It has been tender central at the day job recently with the sales teams answering multiple tenders from corporate and government clients. It has meant long hours and frustration for everyone with the promise of extra business if we win. Statistics suggests that we will win 1 in 3. Over my time in IT I have seen hundreds of tenders come and go and I wonder why companies bother with the process. The decision process for a critical business system is so complex that trying to define it in a requirements document is unrealistic, and generally limiting.

Every now and then I see a company that is smart and puts out a very simple request that states what the outcome they want is and describes the existing environment. Rather than try and build complex tenders that try and cover every possible contingency and question that might come up they allow the vendors the freedom to come up with their own solution to the problem. In the end isn't that what you want from your vendor? If you know how to do things better than them you would do it yourself.

I would struggle to list a single complex tender that I have seen that has delivered a better or cheaper result than could have been gained by making the decision another way.