Search for tenders – This is one of the most critical stages when participating in procurement. The final result of participation in the tender largely depends on the effectiveness of the search. Therefore, the participant should pay special attention to organizing the search for orders.

Where and how to look for tenders?

To find the answer to the question posed, you should first decide on the procurement market that will be most interesting to you. Whether you are interested in commercial procurement, state and municipal procurement in accordance with 44-FZ or corporate procurement in accordance with 223-FZ will determine which tools are best to use for searching for tenders and which will be of no use.

The development of the system of state and municipal procurement in accordance with the principles of openness and efficiency of procurement carried out at the expense of the budget has led to the creation single portal to post information about such procurements, which is located at www.zakupki.gov.ru.

It is worth noting here that until the beginning of 2010, the state and municipal procurement market was characterized by difficulties in finding procurement, which led to significant difficulties for procurement participants and, accordingly, limited competition. To solve this problem the Government Russian Federation and the legislator determined that absolutely all state and municipal procurements must be published on the website of the United information system in the field of procurement.

If information about the purchase is not posted there, this actually means that the purchase has not been announced and is not valid. But Customers are given the right, in addition to the procurement website, to publish information in other sources of information at their discretion. But since such information in any case will be duplicate in relation to the procurement site, this is not interesting for searching for orders.

A similar situation has developed in the field of corporate procurement in accordance with 223-FZ, where Customers are also required to publish all information about competitive procurement methods on the website zakupki.gov.ru, and have the right to additionally publish such information on their own websites and systems.

Consequently, the only sufficient source of information will be the procurement website zakupki.gov.ru, but with some reservations, which will be discussed below.

But in the commercial orders market the situation is exactly the opposite. Since Customers of commercial orders independently determine the rules and procedure for purchasing, they independently choose, based on their own preferences, the place where information about the order will be placed. IN at the moment In the Russian market alone, there are more than six thousand different platforms offering services for publishing orders. This amount makes manual search completely ineffective, and increases the need to automate this process. Various services and programs cope well with this task.

When answering the question of how to search for tenders, it is worth listing the main ways to search for them.

Manual search is suitable for those procurement participants who do not participate in procurement on an ongoing basis and choose government or corporate procurement.

Use of paid and free services will significantly increase efficiency and improve the search for tenders. The tender search system significantly saves your time resources, takes into account the parameters you specify and offers options that you most likely would not have found in a manual search.

Monitoring of tenders can also be entrusted to a separate specialist who will deal with this on a permanent and professional basis or to a third-party organization. But the latter option, from a practical point of view, has not proven itself in the best light, since such an organization, not understanding the specifics of your activity, offers tenders that are not interesting for your participation.

It is worthwhile to dwell in more detail on the possibilities that any tender search engine offers. Initially, it is worth mentioning that any system will not solve all the problems associated with searching for tenders by pressing one button. Of the proposed options, in any case, you will have to manually analyze tenders to determine the feasibility of participation, many of which most likely will not suit you. But in any case, manual search comes down to an acceptable number of tenders that meet only your basic requirements. Any program for filtering orders has its advantages and disadvantages, which will be strictly individual for you. Therefore, any such program must be tested beforehand.

Free tender search

As you know, nothing is free in our world, that’s why free search tenders is a very relative concept. As a rule, such programs and services either remain free for a short time or completely leave the market due to the unprofitability of the project. Therefore the best free program to search for tenders in the field of government and corporate procurement, this is directly the functionality provided by the website of the unified information system. But he also has significant shortcomings. The set of parameters, filtering and accounting is very meager. Also, this site is often inaccessible and maintenance work is being carried out on it. But if, in terms of the set of necessary parameters, it suits you, and you are ready to wait for its functionality to be restored, then the EIS website is ready to offer you the largest database of published procurements, among which you can try to find a tender that suits you.

Free search for tenders on all sites is best done by services that offer shareware use. This way you can familiarize yourself with their functionality and, if necessary, purchase this program.

