Viridor was one of two final bidders competing for Oxfordshire County Council's 25 year residual waste PFI contract. The company knew that no stone could remain unturned if it was to producing the winning bid, and asked Remarkable to help by improving the presentation of its tender document.
The Brief
Massive investment in waste management infrastructure is currently in progress as the UK shifts away from landfill disposal and applies technologies that are kinder on the environment.
To win valuable contracts in a highly competitive environment, bidders like Viridor have to satisfy demanding procurement teams that they are offering best value on the strength of their technical, service and financial offerings, with human health well protected. Bid documentation runs to hundreds of pages with numerous annexes; and while success hinges on the content, presentation is increasingly important.
Customers comprise local authorities acting individually or in partnership. Not only do their procurement teams need clear, detailed material that satisfies their environmental and pricing agendas, they also want it to be well written and presented.
With all this top of mind, Viridor asked Remarkable for assistance with its Oxfordshire tender.
The Solution
Remarkable was already familiar with Viridor's bid documentation because of its work supporting planning applications for a wide variety of waste management facilities. We immediately identified a number of areas for improvement. These ranged from consistency of style in the written English to the presentation of the documents. Leveraging Remarkable's integrated marcomms teams, a written style guide was prepared by Remarkable's PR consultants while a template for the final design was created by Remarkable Marketing and Design. The template needed to help present detailed information in a clear, effective manner while following Viridor's corporate design guidelines, also produced by Remarkable.
Since public sector tenders have to be submitted by a non-negotiable date and time, a precise schedule of activity was agreed with Viridor, to tight deadlines. Remarkable's editors and designers rescheduled work-loads to concentrate on the OCC bid documentation as soon as Viridor's final drafts were delivered in late April 2009. Production was set up in advance for rapid processing.
Despite advance preparation, Remarkable needed to anticipate some delays in the delivery of material due to need for Viridor and its technology partners to thoroughly check all materials for accuracy. Being the final recipients in the chain meant working flexibly as and when materials were ready, often working with the Viridor bid team through evenings and weekends to help keep the project on time.
The scope of the work included editing hundreds of pages for grammar, sense, and capitalisation, ensuring consistency through-out, and correct usage of contractual terms. Once the proposed revisions were reviewed and accepted or rejected as appropriate by the client, the material was returned to Remarkable for further proof-reading, formatting and insertion into a very stylish template, and the production of electronic and hard copies.
Results
The work was completed and copies of the 1,600 page document were delivered ahead of schedule to the considerable satisfaction of the client. In fact he was so pleased that a bonus was offered over and above the agreed fee.
