At BizVision, we're delighted to announce our new brand FreeLearn and with it comes a collection of online learning and skills hubs giving every business total free membership with access to 100's of learning videos and resources. Here's the FreeLearn launch news.

Free online learning for all businesses

"FreeLearn Leadership and FreeLearn Sales Training are now live," says Malcolm Gallagher of BizVision, " And launching on the 23rd August will be FreeLearn Supplier Training," he added

Mr Gallagher went on to say that FreeLearn will help thousands of small businesses who cannot afford to take time out from work for training and struggle to pay seminar fees.

"With public sector funding cuts, many businesses now find they have to pay for workshops that used to be free, or there just aren't any around, " continued Malcolm Gallagher, "with FreeLearn, which is online learning, all businesses can learn as they want, anytime, anywhere", he said.

FreeLearn Leadership focuses on developing entrepreneurial leadership skills whilst FreeLearn sales Training has videos in the three zones of Find, Winning and Keeping customers. FreeLearn Suppliers Training is aiming to be the flagship of the FreeLearn collection as it will have nearly 100 videos and resources to help SMEs bid for a win public and private sector contracts and encourage them to go global and export.

FreeLearn skills hubs are open to anyone. Each hub requires a separate  but free, membership sign-up. For details go to FREELEARN - free membership

In January, UK Government released an initiative which has to be good if you are a small firm wanting to win public sector contracts - but only if you are willing to do some measurement writes Malcolm Gallagher.

From the Spring of 2010, pubic procurement officers will have to show the OGC (Office of Government Commerce) the value of the contracts they have placed with small and medium sized enterprises. But they will also have to monitor and measure how many apprenticeships have been created through public procurement and the absolute number of suppliers who agreed to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition, suppliers (vendors) will be asked to sign a new Supplier Charter which places voluntary commitments on both the procurer and supplier side take forward the policy priorities that are in the new Policy Through Procurement Action Plan (PtP).

If all this sounds a bit complicated then can you imagine its implementation!! But the message to all suppliers is clear. If you want your share of the near £200 billion UK Government annual spend on goods and services, you are going to have to embrace the aspects of compliance, including inclusion, health and safety and environmental matters, much more than ever before. within our Biz-Pulse.com programme.

In the SpotLearn.com Suppliers Academy are all the videos that you need to help you be a compliant suppliers and we are soon to launch a new Compliance Scorecard that will help you measure and manage these challenges. E-mail if you want to get early details.

If you want a copy of the Policy Through Procurement Action Plan please e-mail kim@bizvision.co.uk and she'll e-mail you it. Improve your knowledge, embed compliance and sharpen your ability to compete to win has to be key goals for 2010 if you want your share of those lucrative public procurement contracts.

The Magic Bid Triangle© of Winning Tenders

Now is the time to ramp up the competitiveness of your organisation to win public sector contracts and the Magic Bid Triangle can bring you a winning edge writes Malcolm Gallagher of The Suppliers Academy.

If you have attended my procurement workshops you will have heard me say many times, (too many times??!!) that winning is not about “filling the tender form in”. That’s just paperwork which anyone can do. You need to be focused on winning the contract.

So how to get a winning edge. First you need to get “Get Fit to Compete”. That is just the first of what I term as the three stages of winning. The next two stages are “Competing to Win” and “Aiming Higher” and that’s where I want to take you in this blog.

My belief is that the secret of success lies within what I term as the Magic Bid Triangle©. The triangle is three components which are truly embedded in your organisation.

I’ve arrived at this triangle as a result of our continuous work of interviewing and working with over 100 buyers across the UK and studying winning bids. So the Magic Bid Triangle is not all theory!

The three components of the triangle that need to be embedded in your organisation are:

• ·         Innovation
• ·         Added Value
• ·         Continuing Improvement

When all three come together and shine out of your tender then you are truly about winning tenders. Here’s  just a quick indication of what’s behind each three.

Innovative suppliers or providers are sought by the public sector. Whilst they welcome new suppliers they really don’t want more of the same. Show your difference and what that innovation can do to help improve their services to their customers – internal or external. Innovation isn’t about re-inventing the wheel. It doesn’t have to be revolutionary but it does have to show your difference.

Added Value is a recurring theme within my conversation with buyers. There is always opportunity for you to communicate added value and improve the efficiency of their spend. Do remember that added value is not listing what you do – that’s just “so what”!  Added value delivering that important extra. If you are a training organisation then added value may be where you can signpost the customers of your public sector client to further fully-funded training.

Continuous improvement is the third component in the Magic Bid Triangle and one with which so many smaller businesses struggle. The answer is a clear view of your organisation through the four perspectives of Operational Management, Business Management, People and Customers/Markets. Within each perspective you set performance indicators and look to improve in each indicator perhaps using traffic lights measures of red, amber and green.

If you are serious about winning contracts (including private sector) then embedding and measuring  Continuous Improvement should be a vital part of what you are about.

If you do not have a basic set of performance indicators then send me an e-mail to support@spotlearn.com and I’ll forward you a Small Organisation list in a template format for you to use as a starter.

Putting together a tender takes time and you want a result in the form of winning the bid! The Magic Bid Triangle should give you the edge but do also remember that public procurement is evolving and you need to keep gaining new knowledge.

Do you agree? What challenges you on winning contracts?