The planning error seen most often in tender files is to begin thinking about translation after the notice has been published. The time between the notice and the submission deadline is fixed, and that time is not set aside for translation alone.
A fixed date turns planning upside down
In ordinary jobs the start is known and the end is calculated. In a tender the end is known and the start is calculated. This reversed set-up is the place where teams that plan out of habit go wrong most often.
A part of the file is ready before the notice
Company documents, registry records, work experience certificates and financial statements do not depend on the notice. When these are translated and certified before the season, only the technical bid remains after the notice.
Counter-view: early translation may go to waste
There is a possibility of not entering the tender, and a translation done in advance may not be used. This is true, but company documents are not specific to one tender; they are translated once and are used again in later tenders. The effort that goes to waste is less than is supposed.
The certification steps stand separately in the schedule
If notarisation or an apostille is needed, these begin after the translation and require their own time. When they are all put in the same bag, the schedule holds on paper and does not hold in practice.
An addendum resets the schedule
A change that comes to the file later can increase the volume and makes the previous calculation invalid. The countdown has to be repeated on the day the change is received; a plan that was made once and put aside silently goes wrong here.
The terminology list is the lasting gain of the season
Organisations that enter more than one tender in the same sector meet the same concepts in every file. A terminology list set up at the start of the season lowers the number of queries in every later file.
The specification may also describe the translation
Some specifications state clearly in what form and with what certification level the documents are to be submitted. A translation decision taken without reading these conditions leaves the file defective in terms of form, even if its content is flawless. The specification is the first document to be read.
The technical bid is the section that becomes final last
Company documents are fixed, whereas the technical bid is written specifically for the tender and generally takes its final form in the last few days. The bottleneck of the schedule is in this section, and the plan too is built for this section.
One file is the input of the next
In tenders entered one after another in the same sector, the technical bids resemble one another to a large extent. When the translation of the previous file has been taken into the translation memory, the match rate in the next file rises noticeably and the turnaround shortens.
The validity period of the documents is checked
Some registry records and similar documents are not accepted when they are older than a certain period. A document translated before the season may have lost its freshness by the time the notice is published; for this reason the early preparation list is divided according to the validity period.
Takeaway
The time to be gained in a tender schedule lies not after the notice but before the season. Having the company documents translated in advance, showing the certification steps separately in the schedule and setting up the terminology list at the start of the season ensure that, when the notice is published, only the real work is left in hand.