out this section of the form will place the project on the Bid / Competitor Tracking panel in the Today pop-out panel from the right side of the e-manage|ONE main window. Further details can be found here.

After creating the initial Bid information, the next step is to add your competitors. If this is a bid, you can add competitors when you first identify the companies you are competing against. After the bid is awarded, fill out the Bid Amount for each competitor. If one of your competitors wins the bid, mark the Winning bid checkbox for that competitor. If it's not a bid, simply select the competitor and save the information. After determining the project's winner, check the winning bid on either the left side of the window (if you won) or on the right side (if the competitor won).

Whether you are working on a formal bid or tracking your competition, it's essential to fill out the awarded date and check the Winning bid checkbox on either your side or by clicking on the winning competitor's side. In public bids, bid amounts are public data regardless of the winner. This provides a valuable opportunity to gain insights into your competition that might be challenging to track mentally.

You can adjust the Compile Info dropdown list box to view data from different time periods to assess whether you are gaining ground on your competition or winning more projects against them over time.

Additionally, you can track this information directly in the Current Opportunities grid in the Today Panel to ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Most fields can even be edited directly in the grid, offering a convenient way to adjust information as needed.