International Trade Centre Joins Hands With Tenders On Time

Whenever there is a requirement of goods and services from another vendor in a business, they usually follow procurement process to recognize a partner which best suits the needs. So as a part of this process an invitation for tenders is designed and issued.

An invitation to tender, also known as an ITT, is a formal procurement document that is issued by the buyer, inviting suppliers to bid for the contract of works they are looking to fulfil. This could be for the supply of either goods, services or works that the procurement authority (the buyer) requires. 

You can receive an invitation to tender notification either via email, an online portal like TendersonTime or via a traditional letter (though we don’t see many of those anymore). If it’s through an online method you can usually express an interest and download the documents and instructions which tell you everything you need to know. This will allow you to decide whether it is right for your business.  

Many a times you might not receive any invitation to tender notification because of which there are chances that the ITT would go unnoticed leading to losing business leads. Here this gap is been bridged by TendersonTime  and ensures you receive all tender notification on time.

What is TendersOnTime?

TenderOnTime is the best eTender Procurement portal for RFP’s, Bids and eTendering Operations. With 25+ years of experience, availing tenders from across 240 countries with 40,000+ new tenders getting published per day for Tender and procurement notices. 

Here you can browse through a huge bank of tenders be it Local or Global. Choose from various sectors within cities, states, countries and regions. That’s not it, you can also browse through tenders from various Geo-political corporations, Finance companies and various renowned tendering authorities making your tendering search crystal clear. 

What do they offer?

TendersOnTime makes the latest information on E-Procurement, RFP, RFQ, E-Tender, EOI and Government Tenders available to you with just a click. Tracking new business opportunities for you and provide you with tender and bidding leads online. Depending upon the plans that you subscribe for information with respect to online tenders, bidding opportunities and government contracts are availed to you. Initially you can start for free with their free subscription plan.

Since,15% (avg) of the national budget of any country is spent through Public Procurement? This opens up gigantic opportunities for investors and contractors. TendersonTime gives you a holistic online tender search experience where various types of tender notices like open tenders, procurement plan, procurement cycle, Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) Projects, Contract Awards, GPN (General Procurement Notice) and world business news and much more.

With the need to be more transparent and efficient in public procurement projects TendersOnTime have embraced eProcurement and eTendering opportunities. The private sector has not taken a back seat here, they have also championed ETendering opportunities on the global front. 

What do you get upon Subscription: 

You open up the tendering database making tenders and bidding projects accessible to you available throughout the world. Tenders like: Multilateral Funding Agency Tenders, Federal Tenders, National Tenders, Central Govt Tenders, State Govt Tenders, Country Tenders, EPC Tenders, Ministry Tenders, Utility Tenders, Defence Tenders, Middle East Tenders, Tenders from Africa, Medical Tenders, Oil and Gas Tenders, Consultancy Opportunities, Software Tenders, Software Projects, Online Tenders, Telecom Projects and Procurement Plans.

Important USP’s :

1. 50+ Years of Expertise in Bids and Tenders: Being in the industry for more than 50 years, the founders and the core team at TendersOnTime lead the way with their rich and cumulative expertise in Public Procurement Industry.
2. Daily updates of 50,000 + Tenders, Projects and Contract Awards: The TendersOnTime portal is daily updated with 50,000+ tender notices where all types of tender viz: EOI, public tenders, Projects and Contract Award information are covered. 
3. Daily Robust Tracking mechanism of 100,000 + Purchasers: TendersOnTime has left no source untapped.  With robust online tracking mechanism tenders are available from tenders sites, tender bulletin, auction sites, bidding websites, tender website, bidding sites, e procurement tenders list and portal of all procurement department.
4. Daily Scanning of 500+ Newspapers: Traditionally, the main source of tenders was the newspaper. You cannot be expected to track daily newspaper tendon notices. Hence, they make it possible by scanning 500+ Newspapers/e-papers and various Tender Gazettes on a daily basis.
5. Far-reaching geographical spread: TendersOnTime obeys ISO-3166 for evaluating countries and regions. They not only cover 200+ countries but also all the continents like: Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. 
6. Timely delivery of opportunities: As the brand name suggests, TendersOnTime lives upto it by delivering lucrative tender opportunities to the client in time. They proudly achieve this due to rigorous tracking methodologies and keeping up to date with latest technology advancements making them efficient in their service.
7. Wide sector coverage to choose from: Being the largest tender search portal online, TendersOnTime cannot afford to limit itself by being biased to certain sectors in the industry. Ensuring a very comprehensive sector coverage like: Defence, IT, Construction, Oil & Gas, Healthcare and much more.
8. Additional Bid Facilitation and Consultancy Services: They go extra mile by supporting their clients with end to end bid facilitation and consultancy services aiding them to participate in cross border projects. This is achieved due to their geographically spread local agents in more than 60 countries around the world.
9. Safely Covering All Funding Agencies and Donors: Suppliers prefer to participate in projects that are sturdily financed by multilateral/bilateral funding agencies and donor agencies. TendersOntime have more than 150 tie-ups with development banks. Not just that, they also hold a strong reputation with all the United Nations financial organisations. 

