Tender Advisory
A tender spec written from a vendor's slide deck is a tender that invites a challenge
A public body that wants drone services has to write a technical spec in a field it does not know. The temptation is to lift it from the deck of whichever vendor was most impressive, and that is exactly how a spec starts to look tailored to one supplier. We write the spec from your side, and we do not bid on drone tenders.
The two ways a drone tender blows up
A spec derived from one specific product
The hallmarks of a tailored tender are unusually narrow or strict threshold requirements, unusually short timelines, and a technical spec that matches one specific product. A bidder who spots it can file an objection or an administrative petition, and courts have already struck down tenders on exactly these grounds and awarded costs.
The adviser's conflict of interest
This one is less familiar, and more dangerous. Courts have voided tenders even where the connection was indirect: in one case an adviser to one of the competitors also advised a government ministry on unrelated matters, and in another an adviser to members of the tender committee was employed by a bidder's subcontractor. Note the difference: here it is not one bid that is disqualified, it is the whole tender.
And the failure mode unique to drone tenders
A spec that does not require the right authorisations produces a winner who cannot lawfully do the work. An authority tendering night perimeter patrol without requiring a special operation authorisation may end up with a winner who is not permitted to fly at night. The same holds for flight over people, flight beyond visual line of sight, infrastructure inspection and agricultural spraying. You also need to require a valid licence rather than merely a licence, because a licence lapses after two years, plus appropriate insurance cover. No supplier will write these requirements for you.
Why we can write this spec
We do not sell drones, we do not sell software, we do not operate drones and we do not bid on drone tenders. So the spec we write has no commercial direction built into it. Beyond that, we run Isradrone Direct and cover the industry daily, so we know who can genuinely deliver each type of mission, and what is reasonable to demand at the threshold without needlessly shrinking the field. A good spec widens competition while still filtering out anyone who cannot perform the mission.
The line we do not cross
We work on one side of a tender only, the side issuing it. We will not write a spec and simultaneously help any bidder respond to it, and we will not do so indirectly either. Case law shows that even an indirect connection has been enough to void an entire tender, so this is not a declaratory clause, it is how we work. If you are a supplier looking for help with a submission, we are not the right address.
What stays with your legal counsel
We are not lawyers. Legal review of the tender, drafting the general conditions and the contract all stay with your legal counsel. What we are responsible for is the professional content: what is right to require, what can actually be delivered, what it is reasonable to cost, and how to compare bids that look nothing alike.
How it works
- 1. Scoping the need. What the body actually needs, at what scale, at which sites and how often. Before writing a requirement, you have to know what you are measuring.
- 2. Writing the spec. Defining deliverables, regulatory and insurance thresholds, criteria for comparing bids and realistic timelines.
- 3. Support through award. Professional answers to bidders' clarification questions, and assessment of the bids received against the spec.
Who it is for
Local authorities, government ministries and agencies, water and electricity utilities, ports, state-owned companies, public institutions and any body subject to public-procurement rules that wants to buy drone services: mapping and surveying, photography, building and infrastructure inspection, security or agricultural monitoring.