Tender software: do I pay a subscription or have my own built?
We build AI systems for tender offices that put the history of offers and the company’s know-how at the team’s disposal, to support the analysis of bid documents and the preparation of new technical offers. You pay for the system once and it stays with the company. The tender feed stays on a fee: we explain that below.
A tender SaaS gives you bid monitoring and a standard way of working, in days and on a fee. A custom system reads bid documents with your own history of offers, your prices and your certifications, and stays with the company. It is worth it when tenders weigh on revenue, the archive is large and the fee exceeds €15,000 a year. Bid monitoring stays on a fee either way.
What a custom system does for the tender office.
It works on the documents, where the time goes. Four things, in the order they come up in a tender.
One rule: the AI retrieves, proposes and writes; whoever signs the offer decides. When it does not know something, it says so and points to where to look.
- 01
Reads the bid documents
Mandatory requirements, deadlines, penalties, scoring criteria, in one sheet with a reference to the page of the call.
- 02
Searches the history
Similar offers, won and lost, with outcomes, discounts and the notes of whoever wrote them. It finds the right document and cites where it comes from.
- 03
Drafts the first version
The technical offer starts from previous tenders, with certifications, CVs and references up to date. Whoever writes the offer corrects it instead of starting over.
- 04
Checks the envelope
Missing documents, expired dates, inconsistencies between technical and financial parts, before submission.
What stays on a fee, and what does not.
Let us say it first, because it is the first question on a call.
- Monitoring the portals and alerting on new calls is a data service. Rebuilding it makes no sense: you keep a subscription to a tender feed, from a few hundred to a few thousand euros a year.
- Working on the documents is a different matter. Reading the bid, searching the history, drafts, checks: here the custom system wins, because it knows your company and the SaaS does not.
- The system connects to the tender feed you choose and to the management software you use. Nobody copies anything from one platform to another.
So you do not “replace the SaaS”: you keep the data part on a fee and have the part that matters built, the one that knows who you are.
Subscription or a tender-office system, criterion by criterion.
Words, not ticks. Every row can be checked in the contract.
| Criterion | Tender SaaS | Custom system |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the software | The vendor. You hold a licence to use it. | The company. Code and documentation delivered. |
| Where offers and prices live | On the vendor’s platform, on its terms. | Wherever you decide with your IT team. Documents are read, not used to train models. |
| The history | It sees the tenders you upload from the day you start. | It starts from your archive: years of offers, outcomes and discounts. |
| Who decides the features | The vendor, for all its customers. | Your office, tender after tender. |
| The tender feed | Included in the fee. | Separate, with the subscription you prefer. |
| How you pay | A yearly fee, often per user. | A fixed price once. Support on a fee only if you want it. |
When the SaaS is the better choice.
- If you bid on few tenders a year and none really weighs on revenue.
- If you have no archive of offers to start from.
- If you need it on Monday.
- If nobody, in house or outside, wants to run it after delivery.
In those cases we tell you on the call. We do not propose a project that is not worth it.
How we work.
We start from about ten tenders, not from the whole archive.
- 01
Two hours with whoever writes the offers
We collect about fifteen real questions: the ones you ask today to the colleague who remembers everything.
- 02
Written proposal
Fixed price, timeline and who does what, before we start.
- 03
The test on the sample
About ten closed tenders, won and lost, chosen by you. We check whether the system finds the right document, cites the source and says “I don’t know” when it should.
- 04
Full archive and handover
We connect the history, the tender feed and your management software, document the system and agree on support, if you want it.
The questions we get on calls.
Is it an alternative to tender SaaS products?
It is another road. Tender SaaS products give you bid monitoring and a standard way of working, on a subscription. We build for your office a system that works on your own history and stays yours. They often coexist: the tender feed stays on a fee, the document work moves to the system.
How much does it cost?
It depends on how many tenders you bid on, how large the archive is and what we connect. Production software starts at €12,000; for a structured tender office the project usually sits around €25,000, at a fixed price written in the proposal. Support is separate and only if you want it.
Where do financial offers and prices end up?
Wherever you decide with your IT team: your cloud or your server. The system reads the documents to answer; no document is used to train a model.
How long does it take?
The test on the sample in two or three weeks. The system in production on the first process in 4-8 weeks. If you need it on Monday, the SaaS is the right choice.
Do we still need a tender feed?
Yes. Monitoring the portals is a data service worth buying, not rebuilding. The system connects to the feed you prefer.
What if it does not work out?
That is what the test on the sample is for. If the system does not find the right documents on your ten tenders, you stop there, with a two-page report and no fee to cancel.
How many tenders do you bid on a year?
Tell us how many tenders you follow, how many of you there are and which tool you work with today. Within 24 hours we reply with a few questions and a first idea of the project.