This week we focus on an Irish technology company called Tenderscout. Tenderscout has developed technology that enables businesses focused on public sector work and growth through public contracts to maximise their chances of winning the work. They contest that their platform is a way to scale through significant but manageable organic growth. A growth hack that doesn’t involve endless paperwork for modest grants or bank loans. We caught up with its CEO, Tony Corrigan and asked him about Tenderscout and what it can do for business as a growth hack.
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Keystone: Who or what is TenderScout?
Tenderscout: At TenderScout, we help businesses win more State contracts. We have designed a software platform that gathers up to 15,000 tenders daily from more than 1,000 different sources across the globe. Our system helps our customers understand how they can realistically aim at winning opportunities that suit their business. We are based in Dublin city centre but also have offices in the UK, USA and Canada. We launched the business in 2013.
Keystone: How are you different to other tender notification platforms?
Tenderscout: I think we are different in four significant ways:
- There are a few companies that list tenders from around the world, and there are companies that will help businesses put their proposals together. We do both;
- We make a point of sharing all of our insights into public procurement with our customers to demystify the tender process;
- We actively target SMEs to educate them about tenders and encourage them to compete; and
- Most importantly of all, our platform provides customers with a lead qualification system. Not only does this system enhance our customers’ win rates by 70% on average, but it also reduces the cost of submitting a tender proposal by up to 50%. This is why it can be a growth hack for businesses.
Keystone: Why do you think the product is needed?
Tenderscout: It’s a captive market. What I mean by that is that no matter what is happening in the political climate, governments will always need to procure goods and services from businesses. We work closely with the kinds of suppliers that governments want to buy from. We are in partnership with the companies that want to win this kind of work. When they work with us, they can identify prospective opportunities, use our lead qualification system and then avail of support / advice to go on to win contracts. While the State needs a certain amount of bidders, companies that use our platform properly are unlikely to bid for work they are poorly placed to win. This drives benefits for those companies but also for buyers who have fewer ill-matched bids to process.
Keystone: What is your target market for your product?
Tenderscout: There are large companies using our services. This said, our target market is primarily SMEs. Governments actively want to procure from this segment (in the USA, at least 23% of tenders have to be awarded to SMEs by law and, in Europe, c. 56% of tenders are won by SMEs). European regulation (the 2014 procurement directives) underpins the importance of SMEs in sustaining employment across the EU as well as the lead role they play in delivering asymmetrical benefits like local expertise, innovation, creativity and motivated owner/managers that are personally vested in delivering high performance.
Keystone: What kinds of successes have you had with your customers and as a company to date?
Tenderscout: We have worked with a huge range of companies in Ireland and our overseas markets to help them win tenders. It’s empowering for these great businesses to realise that they have the ability to compete successfully for tenders. Naturally, client confidentiality means we can’t disclose who we have worked with.
Internally, I think winning the Grand Prix Award at the eir Spiders in December 2016 was great for TenderScout. It closed a busy year of growth for us on a high note!
Keystone: Where do you see the company going?
Tenderscout: We have a very clear medium term plan. We focus strongly on this. Our main aim is to become the dominant choice in tender technology and to grow our revenues to €35 million per annum within the next five years.
We need a strong, talented and driven team to make this happen. We have a lean, dynamic team of eight people from seven countries. People have their own areas of responsibility but, like any small business, let alone startup, it’s every shoulder to the wheel when there is a key task to be done. On a day to day basis, there is a lot of good humour and a sense of positivity in the mission that we’re all working on.
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Keystone Procurement want to thank Tony Corrigan of Tenderscout for his time in explaining what Tenderscout is doing and changing in the public contracts space. People can contact Tony through LinkedIn or via the company details on www.tenderscout.com.
Finding Public tenders
Over 100 tenders issue every week, we have been tracking these tenders for nearly two years now and know that almost all industries and sectors have opportunities. Opportunities present in almost every conceivable category of good or service.
Keystone recommends:
www.etenders.ie – register to obtain the latest tenders from State bodies
www.supplygov.ie – the latest lower value tenders for trades / supplies from local authorities
www.tenderscout.com – a tender engine highlighting opportunities in Ireland and overseas