Paid search for tenders

Since services and programs are just a tool in your hands, you must remember that the final result depends solely on your skills. In order for a paid search for orders to bring the expected result, you must follow the following rules:

1. Check the OKPD codes indicated by Customers that correspond to your field of activity;
2. Select keywords that can be used in the description of the procurement object;
3. Use saving search parameters so as not to repeat the same settings every time;
4. For the EIS website, subscribe to RSS feed search results using saved parameters;
5. Perform the search as often as possible, the optimal schedule would be at least once a day;
6. Monitor the selected order for cancellations or changes and make appropriate changes to your application in a timely manner;
7. With a constant flow of tenders that interest you, take advantage of the opportunities provided paid services, which we will discuss below.

The best programs (services) for searching for tenders

The easiest way to find a tender is to use full-fledged search services, whose services are naturally paid.

Tenderplan - http://tenderplan.ru/

This service offers services not only for searching for orders, but also for planning work with them. It is possible to record orders, configure the distribution of tenders, and allow you to find an order. The subscription fee does not depend on the amount of access provided.

Purchasing360 - http://zakupki360.ru/

This service is best characterized as a system of not only search, but also tender analytics. An almost endless number of search parameters, many convenient filters, analysis of possible competitive offers and participants, as well as predicted price reductions, all this allows you not only to search for orders, but also to effectively analyze them.

Kontur.Purchases - https://kontur.ru/zakupki

Very simple system not for the sake of its functionality. There is everything you need, and everything is extremely simple and clear. At the same time, the subscription fee is cheaper than many competitors.

IstBudget - http://www.ist-budget.ru/

A distinctive feature is that the developers have clearly encountered the public procurement market, since there are many tools for Customers, not only for participants. Clear, functional, modern design makes it easy to get started.

Seldon - http://seldon.ru/

The largest and most famous tender search engine. Extensive search and analytics capabilities allow you to participate in tenders as efficiently as possible. Distinctive feature is the possibility of two-level filtering of search results. Something similar is also implemented in the tender plan. It's all not cheap, but it's really worth it.

Conclusion

To organize an effective search for orders and understand where to look at tenders and where to look for tenders, you should register in all of the listed programs and services, try the opportunities they provide yourself during the free period and choose the one that is most suitable for you. This is the only way you can find a service that will help solve your specific problems.

The first and basic task of all tender programs is to automate the search for tenders. This will help you reduce the time spent searching for tenders, especially if you have many product items or your services (or work) may have different names. You don’t have to go to the purchasing.gov website every day and manually go through each product in search of new tenders.

Why are tender search programs better than subscription services?

In addition to tender programs, there are many services that you can subscribe to and also receive selections. But what is preferable to programs?

Firstly, in programs you make the selection yourself. Why do we consider this an advantage? Look. If you want to use the mailing service, you fill out an application or contact the manager, pay for the service, explain what you do, and sit (happy) waiting for the mailing. The disadvantages are that the manager will set up the most primitive search for you. The manager is not interested in deeply studying your market and, most likely, will not even offer you a simple OKPD2 setup, and this is important. In the case of the program, you work through and configure your search once and you will already be calm about the quality of the work performed.

For more information about setting up OKPD2, see the free introductory course 2.0

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In addition, in the mailing list (most likely) you will receive a huge list of tenders and again you will sit and waste time filtering. While in the tender program you can use special filters to set up the most narrow (or vice versa wide, depending on the needs of your business) search for yourself and receive the necessary information.

For example, using the Tenderplan program, you can set up a search for only those tenders that were announced in Moscow or the region and are held without securing a contract using the keyword “shoe covers”.

Who needs tender software?

Not everyone needs tendering software, but most suppliers do. And in different functionality. For some, it is enough that the program searches for current tenders, for others, analytics is very important, and for others, it is important to be able to work in the program with the whole team.

During training, we select and immediately implement one of the programs that is most suitable for your business. In any case, you can try working with the program (many provide free access), and then decide whether you need it or not.