Due to its robust tracking mechanism leading to make it a Wikipedia of tenders, TendersonTime was successful in bagging the contract of International Trade Center(ITC).

International Trade Centre(ITC)

International Trade Centre(ITC) is a multinational agency associated with the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. They aim to do business in developing countries in order to become more competing in global markets, in order to speed up economic development and add achievements to the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals.

ITC established on 1st January 1968 is beneficial to the International Trade Information Centre, which the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) which was established in 1964 to boost exports of developing countries. It was a result of an agreement between GATT and then newly established UNCTAD to have a joint subsidiary in 1967. ITC’s main focus was to give technical assistance to the trade.

ITC is associated with various projects which provide trade technical assistance all over the world. 

ITC Goals

1. Bolster the ama Strengthen amalgamation of economies that are in transition into the global economy and the business sector of developing countries.
2. Upgrade conduct of trade and investment support institutions for the benefit of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
3. Upgrade international competitiveness of SMEs

ITC Funding
ITC aims to build competitiveness of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) internationally and also help them to connect to the markets for viable and comprehensive growth and job creation. International Trade Centre(ITC) works with micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), policymakers and trade and investment support institutions to ensure trade impact for good through its 100% Aid-for-Trade mandate. ITC conspires with various funders and strategic partners to deliver interventions. In addition to contributions from the Member States, ITC is supported by other United Nations organizations, regional organizations, multilateral partnerships and funds, multilateral financial institutions, the private sector, among other resource partners. ITC’s funders and resource partners provide both financial support and in-kind contributions, as well as knowledge sharing and technical expertise.

This reflects ITC’s belief that a cross-sectoral and coordinated approach is required to advance inclusive and sustainable economic development and to effectively achieve the United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development.

ITC priority countries
As said ITC focuses on developing countries for its trade technical assistance. It prioritizes project implementation in LDCs, LLDCs, SIDS, Sub-Saharan Africa, SVEs, post-conflict and fragile states. ITC has committed to spend at least 80% of its country-level assistance in these priority countries.

Least developed countries

ITC supports the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to enhance their participation in the world economy and realize development goals through exports. ITC contributes actively to the achievement of the objectives enshrined in the Istanbul Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries 2011-2020 in areas related to trade development and technical assistance focusing on export success for businesses. LDCs accounted for 55% of ITC’s delivery in 2011-2012 and ITC plans to further increase this percentage in the years to come.

Landlocked Developing Countries

Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) face many common challenges in relation to trade. Lacking territorial access to the sea and often contending with difficult topography and harsh climate, LLDCs face high trade costs. The geographic challenges to trade are often heightened by poor infrastructure, inefficient logistics systems and weak institutions, driving up transaction costs. Low product diversification, a greater concentration of commodity-based exports and complex procedural obstacles to trade add further layers of difficulty for LLDCs to integrate into the world trade system. Moreover, many LLDCs, especially in Africa, are also least developed countries (LDCs).

Small island developing states

Fluctuations in the global economy. Natural disasters. Climate change. These are but a few of the challenges that Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face when it comes to exports.

ITC works with SIDS to improve their export performance through regional collaboration, focused sectoral programs, institutional support and strengthening the private sector.

These countries are signatories to a multitude of international, regional and bilateral trade agreements in their concerted effort to deepen regional integration and greater participation in the globalized economy. ITC’s tailored program on business and trade policy works to demystify trade agreements from a business perspective. ITC also works to ensure that technical barriers to trade, as well as sanitary and phytosanitary measures, do not hinder countries from accessing the international markets.

Regions

Commonalities exist among many neighboring countries when it comes to trade and trade challenges. ITC, therefore, takes a regional approach to building export capacity when countries have similarities in resource endowment, production structures and infrastructure, and also when they have membership in regional economic initiatives. This approach promotes intraregional trade and South-South trade, two areas that can greatly benefit countries within the regions.

