Tender software for small businesses
If you run a small business and want public sector work, start by seeing which tenders match what you do. RevnIQ's Free plan puts every UK and Ireland public sector tender that matches your search terms into one list, with email alerts before deadlines. It costs nothing and needs no card.
When you're ready to bid more often, Insight ranks every tender by how well it fits your business, explains why, and drafts the response from your own past work.
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What is a tender?
A tender is a public sector buyer, such as a council, NHS trust, school or government department, asking suppliers to bid for a contract. The buyer publishes what it needs, how it will choose, and a deadline. You send a written response, and the buyer scores every response against its criteria.
Public contracts are advertised openly. In England, for example, Contracts Finder lists government contracts over £12,000 including VAT, and anyone can search it for free.
CPV codes, in plain English
Every tender is labelled with one or more CPV codes. CPV stands for Common Procurement Vocabulary: a standard list of numbered categories for what's being bought, such as cleaning services or software development. Searching by CPV code finds tenders that use different words for the same thing.
In RevnIQ you set up a search profile with your own keywords and the CPV codes that describe your work. You don't need to know the codes in advance; our CPV codes guide explains how to pick them.
Finding your first contract
- 1.Describe what you do in a few keywords, and pick the CPV codes that match.
- 2.Look at what comes up for a couple of weeks before you bid, so you learn what buyers ask for.
- 3.Start with smaller contracts close to work you've already done, where you have examples to point to.
- 4.Read the buyer's questions and scoring criteria before you start writing.
- 5.Gather case studies, policies and certificates in one place. You'll reuse them in every bid.
Our guide to winning government contracts as an SME covers each step in more detail.
Free plan or Insight?
The Free plan gives you every matching tender in one list, a pipeline to track each bid from New to Won, and a daily digest and deadline alerts by email. Insight (£299 a month) adds a Fit Score with a written reason on every tender, buyer and award history, and drafted responses from your own library.
Stay on Free while you're learning. Upgrade when sorting tenders or writing responses is what's holding you back.
Frequently asked questions
Can a small business win public sector contracts?▼
Do I need to know CPV codes to use RevnIQ?▼
Is RevnIQ really free?▼
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Try it yourself
See which tenders RevnIQ puts at the top of your list.
Start on the Free plan with your own search terms. No card needed.