Selecting Move Management Suppliers – Information to give potential respondents to your Tender

As part of Bournes Relocation Solutions series of articles “Guidelines for a Successful Move Management Tender” here we discuss information that an organisation should try to provide potential suppliers in order to encourage the strongest, best value responses.

A tender should minimise the number of questions raised with suppliers and should all together eliminate ambiguity and confusion. A proven approach is by prefacing the tender with an executive summary, describing the background, scope and desired outcome of the tender process.

Background

Even though it may be apparent what the company does, even in case of an existing relationship between the client and suppliers, it is important to provide the appropriate background information to the suppliers. The better the respondents understand the rationale behind the tender, the more accurately they can address specific needs.

Historical Data

In order to obtain best value from your supplier and to protect you from hidden costs once a contract has been signed, it is essential that a detailed picture of potential traffic lanes and volume is built up.

  • Traffic lanes – which traffic lanes are your employees moving along and for each lane what is the volume of traffic and their demographic? For example a total of 30 international moves in a year, 90% between London and New York of which 40% are couples, 50% singles and the remaining 10% families. Even though history may not accurately reflect the future it is a potential indication, and of course it is valuable to provide any additional information on anything major that is changing in your organisation that could affect this area during the contract.
  • Allowances – If your policy is tiered (for example through demographic, position or length of assignment factors) then it is important to detail allowances for your employees, for example: single people have a volume allowance of 25m3, couples 30m3 and families 60m3. These allowances are used as an average to calculate the quote. Don’t forget to also include allowance details for exceptions (such as additional dismantling services, vehicle allowances, levels of packing etc.) to give the most accurate picture of what the relocation will involve.

Scope

The second element that needs to be considered when developing a tender is the scope: Three elements are important when setting the scope of a tender for moving services, the emphasis of the tender questions for each being different:

  • Size of outsourcing package and Supplier Model. Different levels of outsourcing are possible, from tasking an individual moving company to carry out a number of moves in a certain region, through move management and assignment management companies, all the way to HR outsourcing firms that take over an entire HR operation
  • Relocation vs. moving. Relocation represents an entirely different set of activities than moving household goods, even though a combination of both is usually required when sending employees abroad. Specialist companies exist for both activities individually as well as those that provide both services as a single source.
  • Geographical area. It is important to understand one’s organisation’s structure as this will drive which outsourcing approach works best. If the organisation is controlled centrally, then interfacing with one or two global suppliers will yield the best results. If the organisation is made up out of largely independent local entities, than working with an assignment management company might be the better solution, rather than trying to streamline a myriad of local contracts.
Bournes Relocation Solutions

To arrange a free consultation with one of Bournes Relocation Solutions Move Management experts contact us on 0845 070 2007 or email [email protected]

These guidelines are based on best practice information produced originally by the UniGroup Worldwide UTS global network of which Bournes Relocation Solutions are a local UK representative.

You can download the full white paper “Guidelines for a Successful Move Management Tender” including what information to give suppliers, what information to ask from suppliers (And how) and our best practice tips for the process here www.bournesmoves.com/relocation

 

Sectors: Business Services
Topics: Employees
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