Sub-Saharan Africa
While multidimensional poverty remains high in sub-Saharan Africa, the continent's high growth rates and youthful demographics make it an attractive investment destination. Big opportunities exist to create jobs, boost incomes and reduce poverty by connecting African SMEs to international trade and increasing local value addition to Africa’s assets in agri-food, manufacturing and services.

ITC's focus areas

ITC delivers integrated solutions around a core set of six focus areas. These focus areas represent a coherent set of interventions with corresponding programs that are adapted and customized into client-focused solutions.

Providing Trade and Market Intelligence

ITC’s work in the area of trade and market intelligence is focused on:

• Enhancing global public goods as the foundation for trade and market intelligence;
• Strengthening the skills of local partners in effectively using trade and market intelligence to make business decisions;
• Working with local trade and investment support institutions to improve their trade and market intelligence-related portfolio of services;
• Developing new and innovative approaches to intelligence, including competitive intelligence;
• Facilitating evidence-based policy reform, with a focus on addressing non-tariff obstacles to trade in goods and services.

Building a conducive business environment

ITC helps developing countries and economies in transition build a more conducive business environment by:

• Supporting policymakers, TSIs and the private sector to implement the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement;
• Supporting public and private sector partners to lead the development of export strategies, and implementation management plans to make these strategies a reality;
• Facilitating the development of a stronger private sector voice in policy-making processes, including the WTO accession process;
• Strengthening local institutions for a sustainable, home-grown approach that embeds public-private partnerships in policy processes.

Strengthening trade and investment support institutions

To deliver trade impact for good, ITC depends on a network of TSIs that are both beneficiaries of the agency’s work and implementing partners, providing services to enhance the international competitiveness of SMEs. TSIs are organizations that support business, ranging from trade promotion organizations, chambers of commerce, sector associations, enterprise development agencies, supply chain management organizations, and others.

Promoting and mainstreaming inclusive and green trade

Increased trade alone is not sufficient to improve livelihoods. The benefits of trade growth do not necessarily reach vulnerable groups such as women, young people or marginalized communities, and excessive costs may be placed on the environment. ITC works with its clients to integrate sustainable development objectives into all its trade development programs while maintaining its focus on demand-led initiatives. The agency implements specific programs focused on the economic empowerment of women, promoting youth entrepreneurship, connecting poor communities to value chains, and promoting green trade. ITC also integrates environmental sustainability and gender objectives across its entire portfolio.

Supporting regional economic integration and South-South links

ITC helps contribute to stronger regional economic integration and South-South links through:

• Strengthening the institutional infrastructure for regional integration, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa;
• Connecting demand and supply between emerging markets;
• Exploring new modes of partnerships to enable growth markets to support trade development in other developing countries.

The growing importance of multi-country value chains has made logistical efficiency critical to enterprises’ ability to trade and especially for SMEs which are affected to a greater extent by inefficiencies in cross-border movement of goods and services. In this context, the ITC is working with developing countries and especially the least developed amongst them to help them take full advantage of the recent WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement to enhance their competitiveness through:

• Assistance in the categorization of the TFA provisions
• Support in the national ratification process
• Development of project proposals to seek technical and financial assistance for the implementation of Category C provisions
• Strengthening of National Trade Facilitation Committees
• Implementation of TFA provisions including through partnerships with other international organizations
• Awareness-raising among public and private stakeholders

Tenders, E-tendering + procurement, E-procurement

What is a Tender?

A tender is an invitation to bid for a project or obtain a formal offer such as an acquisition bid (Takeover bid). The process of Tendering usually refers to the process whereby various governments and financial institutions invite bids for large projects which must be submitted within the deadline date. Based on the goods & services to be procured through tenders, they are categorized by the following types:

• Work Contract Tenders 
• Goods Tenders
• Service Tenders 
• Project Tenders

Types of tenders:

Various types of procedures are to be adopted for the purchase of goods, services, works and projects. This depends on the types of goods & services, their frequency of purchase, and other specifications. Based on the availability of tenders such as “Who” can participate for tenders, these are further classified into:

• Open Tenders: Whichever contractor can engage in such kinds of tenders. It is a kind of Post evaluation method where at the time of Bid Opening his capabilities are checked to execute the given works.
• Limited Tenders: These are tenders that are valid only for approved bidders who can participate in these tenders. It is a close circle of tenders where competition is among the pre-qualified bidders.
• Single Tenders: These are tenders when only a single source of supply is available and only a single tender is addressed to a selected supplier.
• Global Tender: These tenders are open to everybody from any part of the world to supply the required quantity and quality of materials.

