SMA Consulting
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Bid & Tender Advisory · For suppliers to the public sector

We built a bid engine that won 14 framework places. Now we help you build yours.

Public sector work rewards the suppliers who are eligible, selective and consistent, not just the ones with the best service. We help you get onto the right portals, choose the bids worth winning, and put a repeatable bid process inside your business.

We don't write your bids for you. We make sure your team is aiming at the right ones, and has the method and tools to win them.

Book a conversation See the four services ↓
14 Live Framework Places 30%+ Competitive Win Rate Crown Commercial Service RM6187 / RM6200 Cyber Essentials Certified

The problem

Most lost bids are lost before anyone starts writing.

A portal registration that stalls. A missing Carbon Reduction Plan that rules you out at the first gate. A tender chased because it looked close enough, written from scratch by a stretched team, and scored against criteria nobody mapped properly.

Winning public sector work is a system, not a talent. We help you build the system.

Four services, one path

Start where you are. Each step builds on the last.

Take one service on its own, or follow the path from first registration to an AI-supported bid team. Everything we build stays with you.

01 · Get eligible

Bid Readiness & Compliance

Clear the admin barriers that stop good suppliers competing at all.

  • Portal and DPS onboarding: Public Contracts Scotland, PCS-Tender, Proactis, Bloom and regional Dynamic Purchasing Systems
  • Procurement Act 2023 readiness, including Central Digital Platform registration
  • Compliance baseline audit: Carbon Reduction Plan, Cyber Essentials, Social Value and policy gaps closed

You keep: live registrations and a compliance pack ready to submit.

02 · Win the next bid

Bid Strategy & Review

Senior judgement on which bids to chase and how to win them.

  • Go / No-Go qualification against a realistic view of your chances
  • Storyboarding: the structure and win themes your writers follow, built from the tender documents
  • The Bid War Room: an independent review that scores your draft against the buyer's criteria before you submit

You keep: fewer wasted bids, and stronger ones.

03 · Build your engine

Bid Engine Build

We set up the bid process we use ourselves. Your team runs it.

  • Bid workflow with clear roles, deadlines and visibility, on tools such as monday.com
  • A reviewed, categorised answer library built from your best past bids
  • Quality gates every bid must pass before it moves to the next stage

You keep: a repeatable process that doesn't depend on one person.

04 · Accelerate with AI

AI Bid Acceleration

A fixed-scope, governed setup of an AI bid assistant on tools you already approve.

  • A secure assistant grounded in your answer library and company information, not trained on it
  • Hands-on training so your team produces first drafts and compliance matrices with it, and checks what it writes
  • Built into your bid workflow, with clear rules on which data goes where

You keep: faster first drafts, with your team still in control.

From live experience

We run this engine ourselves, every week.

Everything we offer here is the method that put SMA on councils, colleges and national frameworks across Scotland, England and the Gulf. We are teaching what we already do, not what we have read about.

14
frameworks, DPS and open panels held
30%+
average competitive win rate
3
nations: Scotland, England and Bahrain

See the full list of our framework places.

Ways of working together

Clear scope, clear price.

Each service is a defined piece of work with a clear finish. Here's roughly what to expect.

Initial conversation
A no-obligation call about your pipeline and where you're getting stuck. 30–45 minutes.
Free
Bid Readiness & Compliance
Portal onboarding and a compliance baseline audit, with the gaps closed.
From £3,200
Bid Strategy & Review
Go / No-Go, storyboarding and a Bid War Room review, for one bid.
From £4,800 per bid
Bid Engine Build
Workflow, answer library and quality gates, set up and handed over.
From £12,000
AI Bid Acceleration
Fixed-scope assistant setup, team training and workflow integration.
From £8,000

Every engagement is scoped individually. These figures are a starting point for the conversation, not a fixed quote. Prices exclude VAT where applicable.

Questions

What people usually ask.

Will you write our bids for us?

No. We decide with you which bids to go for, design how they should be answered, and review them before submission. Your team writes them, and gets better at it each time.

What if SMA is bidding for the same contract?

We check for conflicts before we start. If we are competing for the same opportunity, we tell you at the outset and don't advise on that bid.

Which portals and frameworks do you cover?

Public Contracts Scotland and PCS-Tender, Proactis, Bloom, the Central Digital Platform and regional Dynamic Purchasing Systems across Scotland and England. If you're facing a different portal, ask us.

How is our data handled in the AI setup?

The assistant runs on tools your organisation already approves. It draws on your answer library when it writes, but your data isn't used to train public models. We agree in writing what it can access, and your team checks everything it produces.

We've never bid for public sector work. Where do we start?

Usually with Bid Readiness & Compliance. It gets you eligible and registered, so you're ready when the right opportunity appears.

Bring us your next tender.

Thirty minutes, no obligation, and an honest view on whether it's worth bidding for.

sma@pantheos.co.uk