Supporting Telent Rail in Network Rail bid

CASE STUDY: Tender response for Telent Rail for Network Rail project

August 2024 • 8 weeks • Project value: £2.5m

Project scope:

Between July and August 2024, we were commissioned by Telent Rail to manage its submission for a Network Rail (High Speed) Ltd tender for the replacement of 20 Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) systems for 20 separate locations. We were asked to manage the complete tender response, inclusive of quality questions, proposed design, installation schedule and costs.  

We worked with Telent Rail to manage its bid, from the initial evaluation meeting (‘go/no go’) right through to submitting the bid on Network Rail’s tender portal.  

The plan included the coordination of the following departments:

• Engineering (design solution for 20 sites)

• Purchasing (procurement of UPS and control systems)

• Legal/commercial (contract terms agreement and assumptions logs)

• Project management (delivery schedule)

• Installation (installation methodology)

• Estimating (total cost build up – hardware, software, engineering and installation labour)

15 quality questions:

In addition to these aspects we developed and wrote responses to fifteen quality questions - see below. We managed all of this via weekly project meetings where we set deliverables and expected outcomes which were subsequently reported on and evaluated at subsequent meetings. This culminated in the successful submission of the tender - on time and to schedule.

Our 15 quality questions covered the following topics:

1. Table of compliance

2. Technical table of non-compliance

3. Methodology

4. EMC

5. Product approval

6. Training management

7. Competences

8. High level training plan

9. Sub-contractors and supplier management

10. Delivery and mobilisation programme

11. Warranty and support

12. Delivery

13. Health and safety, quality and environment

14. Social value

15. CDM

Benefits/successes:

• The project was successfully awarded and is now being delivered

• We delivered the work within 8 weeks across peak summer holiday season

• We integrated and seamlessly co-ordinated the work of 8 internal services/departments to create a cohesive successful bid response

Background information:

Telent Rail had members of its own bid management team unavailable over the July to August period. With several bids in the pipeline they needed additional capacity to manage them. We were able to support Telent Rail through every stage which included developing a working solution to the exchange of old for new UPS systems at 20 separate station locations.