VALIDATING COMPLIANCE

You must do what the customer asks. If you are responding to an Invitation to Tender, Request for Proposal, or similar document, you must check that you have complied with all its requirements. These fall into two groups:

• The physical requirements, which may include the expected format of the proposal, a list of sections to be included, how prices are to be presented, how many copies are needed and so on.

• The technical requirements defining the system for which you are bidding.

The best method is to draw up a Compliance Matrix. On the left-hand side this lists the requirements from the customer, sentence by sentence, in the form of a cross-reference, the text itself, or both. The right-hand side shows how your proposal addresses each requirement. The result will be something like Table 8.1.

As you complete the matrix, you should be asking yourself if your response to each requirement is adequate, and presented in the manner asked for. You must provide a response to all the requirements in the Invitation to Tender, no matter how repetitive or pointless they may seem. So don't just respond with “As before”, “See the attached” or “Compliant” – give a full answer to each question asked.

You may choose to include the Compliance Matrix as an appendix to your proposal, either because the customer has asked for one, or because you would like to help them with their evaluation process.