The engineering, construction and infrastructure sector is highly competitive – particularly in the public sector. Winning tenders and bids is critical – and meeting the standard tender criteria is generally not enough to secure government contracts.

Most established businesses in Ireland possess the fundamental skills to compile a comprehensive bid for a construction, civil, or electrical engineering project.

They understand the technical specifications, project management intricacies, and financial considerations. However, a score of seven or eight out of 10 is generally not enough to win a contact.

There are several strategies engineering and infrastructure businesses can employ to consistently achieve high marks in the tender process and secure more government contracts – more consistently.

1) Write a detailed, persuasive and powerful case study

Many businesses present case studies as a simple list of projects completed, detailing the scope of work and sometimes the team involved.

While this provides the readers with a basic understanding of your capabilities, you need to go into a lot more detail if you want to score well. A comprehensive case study will need to be detailed and cover all aspects of the project, including the usual scope, methodology and personnel.
In addition, you need to consider the following:

1. Adherence to safety protocols and performance: You need to specify the safety management systems implemented, the number of toolbox talks, any safety innovations that minimised risk, and crucially, your Lost Time Injury (LTI) rate or Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) for the project. You need to detail and describe the unique safety challenges the project presented and what tailored safety initiatives you put in place to overcome them. For example, if you were contracted to perform works on a school or education project, you should talk about the tailored safety initiatives you put in place for the project.
2. Environment: What groundbreaking measures did you take to minimise environmental impact? Did you implement advanced waste reduction strategies, manage water run-off with innovative solutions, or utilise sustainable materials that set new benchmarks? These points need to be highlighted and quantified where possible.
3. Client communication and reporting: It may not seem critical to your case study or service offering, however, client communication and reporting needs to be covered in any case study. It helps evidence your experience in client communication and provide confidence to the reader that you will be easy to work with. This is critical especially for any Irish government department which takes communication and reporting seriously.
4. Overcoming challenges: Every project encounters challenges. Instead of glossing over them in your case study, you should talk about and demonstrate how your team identified the issues and what strategies you implemented to overcome them. This demonstrates that you have a practical understanding of the challenges facing civil, electrical and other engineering projects and that as a team and organisation you have the maturity and skill-set to overcome challenges and deliver quality outcomes. An example of this would be writing: 'When faced with unexpected ground conditions that threatened project timelines, our engineering team re-evaluated the foundation design, proposing a cost-effective and innovative alternative that ensured the project remained on schedule while enhancing the structural integrity of the project'.
5. Innovation and value engineering: Where you employed or introduced any innovative techniques, materials or methodologies that improved efficiency, helped reduce costs or delivered some other benefit to the client and project outcome, you need to talk about it as part of your case study. Quantify the benefits your innovative initiatives delivered.

Case studies and previous experience is not all about the scope of works you delivered. You need to cover off other factors that may not seem as critical but are still relevant from the procurement team’s perspective.

2) Tailor your response to the client and the opportunity

Taking the time to tailor every aspect of your bid to the opportunity is critical. Evaluators can quickly understand if a bid is tailored or not – and grow increasingly sceptical with every piece of generic writing they read. Tailoring your bid to the opportunity enables you to demonstrate insight into the project and that you have thought through the project or contract.

When writing a bid or tender businesses should:

• Review the RFT or RFP in detail so that businesses can develop an understanding of the client’s pain points and objectives. Incorporate them into your writing and tailor your response to address these issues;
• Respond directly to the question and answer the question only. There is no need to add in additional generic marketing material into your response. Although, it is a good idea to take a broad interpretation of any questions and answer the question in two or three parts if it is a complex question;
• Write in a clear and concise manner. Avoid any technical jargon where possible and write a tailored response in simple English;
• Ensure the CVs, experience and other information you include is tailored to the opportunity. That means including experience that is relevant to the size and scope of the proposed contract. For example, if you are bidding for a government contract, then it is a great idea to include relevant public sector experience, since government procurement personnel like to know organisations understand the processes and procedures required to service a government contract.

3) Write a detailed methodology that explains both the ‘how’ and ‘why’

For any civil, electrical or other engineering contracts or bids, the methodology is usually critical and this is generally reflected in the evaluation criteria. In order to score well, businesses need to do more than simply detail the project programme.

They need to explain ‘why’ they have adopted the proposed methodology and ‘how’ it will deliver benefits to the client. In addition, they need to ensure your methodology covers all aspects of your tender or bid, not simply the construction component.

