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To tender or not to tender? What’s the best approach when you’re faced with sorting your business mobile contract?

07 Apr 2021

Organising your business mobile contract as a small to medium-sized business can be a daunting task. As the IT or finance director, it may fall to you to deal with it, but you don’t really have the time or resources to spend on searching out the best deal. And, as the business mobile market is non-transparent, it’s hard to directly compare different supplier options or even know the right questions to ask.

You know getting the right mobile contract for your business and budget is important, but is it worth the time and effort of going through a competitive tender process with various suppliers or can you get what you need simply by going straight to a network? And why add to your workload, if you can just renew the contract with your existing supplier?

Sticking with the status quo

There can be good reasons to stick with your existing business mobile contract supplier:

• It works well for business continuity.
• You save time and hassle at contract renewal time.
• It’s an established, known relationship.

But there are disadvantages:

• You’re giving yourself no choice – you can’t compare the proposed contract with what you could get from other suppliers.
• Another supplier could give you a better service at a better price.
• Other suppliers could be keeping up with market innovations that could benefit your business.
• You may end up spending time contacting other suppliers for quotes anyway in order to pressurise your existing supplier on price.

Comparing networks

You might decide to go straight to a network or use a comparison website. Again, it’s a straightforward, quick option for you with known suppliers and benefits from an easy online interaction and process. However, business mobile comparison websites come from the consumer market and don’t understand the complexities of your business needs, don’t have the business mobile expertise and data analysis to give you a bespoke result. And they can focus on price at the expense of other key business issues such as future needs.

Going to tender

There are clearly advantages to putting your business mobile contract out for competitive tender to a range of suppliers:

• You gain a better understanding of what’s on offer in the market.
• You have the opportunity to get more for your money.
• You have more control and choice over which supplier you go with and what your money gets you.

But there are downsides:

• Going to tender can take longer.
• It can be complicated and requires effort to put together.
• Choosing a new supplier can be risky as you don’t know anything about them.
• Different suppliers can respond in different ways, making it difficult to make direct comparisons.

The hassle factor

Even if you’d ideally like to put the contract out to tender, it can seem too complicated and demanding a process given the other demands on your time. You don’t have the resources or comms expertise to research the market, or to carry out analysis of your current mobile use. Faced with spreadsheet overload and hassled by suppliers, you can’t make true comparisons and have to make a best guess on which to choose.

But there is an easier way to put your business mobile contract out to tender.

We can help

At Predict Mobile, our automated, intelligent tendering platform for business mobiles gives suppliers the right information to quote on and you a true like-for-like comparison, so you can make the best choice for your business needs. And all at no cost to you.

Data-led understanding

The foundation for the right tender outcome starts with a proper analysis of your mobile usage so you can understand exactly what you need and what you’re asking suppliers for. Otherwise, they’re competing for the wrong thing, and that’s no good for you.

Our system automatically deals with the complex and time-consuming data analysis, ensuring you have clear insight into your mobile data and business usage from the start.

This accurate data focus, coupled with our deep industry knowledge and experience, underpins the whole process. Your tender is based on your precise needs and the system marks, ranks and recommends suppliers for you, making it easy for you to see what’s on offer.

Easy tender process

We simplify the tender process, which can be easily completed in 3 steps:

1. We analyse your bills.

2. We use our analysis and your highlighted requirements to create your tender.

3. Once your tender is live on the platform, suppliers will start submitting their proposals. They know they’re competing with one another, so they will come in with their best offer to try and win your business. With our industry insight and experience, our system checks and ranks the proposals, enabling you to easily compare the tender responses and see which one is best for your business needs.

You benefit from:

• Clear comparison – Suppliers are competing for your business and we lay out a side-by-side comparison so you can see exactly what each supplier is offering.
• Freedom of choice – You have the complete freedom to choose which supplier you want to go with. We show you the data, but the choice is yours.
• Automation – You only do this once and the platform does it for you when your contract is up for renewal.

We realise organising a tender for your business mobile contract may not be a priority for your business, and we understand why, with the time and effort a tender demands. But by going straight to a network, or renewing with your current supplier, you’re not giving your company the best chance to find the right deal. Your contract could last as long as 36 months. Can you afford to be in the wrong contract for that long?

By making the tender process so much clearer, easier and precise, Predict Mobile opens up the tender option for you, enabling you to make informed choices on the best mobile solution for your business. You save time and hassle, and get the right mobile result. Plus it’s free to use. Sounds like a good result all round.