The main tasks of tender programs

The basic task is to automate the search for your tenders. You should be comfortable receiving information and comfortable working with the interface offered by the program. Some tender programs provide information in the form of tables, others in the form of a list. What is more convenient is up to you to decide.

The second important task of tender software is the ability to work in a team. You will appreciate how convenient it is that you do not need to send documents and maintain dozens of columns in Excel, so as not to lose information agreed upon with different departments.

For example, in Tenderplan you can register several employees and set up the following process (a real process from one of our clients):

1. The manager looks for tenders and marks them with the “Calculate” tag.
2. The estimator goes to the “Calculate” label, makes a calculation for each tender and writes the cost price. Places the “Check” checkbox
3. The director goes to the “Check” tag, looks at the information, sets the final (minimum) price and transfers the tender to the “Prepare documents” tag.
4. The manager goes to the “Prepare documents” label, prepares the documents (thanks, Cap) and puts the “Track” label.

And the third important task of tender programs is analytics. At least basic analytics (express industry analysis, supplier analysis and customer analysis) are very important.

What tender programs are there?

Programs for working with tenders can be classified in different ways.

Classification by interface:

• tabular view, that is, you will see the results in the form of tables with a lot of data. The downside is that there is really a lot of data and sometimes it seems to me (the author) that this interferes with my work.
• another species, which is not named in any way due to its diversity. Here the developers are already imagining as best they can. For some, this turns out to be very “user-friendly” and understandable. Personally, I am a supporter of this particular version of programs.

Functional qualifications:

• only search. This is the most basic version of the programs. That is, you can only set up an automated search. In my opinion, this is “last century”.
• search and analysis. The ability to conduct a wide variety of analytics is added to the search. At the first stage, supplier analysis and competitor analysis may be useful to you. If you know how to work with statistics, then you can also analyze the market/industry.
• search, analysis, team work. For those who do not work alone, this additional feature is a lifesaver. Again, depending on how it’s done. Tenderplan has made it as convenient as possible.
• the above + many other features. In my opinion, many functions are redundant. Or are needed by a very small number of suppliers (usually large manufacturers). I stopped using such a program because I realized that I was paying for functions that I didn’t use. But this is not certain :)

Qualification by available sites:

• They search only on federal sites. This is also “last century”. This is no longer enough
• searches on federal sites + some sites under 223-FZ. Definitely enough to get started. Typically this part includes the main sites. If you already have customers you are interested in under 223-FZ, before purchasing the program, check whether the site where they are located is included in the sites on which your program is searching
• searches on federal sites, sites under 223-FZ and commercial sites. This is, of course, the most interesting option. But not all beginners need this option.

How much do tender software cost?

The cost of tender programs varies (thanks, Cap).

Here are the tariffs for January 2018 from different companies. Please note that there is no point in comparing them based on tariffs, since they have a completely different set of services. Tariffs are shown so that you understand what costs are involved.

How to choose a tender program?

To help you decide which program to choose, consider the following questions:

1. What features in the program do you need?
2. How complex is your search? Are you searching only by keywords? Or according to OKPD2 too? Are you only interested in current tenders or are you also interested in future tenders? Do you need additional filters (search for procurement for SMEs, search for tenders without collateral, etc.)?
3. What's your budget?
4. What sites do you want to reach? Do you need commercial sites?
5. Do you work in a team and will there be a need to involve several additional people in the program?

• These are some of the easiest programs to learn. This is important. Instead of learning how to work in the program, it is better to spend time submitting more applications. After all, your goal is not a process, but a result. And the result is without large quantity You are unlikely to receive applications.
• The cost of these programs is quite affordable.
• The programs are reliable and work even when the purchasing.gov website is not working
• Very customer oriented guys. Especially in Tenderplan. They will always be willing to meet you and help you set up the program.
• User-friendly interface. This is, of course, subjective, but still.

Muftakhina Asya, tender consultant

Tikhonova Yulia Mikhailovna,

Development Department Specialist

Where to start searching for tenders

When I started my work in the tender department of DMSTR a year ago, I had no idea how and where to look for tenders that were interesting to any company. I can say that any practical knowledge comes only with experience.