1. Explaining your methodology: For each significant stage in your methodology, they should explain why this is the most efficient, safest, most sustainable, or most innovative approach. For example, as part of an excavation strategy, businesses could state that, 'We propose a phased excavation strategy, not only to minimise disruption to surrounding traffic but also to strategically optimise material handling, leading to a projected 15% reduction in haulage costs and significant time savings'.
2. Link the why to the benefits: Organisations need to explain and communicate what the benefits are to the client due to the methodology you have developed and will adopt. This is an extension of the explanation. The key point here is that the benefits need to be tangible and measurable. Businesses have to be able to put a number on them and ensure they are quantified. This makes it easier for the reader to appreciate the value of the benefit.
3. Integrate risk management, safety and the environment into the methodology. Most of the time when businesses think of writing a methodology they think of the programme and the technical aspects of the project. However, if they want to score well then businesses need to cover and acknowledge other aspects of the project in the methodology and ensure these are incorporated. They include key risks that have been identified and how they will be mitigated (for example, weather protection systems to enable concrete pours in adverse weather conditions), safety and environmental initiatives and the protocols and regulatory of client communication and reporting.
4. Incorporate client communication and reporting into your methodology. This is often overlooked but is crucial for government bids. Detail your proposed communication matrix: who will be the key contacts, how often will rigorous progress meetings occur, what robust reporting mechanisms will be in place. Even if there is a separate question on client communication and reporting, you still need to incorporate it into your methodology.

4) Put forward your A-team

While technical capability is important, your proposed team and their respective experience is equally important. Evaluators want to know not just what you will do, but who will be doing it. Do not just list CVs; present your A-team as a cohesive unit, detailing with confidence why each member has the right experience, expertise and soft skills to deliver on the contract.

• Go beyond simply listing qualifications. For each key team member, highlight their specific, demonstrable experience directly relevant to the project at hand. Instead of just 'BEng Civil Engineering', explain how their engineering expertise will directly contribute to this specific project's success. 'Our lead civil engineer, with 15 years' unparalleled experience in complex bridge structures, will bring invaluable, proven expertise in optimising the structural design for load-bearing capacity and long-term durability on this specific bridge project, ensuring structural integrity and longevity';
• A track record of working together and dedicated roles and responsibilities. It is important to talk about the proposed team’s track record of working together. A focus on complimentary skill-sets and the ability to work seamlessly and efficiently together is critical. It is also important to detail the proposed roles and responsibilities of each team member and their experience and track record in similar roles.

5) Localisation: Ensuring the contract benefits the local economy and community

This is another area that is critical to winning government contracts and is often an afterthought when developing a tender strategy. Contribution to the local economy and community is now critical to winning government contracts in Ireland. This goes far beyond simply stating you have an office in the local area you propose to operate in – it is about quantifying and articulating the tangible benefits you will deliver.

1. Maximising local employment and training opportunities: Quantify your commitment to local employment. How many new local jobs will be directly created or sustained by this project or contract? Will you be offering structured apprenticeships, comprehensive training programmes, or opportunities for upskilling to local residents? It is best to provide specific targets that can be easily quantified, and that help address some of the challenges facing Ireland, as well as more specifically, local communities. For example, businesses could state, 'Our commitment includes a minimum of 70% local labour force for this project, creating 30 new direct jobs and offering 10 apprenticeships to young people from the immediate area, fostering long-term local employment and skill development'.
2. Prioritising local supply chain and subcontractors: Detail your concrete plans to engage with local suppliers and subcontractors. This not only directly supports the local economy but can also offer significant logistical advantages and demonstrate a proactive commitment to building robust local partnerships.
3. Community engagement and tangible social value: How will your project create lasting, measurable social value for the local community beyond the direct project or contract? Will you be actively involved in local initiatives, educational programmes, or environmental clean-ups? For example, 'Our team will partner with local schools to offer weekly STEM workshops, inspiring the next generation of engineers, providing career insights, and fostering a positive, enduring relationship with the community. Additionally, we commit to dedicating 100 volunteer hours to local community improvement projects during the construction phase'.

Localisation demonstrates that the organisation is not simply an engineering contractor interested in profits, but a responsible corporate citizen deeply invested in the long-term wellbeing and prosperity of the area where the project is located. It shifts the perception from a transactional relationship to a partnership for community benefit.

Interweaving a strong focus on the local community throughout the bid, including in responses to safety and stakeholder communication, is critical to scoring well and securing government contracts.

Conclusion: Quality bids take time

Writing a quality bid takes time, effort and resources. Therefore, a robust bid/no bid process will ensure businesses only bid for contracts they have a reasonable prospect of success with.

Engineering organisations will get no real benefit from repeatedly bidding for contracts unsuccessfully. By implementing the above strategies and writing comprehensive bids and tenders, businesses can improve their prospects of success by writing an exemplary bid that scores highly against all evaluation criteria.

Author: Jason Cooney is the founder of Tsaks Consulting UK. A bid and tender writing consultancy helping engineering businesses win government contracts in Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland.