Commercial Maintenance Contracts: 5 Things to Expect When Tendering

Published9th April 2021 AuthorJohn Hudson

Commercial maintenance contracts & tendering

Commercial maintenance contracts are put out to tender by private and public sector organisations procuring building maintenance works and services. They can be found for non-residential buildings such as:

  • Schools
  • Offices
  • Universities
  • Retail facilities.

Commercial maintenance contracts can be used to procure a range of goods, services and works. These could include:

5 things you can expect from commercial maintenance contracts

  1. Insurance

Contractors will often require you to provide copies of your insurance when tendering for work. You will likely need to attach it as part of the appendices during the pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ). This is an initial stage set by a buyer to ensure you meet the minimum eligibility criteria.

Buyers will want to ensure you have the basic levels of insurance to deliver the commercial maintenance contracts at hand. There are four main types of insurance asked within tendering, these are:

  • Employer’s (Compulsory) Liability Insurance
  • Public Liability Insurance
  • Professional Indemnity Insurance
  • Product Liability Insurance.

  1. Health and safety

You will likely need to detail your business’s health and safety policy. Buyers want to be reassured that you uphold best practice and carry out the highest health and safety standards. You may also be required to do a risk assessment depending on the buyer and the contract at hand. This could include the measures you have in place and a business continuity plan in the case of:

  • Equipment failure
  • Materials shortage/non-delivery
  • Staff shortage
  • Resources/capacity.

Relevant policies and regulations that could be relevant are:

  • CHAS
  • SafeContractor
  • RIDDOR
  • CDN Regulations 2015.

  1. Experience

Contractors for commercial maintenance contracts will likely require you to provide evidence of your professional ability. They want to be reassured that you are capable of fulfilling the contracts and have relevant experience. You may be required to provide up to three case studies carried out within the last three or five years.

These case studies should demonstrate:

  • Past contracts similar in scale and complexity
  • How you delivered the contract and mobilisation
  • Any challenges you encountered and how you overcame them
  • Whether you completed the contract on time and within budget.

  1. Quality management

Tendering for commercial maintenance contracts will likely contain a section of quality management. An example of a quality management question is:

“Please detail your methodology for managing the quality of the workmanship and materials for both directly employed trades and any subcontractors.”

You will likely need to include quality management systems such as ISO 9001; 14001; 18001. Key Performance Indicators are also a good way to demonstrate your quality management. You want to establish the consistency and quality of your services to the buyer. Persuasive writing is essential as you want to convince them why you are the best business for the job.

  1. Value for money

A contractor in the public sector will always award the contract to tenders that demonstrate the most value for money. This is known as the MEAT and stands for the most economically advantageous tender. This is when a buyer looks at more than just price. They assess the tender on a multitude of factors. They could include:

  • Accessibility
  • Environmental factors
  • Sustainability
  • Ability to deliver on time
  • Innovation
  • Quality
  • Technical ability.

As mentioned above, every buyer is different and will have different demands from each other. This is why you will need to read the tender documents carefully before progressing with any tender. A buyers’ requirements will be detailed within the specification.

When tendering for public sector commercial maintenance contracts, you will need to consider social value. A tender will have a minimum weighting of 10% on social value. You should consider the social, environmental and economic aspects of delivering the contract. These pledges and policies are often contractually binding, so you want to make promises you can actually deliver. These could include:

  • COVID-19 recovery
  • Reducing waste and encouraging recycling
  • Paying employees the National Living Wage to tackle economic inequality
  • Equal opportunities policies
  • Training apprentices or employing local labour.

Need assistance writing your next commercial maintenance contracts?

You may not have the resources or time to write a winning response for commercial maintenance contracts in-house. It can take a great deal of time out of your busy day. Outsourcing to a bid writing company can help take the headache out of tendering and maximise your chances of success.

Our sister company Hudson Succeed, have over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you win more commercial maintenance contracts.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect commercial maintenance contract for your business, send it our way. Our Bid Writers can take care of it all for you and they’ll even submit it on your behalf. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready 4-week programme is perfect for those who have never tendered before. A Bid Writer will work with you to make sure you have everything you need in place to tender successfully. The Tender Ready programme offers your business:

  • A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders
  • Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding professionals
  • An organisation-wide Bid Library, including 3 case studies, 5 CV’s and 8 policies
  • Additional flexible benefit options.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you aren’t seeing the desired results from your current tendering efforts. The Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents, working with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders and additional tendering development services.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own tender response and need someone to double-check it for errors, Tender Mentor can help. Our Bid Team will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes. They’ll also ensure that it’s in line with the specification before you submit.

Where can I find commercial maintenance contracts for my business?

Searching for the right tender for your company can take time. There are thousands of sites posting multi-industry opportunities that are updated daily. Each may require a different login, password or portal and it can be hard to keep up. Simply relying on CPV codes can result in missed opportunities. This is because they are often mislabelled, ironically, going against their very purpose.

Luckily for you, we have a time-saving tool that can help optimise your search using one, easy-to-navigate centralised portal. Facilities Tenders is a portal that hosts all live tendering opportunities within the facilities management industry.

Our Opportunity Trackers source and upload exclusive, public and private sector tenders from across the UK. You’re able to filter and search the results by keyword, budget, location and more. This allows you to find the perfect commercial maintenance contracts for your business, streamlining the process.

Below are previous commercial maintenance contracts sourced on our portal:

HVAC and BMS Systems Planned Maintenance and Responsive Remedial Works with the Potential for Additional Project Works

Birkbeck University- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Fire and Security Systems Planned Maintenance and Responsive Remedial Works with the Potential for Additional Project Works

Birkbeck University- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Fall Protection Inspections, Equipment Servicing, Maintenance and Training

University of Southampton- South East- Budget: £300,000

Maintain, Inspect, Test, & Repair the Building Energy Management Systems (BeMS), Plant and Equipment Controls

University of Huddersfield e-Tendering- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

Quantum Technology Centre Cleanroom Service and Maintenance

University of Lancaster- North West- Budget: £25,000

A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

  • Access to all exclusive, public and private sector opportunities within the facilities management industry.
  • An on-hand Account Manager available to answer any questions you may have about finding commercial maintenance contracts. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to identify tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for commercial maintenance contracts.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Logistics, for example.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid
  • Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable facilities tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • A Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

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