Buyer’s

The first question this prompts is ‘why don’t they know?’ In some respects, it’s obvious. The very
fact that they are seeking to procure services is that they don’t have the means to deliver those
services themselves. The client therefore needs to bring in an expert within that particular field.
Many event organisers will testify to the fact that once they have engaged a particular service
provider, they often allow that provider to lead the discussion as to what the event requires.
In short, they tap into to that person’s expertise.
So when it comes to the procurement process, why write a complicated tender document if
you don’t fully understand what will need delivering? To put it another way, if your boiler broke
down at home, would you try and research boiler engineering in order to create a written
tender document, or would you simply phone up some specialists and ask them to come and
diagnose the problem? In context, if you know nothing about how to light a main stage at a
festival, why spend the time writing a tender document for lighting companies to fill in?
Inevitably the words ‘local authority’ will creep into this whole discussion. Regardless
of the nature of the service - be it roadworks, playground equipment, or a mobile
stage for an event – if it’s being driven by a local authority then there are certain
boxes that have to be ticked. That said, can the procurement process – even
in local authorities - be changed? When asked the question during the podcast,
Mike Richmond’s answer was simple.
Procurement
with the Event
Industry – are
we complicating a
simple process?
Procurement. The act of obtaining
or buying goods and services. The
process includes preparation and
processing of a demand as well as the
end receipt and approval of payment. It is
also a word that strikes fear into the heart
of many an event professional. Why?
Well, because according to one expert, many
people don’t actually know what they want.
Last year the Talking Events podcast produced by Event Industry News
published an episode featuring Mike Richmond, the well-known director
of Richmond Events Management (REM). In the episode, he talked
candidly about the whole process of procurement and his own experiences
of the process.
“REM has done thousands of tenders over the years”, said Mike. “We’ve
completed them and we’ve set them. The difficulty with events is that it’s often
difficult to say precisely what you want. You sometimes get the feeling that
tender documents are written so [vaguely] that the client doesn’t really know
what they need.”
“I don’t think it can. Tenders are one of two things: very open minded
because they (the client) don’t really know what they want, or very
detailed because they’ve just used the specs from the guy that did
the job before. There’s very little in between.”
Mike also points out that he knows of several companies that
won’t bother filling in tender documents anymore because of
the amount of time it consumes and the fact that they often
don’t get any form of response. This means that if you
choose to issue a complicated, time-consuming tender
document in order to source some toilets, then you
are potentially missing out on the services of a
better supplier.
So, instead of a convoluted procurement
process that could still leave you
without knowing exactly what you
want, why not just keep it
simple? Pick up the phone
to an expert and
speak to them.
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