What is E- tendering? 

The manual tender process can be long and cumbersome and is often too costly. Therefore replacing the manual tendering process with that of the electronic medium has become the need of the time. E-tendering is an internet-based process within which the complete tendering process; from advertising to receiving and submitting the tender-related information, is done online. This would enable the firms to be more efficient as paper-based transactions are reduced or eliminated which would facilitate a more speedy exchange of information.

Benefits of E- tendering 

1. Spend Visibility: Implementing an e- tendering system benefits all levels of an organization. These systems offer improved spend visibility and control and help finance officers match purchases with purchase orders, receipts and job tickets.
2. Cost Effective: Its costs are low as compared to traditional paper-based response process and have an easy-to-use software interface that enables simplified tender and procurement process for both, suppliers and procurement officers.
3. Round-the-clock Access: E-Tendering leads to quick and easy access to tendering information. It also helps in regular reminders of important deadlines in the tender award process which in turn provides more secure access to tender information than the traditional hard copy process.
4. Data Privacy is taken care of: Responses from suppliers remain secure and privileged until the closing date which aids in privacy.
5. Transparent Communication: All communications can be tracked in a clear legally binding audit trail which enables transparency and smooth flow of information.

E-tenders in the public sector has seen rapid growth in recent years. E-procurement projects are often part of the country’s larger e-Government efforts to better serve its citizens and businesses in the digital economy.

What is Procurement?

Procurement is an exercise of buying and selling goods and services from a third-party vendor or supplier which is also known as external sourcing or outsourcing. Even when it comprises two companies that are the buyer and the seller, the act of buying is known as procurement and not the selling.

The activities that are involved in procurement are listed below:

• Vendor Selection
• Payment Negotiation
• Strategic Vetting
• Final Selection
• Contract Negotiation
• Final Purchase

Steps in the procurement process

Procurement is not only about handling a company's credit card and payments for purchases but it's even more to it. For example, a procurement strategy is considered to be effective only if it includes the steps involved in the procurement process right from identifying which goods and services the company needs for its betterment and growth till it receives and inspects the delivered goods.

Following are the steps that are involved in the procurement process:

1.       Identify which goods and services the company needs.
2.       Submit a purchase request.
3.       Assess and select vendors.
4.       Negotiate price and terms.
5.       Create a purchase order.
6.       Receive and inspect the delivered goods.
7.       Conduct three-way matching.
8.       Approve the invoice and arrange payment.
9.       Conduct record keeping

Why is procurement important in business?

It is important as it has a direct effect on the profit margin of the company. A company can state they are in profit if the cost of their procuring goods and services is less than the amount it sells those goods for excluding the price associated with processing and selling it.
Latest technology trends have improved global connectivity which has seen a spurt in business conducted around the globe online. Additionally, the pandemic situation we currently sail through has encouraged every business to go virtual. Therefore, the supply chain procedure has embraced this switch keeping in mind the benefits of both buyers and sellers in the procurement cycle. 

What is E-Procurement?
E-procurement is the process of buying and selling supplies and services via online mediums using the internet. When implemented with utmost precision, e-procurement enables a smooth flow of communication between a company and a supplier by creating a direct link and facilitating interactions such as bids, purchase orders and emails.

What are the Benefits of E-Procurement?

E-procurement offers valuable benefits compared to the traditional procurement management procedure, they include:

1. Cost Savings: Similar to the benefit of E-tendering the Built-in monitoring tools under E-procurement helps suppliers and bidders to control costs and maximize performance, reducing overhead and paperwork. Being a fully automated system enables businesses to streamline processes and can result in a faster cycle from creating an order to fulfillment. 
2. Shorter Purchasing Cycles: Once transactions are centralized, tracking them becomes a simpler process like: reporting on orders, payments, and requisitions. Additionally, these systems also ensure contract compliance with its automated checklists. All these procedures when manually done can spread the purchase cycle directly affecting delivery time. Buyers have electronic access to available products, services, and prices shortening the purchase cycle.
3. Boost Inventory Control: Procurement professionals can quickly locate products from preferred suppliers online along with the set limitations of purchases they can make as per budgets allocated, so inventory is better controlled.
4. Fosters Transparency: All information is centralized and can be made available to All the parties involved in the procurement procedure like management, stakeholders, shareholders or the public, with its set privacy limitations.