Is there a "jobserve" for Consultancy tenders/contracts ?

[juststarting]

Is there a website where end-companies , government or private, advertise tenders / projects for delivery or development of software and possibly hardware ? I am interested in real consultancy projects not just freelancer job sites..

[eyetie]

Try bizconnector.

[LittlestHobbo]

Supply2.gov.uk

i'd be interested in teaming up if you know anyone who knows how to write tenders effectivly..

[ratewhore]

Supply2.gov.uk

i'd be interested in teaming up if you know anyone who knows how to write tenders effectivly..

Has anyone actually won any business from here? As far as I can see, there's still tons of hoops you have to jump through...

[AgencySlayer]

Tenders are only the start of it

Supply2.gov.uk

i'd be interested in teaming up if you know anyone who knows how to write tenders effectivly..

As in the title... with Supply2 you need to provide financial details as well eg last three years accounts, directors lists, not be a bankrupt etc. The real trick is in making sure you get all the details rom the client and then pithcing your bid at the budget and showing you are able to deliver.

The big problem is if your a one man outfit like most uf us then youve got no chance but I do think you get a better shot if youv'e set up as a consortium of contractors. I've looked into this and there is a shed load of things to consider when getting a buch of contractors to work together on this kind of thing. I'm interested in going deeper here as its about time we got rid of the pimps and set up something for contractors and run by contractors for our benefit .... time for the worm to turn me thinks.

[moorfield]

As in the title... with Supply2 you need to provide financial details as well eg last three years accounts, directors lists, not be a bankrupt etc.

Sounds like one of HMRCs "black ops" to flush out more contractors to investigate! Steer well clear.

I'm interested in going deeper here as its about time we got rid of the pimps and set up something for contractors and run by contractors for our benefit .... time for the worm to turn me thinks.

But won't this inevitably lead to someone eventually thinking "Hang on, I can make a 10% margin out of this ..."

[AgencySlayer]

Sounds like one of HMRCs "black ops" to flush out more contractors to investigate! Steer well clear.



But won't this inevitably lead to someone eventually thinking "Hang on, I can make a 10% margin out of this ..."

Well that is true but then if its owned by us (contractors) then we are the only ones to benefit in the end and not the pimps.
Anyway when you take into account the agents take of 10 to 20% and chop that off the average rate for PM say you can keep undercutting them every time.. ? So we would allways be the cheapest...

[ratewhore]

I've looked into this and there is a shed load of things to consider when getting a buch of contractors to work together on this kind of thing. I'm interested in going deeper here as its about time we got rid of the pimps and set up something for contractors and run by contractors for our benefit .... time for the worm to turn me thinks.

You should check out the collaboration forum over at the PCG. You'll see how hard it is, how many times it's been tried before, and how many times it's failed to go anywhere...

[AgencySlayer]

No such thing as failiure

You should check out the collaboration forum over at the PCG. You'll see how hard it is, how many times it's been tried before, and how many times it's failed to go anywhere...

A wise man once said "I haven't failed a 1000 times more I have found a 1000 ways it will not work! which means I am all the more closer to finding the solutions"

And thats how we ended up with the light bulb and the black box's that give us a job !

[Another Dodgy Agent]

A wise man once said "I haven't failed a 1000 times more I have found a 1000 ways it will not work! which means I am all the more closer to finding the solutions"

And thats how we ended up with the light bulb and the black box's that give us a job !

I like the PCG term - Collaboration. So lets look at the idea of cutting all the agencies out so they wither and die and the contractors "working for themselves and each other" form the Collaboration.

So you have your basic group of contractors who (now there are no agents - the splitters!) have banded together as a collaboration. Naturally not everyone within the collaboration can go out on gigs after all who is going to process invoicing, timesheets, credit control and generally organise back office functions? So one of the collaboration agree to stay behind and rather than going on gigs will work on organising tendors, making sure other contractors get paid on time and whenever one of the contractor's hear of a new opportunity, the one that is doing all the other back office stuff will then have to phone around finding out what the opportunity is. Eventually the one that ends up doing the internal running of the collaboration will get miffed off with earning less that the other contractors who go on the gigs all the time, so he/she asks to be paid a percentage of whatever total amount of money was made on the gig so they get some money for all the effort, then you know what has happened...you have become a pimp.

For collaboration, read agency. Yeah, yeah at the beginning it is just a bunch of mates/contractors all assisting each other but take the model 10 years down the line and the original bunch have either left or are now directors in the collaboration, employing people to do all the stuff that the original contractors did and you have your very own recruitment agency.

Wonder how big the margins will be when you guys are running your collaboration!

Still could be worse, it could end up as as Consultancy firm, now we are talking mega margins and NO delivery!!