Archaeology as a Business

[the invisible man]

This is one of the points I was driving at before I got obsessed with hard hats. To combine the point with the one made by Dr Pete about who should be invited to tender, some basic information on prospective bidders should be gathered in order to compile a tender list. This would include number of employees and so on, and for larger projects even a D and B check. I presume that this is done? Thus one person bands can be omited from the tender list - if indeed unsuitable for that particular job of course.

I am pleased to learn that lump sum tenders are normal. One used to such procedures would presume that those whos tender is of interest (usually the lowest, maybe the lowest 2 if close) are invited to submit their breakdown (priced bills in construction). Again this acts as a back stop against unsuitable firms, and a check against arithmetical errors or unsafe tenders - if they've underpriced it or otherwise cocked up the tender they won't do the job properly.

Yes preparation of tenders is an overhead, which is why the tender list should be of a reasonable length - no point in wasting a lot of people's time and money. Minimum of 3 and no more than 6, I suggest.

There, and I didn't mention hard hats once. Well, only once but I think I got away with it.