Gradually you like new employee you begin to get acquainted with the basics of work in this area, and after just a couple of weeks you can easily master the official procurement portal of the Russian Federation, well known to tender specialists. Any employee, even those not related to the tender department, can learn to use it; you just need to understand what information you want to find. Thus, on the portal, any participant in placing an order or any company that monitors its market can find all the necessary information on procurement: information about current and completed purchases, find out tender participants, information about customers, competition winners, etc. There is also always the opportunity to download and study procurement documentation and procurement protocols. In fact, on the official website you can search for tenders for free without registration.

The site is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with the exception of the time of routine maintenance on the procurement site.

Summing up the first result, it can be noted that all the basic information on tenders and purchases conducted on the territory of the Russian Federation according to Federal laws 44-FZ and 223-FZ, “collected” and must be published on the government procurement website.

Here, through a quick or advanced procurement search, you can find information about the transaction you are interested in, about a specific customer, about contracts concluded and executed - i.e. You will be able to carry out full monitoring of tenders and procurements.

Programs and search engines for tenders and procurement

Next, we begin to observe that to make it easier for us to find a tender, numerous consulting companies are actively “stuffing” to help, offering and promising the most convenient and quick search competitive procedures that interest your company in special search engines, with the simplest and most convenient interface, at a unique price, and even with a discount that is valid only for the next week. But do not rush to agree and accept their terms.

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Firstly, every consulting company strives to offer you its tender search services with a guarantee of unique deals that no other search engine will recognize. In fact, no tender search system can guarantee any uniqueness. The only difference is the coverage of sites and portals with purchases from various customers. As a rule, our eyes are attracted by promising inscriptions such as: “All tender sites”, “We search for tenders on all sites”. But it is logically clear that searching for trades on all sites is as possible as embracing the immensity. Of course, tender systems are not searched for all, but only for a specific list of sites.

For example, the search engine Kontur.Purchases states: “We are searching on all major sites.” The main platforms are listed: Sberbank-AST, MICEX, EETP, RTS-tender, etc. And there is also a link to full list sites from which Kontur.Purchases collects information.

Not all search engines have such a convenient link with a complete list of portals and sites. But the manager of a given resource always has the opportunity to clarify this list.

Secondly, before deciding on a new “assistant” for searching tenders, you should always try out work in one or another system. As a rule, most systems allow you to do this - this is the so-called opportunity to work in test mode in one or another “search engine”.

Thus, the Tenderplan company declares on its website that the first 2 weeks of effective work are free. You can use this option by simply calling the phone number listed on the website, or leaving a request - in any case, you cannot avoid talking with the manager, and he will be able to answer all the questions that you may have during the work process.

In the following, we will try to highlight the main advantages and disadvantages of some search engines.

How to choose a search engine: functions and advantages of popular search engines

In fact, no tender search program will be an ideal substitute for manual selection of tenders. But still, search engines can help systematize and somehow simplify your work in this direction.

In fact, the main function of any search engine is an aggregation of all competitions published on those sites and platforms from which the search program collects information.

The second important function is the actual function of selecting the tenders you need. To do this, in almost any system you can search for tenders using keywords or find a tender by number. To do this, you set a new “key”, “filter”, “template”, “auto search” according to the parameters that meet your needs.

The parameters of the tender search program can be configured for a specific industry or category (i.e., taking into account the area and specifics of your company’s work). So, if your company supplies medical equipment, then most likely you will choose the category where the words “Medical goods, equipment and services”, “Supply of goods and equipment”, etc. will be present. Usually in any search engine you can find a list with similar categories. Sometimes this list is presented in a fairly large drop-down list, so you can easily find exactly your category.

Next, you can set search parameters taking into account the initial maximum price of the contract - also by setting restrictions in the corresponding column in the search engine. You can select regions of work, types of tenders (auctions, open tenders, requests for proposals, etc.) and even set up filters for specific customers by searching for tenders by Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN).

Another advantage of tender search systems is the setting up of sending information about tenders to your email. This function is available in almost any search engine and is convenient because, without having access to your personal account, You can open email and see what new competitions have come out on your topic. Some “search engines” also allow you to set up mailings about changes in tender documentation, etc. I think this option should be chosen at your own discretion, because by setting up many filters at once and choosing too frequent mailings, you can simply complicate your work and turn your mail into a repository for a large number of extra letters.

Based on my own experience, I would recommend setting up filters by category and keywords. As simple as possible, but clear, so that information from one filter is not duplicated in another and you do not have to view the same competitions several times.

Speaking about duplicating information in filters that you set up yourself, in a way that is convenient for you, I forgot to mention the function that some search engines also provide. This function is called differently: “Hidden tenders”, “Remote tenders”, etc. The meaning is the same - you can simply remove the tender that you are not interested in from the list by clicking a special button. This way, it will no longer pop up on your screen every time you view your configured filters.

Additional functionality: how to effectively use the tender aggregator

Almost any tender tracking program contains an option such as “Favorites”. It may also be called “My Tenders”, “Selected Tenders”, etc. In such a folder, you will always have at your fingertips the necessary information about the competitions that you are considering participating in, which require closer analysis. In some “search engines”, in addition to the “Favorites” function, it is possible to take a more detailed approach to the distribution of selected competitions by “Labels” or “Tags” - by one or another category.

For example, there is a competition that is interesting to participate in, but it is necessary that the draft contract be studied by a lawyer, and the technical specifications must be reviewed by an engineer. Create a label called “Study”, and all tenders that require improvement will be at your fingertips, you just need to open this label.

To simplify communication between employees regarding the preparation of a tender application, many tender sites have special features. And here special “chat rooms” were invented - the opportunity to leave your comments about a particular tender.

This is done in order to simplify the process of preparing an application and making decisions on all issues as much as possible.

In order not to forward to colleagues the necessary and important information for selected tenders, you can simply add your colleagues: “connect” them to the search engine so that they can also view tenders and give their comments on the procedures you have selected. This function can really be useful, especially for large companies, where the process of coordinating any current issues is quite labor-intensive and complex in terms of information transfer. In this case, using such “chat rooms” directly in the search engine, you will be able to make joint decisions online quite quickly and smoothly.

Additionally, “search engines” may also provide such a section as analytics, where you can see various dynamics and indicators: the percentage of competitors’ decline in certain competitions, analysis of customers and suppliers, etc.

So, summing up the above, we can highlight the main advantages of search engines:

1. Aggregation and collection of information from the sites of government and commercial customers.
2. Selection and distribution of tenders in accordance with the settings you have chosen and the needs of your company.
3. Ability to save information about selected tenders in special folders (“Marks”, “Tags”).
4. The ability to make decisions on a particular competition “online”, in special chats, together with colleagues.

But how can you choose your ideal assistant from the many search engines? I can say that, having tried several of these “search engines” in my work, I did not notice any particularly fundamental differences between them. You should choose, first of all, based on the ease of use of a specific search program.

A simple, intuitive interface and the range of search coverage are perhaps the most important factors when choosing an “assistant” in searching for tenders. And, of course, you need to remember the price of the issue. Such an assistant can cost from 12 to 30 thousand rubles. per year, while there are also free tender sites that allow you to search for auctions and trades in the same way.

The difference in cost is expressed only in the quantity you need additional functions, such as: analytics, the ability to upload procurement information into Excel, search for commercial tenders or search for government procurement (or general lists of customers).

To decide on the choice of search engine, read reviews about the procurement search systems you are interested in, take test period, work with the settings, with the search, try out all the functions and evaluate how justified their use is for you. Perhaps online chats will only “clutter” your workspace, and you will store all the necessary tenders in just one folder. Only you can evaluate the pros and cons of your “assistant”.

Answering the main question: will the auction search service simplify your work? I can answer: it will simplify. Therefore, if you have the opportunity to automate the selection of tenders, use it.

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