Tender Bidding and Contract Management: a Success Story
Responding to two major central government educational reviews, the University of Wolverhampton and City of Wolverhampton College were investigating a possible joint venture to create a new kind of college located at Wolverhampton Science Park to:
Deborah Carrington, Black Country Consortium
“We engaged with TeabagTalent because their team was capable of delivering the project. We had already invested £1.4 million purchasing land from the Council, with a covenant that the new facility be operational by September 2010. The TeabagTalent team cut through 12+ months of multiple stakeholder discussion (University, College, City Council, AWM, Black Country Consortium, LSC , HEFCE), and delivered a business plan that gained stakeholder agreement and the required funding.”
- provide an innovative facility capable of producing graduates from local, in many cases disadvantaged, communities
- serve the next generation of High Technology Engineering and Digital Media/IT companies needed to regenerate the economy of the Black Country, and in particular, the Wolverhampton sub-region.
The initiative was being driven by the regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands. They identified that the project would not become a reality without the guidance of an external project director/manager.
A TeabagTalent Member was invited to tender (based on personal contact with AWM), but he recognised that he was unlikely to be successful unless he was under the umbrella of Teabag Talent Ltd, and therefore able to engage other skillsets onto the project.
The bid beat off competition from KPMG, Ancer Spa and Practicus.