HOW TO TRACK EVERY TENDER WITHOUT FORGETTING ANYTHING?

Tenders & deadlines

Discover how M-Files organizes every tender: file, deadlines, approvals, submission and archiving.

Galaxy Conseils • Banks & companies

At Société Alpha, Aïcha would never let an interesting tender go by. Yet on this particular day, the bank publishes a call for tenders for equipment, and the information arrives in an email sent to several people.

Yannick, the salesman, saves the specifications on his computer. Carine prepares the administrative documents in a shared folder. The financial offer circulates as email attachments, in three versions, between Yannick and Aïcha. Everyone thinks someone else is watching the deadline.

The evening before, they discover that an administrative document is out of date, and that the latest version of the financial offer is not the one that was reviewed. They rush, correct, and submit at the last minute.

A rushed submission, a fragile file, and Aïcha wonders how many opportunities are lost this way, not for lack of skill, but for lack of a process.

The problem: a tender means many documents and a deadline

The principle: one file and one workflow per tender

Each tender becomes a file in which everything is gathered: documents, deadline, status and the people involved. The file follows a simple workflow: in preparation, in approval, submitted. At every step, everyone knows what remains to be done.

The same tender, with M-Files

Let's revisit the bank tender story, with M-Files.

1. Spot. Upon receipt, the tender is registered as a file, with its title, its issuer and its submission deadline.

2. Prepare. Specifications, administrative documents, technical offer and financial offer are gathered in the file, and their versions are tracked.

3. Approve. Carine checks the documents, Aïcha approves the offer. The status changes to “In approval”, then the approval is recorded.

4. Submit. A notification reminds the team of the deadline as the cut-off date approaches. The team submits the offer, and the status changes to “Submitted”.

5. Archive. The submitted offer, its documents and the tracking remain archived in the file, easy to find for the next tender.

This time, nobody discovers the problem the evening before: the deadline was visible from day one, and the right version of the offer was the one that had been approved.

Why M-Files is different

M-Files does not just store documents: it tracks their status and their dates. A tender “in approval” or “to be submitted in 5 days” is visible without anyone having to remind others by email.

Let's be clear about what M-Files does and does not do: it organizes the file, the approvals and the reminders. It does not submit the offer for you on the issuer's portal, and it does not guarantee that an offer will be selected. Deadline reminders are configured according to your rules.

Once the file is archived, it becomes a working base: reusable documents, approval history, comparable offers.

And what about you?

Ask yourself this question:

For each tender currently under way, do you know today who is watching the deadline and which version was approved last?

If the answer depends on someone's memory, the risk of oversight is real.