FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION
What is Extrn
What is Extrn?
Although the website is dedicated to explaining this point, a response often provided over the phone might clarify better.
Extrn is an annual subscription service offered to your company to find public tenders on your behalf according to your search criteria and desired geographical reach. We know the tender websites and understand which opportunities to look for, on which platforms, and how to find them effectively. Every day, you will receive an email summarizing all the opportunities found, well summarized and presented.
Opportunities on tender websites are not always easy to understand, sometimes lacking documentation or texts. When an opportunity is poorly described or refers to the specifications for more details, we delve deeper and provide you with a summary or even an image of the price page or important details.
Extrn speeds up the reading process and offers a deep understanding of the opportunities. You only need to choose from the handpicked opportunities, the most relevant ones to pursue and bid on. The more you bid, the higher your chances of winning contracts.
Is Extrn profitable?
- Consider that Extrn replaces an internal resource and a daily watch to review 310 websites (in Canada) every day to find new opportunities.
- It is crucial to find opportunities as quickly as possible to win them.
- Extrn knows where to find the specifications on hundreds of up-to-date sites, knows them by heart, and will guide you with each reference.
- Extrn works with your team: it explains the sites, learns from your feedback, and continuously adjusts.
- Consider Extrn as a member of your sales team. The annual cost can range between $3,000 and $6,000. Companies with staff dedicated to this task recognize the economic aspect of the service.
It is through long-term renewals that Extrn makes its operations profitable, a business model that satisfies its loyal clients and is made possible by the business community that revolves around Extrn.
How do Extrn subscriptions work?
Annual suscriptions only with specific arrangements and pricing for each client.
Extrn offers a personalized service that differs significantly from simple tender search databases. Our annual subscriptions fund this tailored service while ensuring revenue predictability, which is essential for maintaining consistent quality. This model is not only more economical for our clients but also guarantees continuous service adjustment.
To keep our search perfectly aligned with each client’s needs, in-person or online meetings are indispensable. These regular meetings allow us to discuss referred opportunities and adjust the personalized search. Unlike impersonal email exchanges, these direct discussions strengthen the trust relationship with the account manager, who acts as the spokesperson for the entire team.
Our subscription renewals are automatic, with clients required to notify us 60 days in advance if they do not wish to renew. We do not renegotiate terms each year, but in case of price or condition changes, Extrn commits to timely communication with each company to explain the modifications and address any questions.
We ask our clients to strictly adhere to the 30-day payment term and the annual subscription, as these factors are crucial for maintaining the service’s economic cost. For new subscribers, it is possible to unsubscribe without penalties after six months of service in the first year. Thereafter, the subscription becomes annual.
Is Extrn it the right service for my business?
If your business is expanding and your market extends across several provinces or even countries (Canada, USA, and Mexico), Extrn is for you.
The companies that benefit most from Extrn’s services are those whose markets span multiple provinces or territories in Canada and the United States, or a combination of both. In such markets, a multitude of different sources of tenders come into play, making the task complex and requiring Extrn’s specialized skills.
With its exclusive ability to tailor the service according to work teams with specific needs in each region, Extrn offers a personalized solution. This means that teams receive only the opportunities that concern them, without being bothered by tenders from the other side of the country. Such organization avoids inefficiency and the habit of considering all received information irrelevant, which could lead users to overlook good opportunities.
The cost of the service is higher, but it is justified by the complexity of multi-territorial markets and the high demands of the clients. Extrn specializes in these complex markets and offers customization at all levels. It is this specialization and ability to adapt to the unique needs of each region that make Extrn a preferred partner for ambitious and demanding companies.
In summary, for companies operating in multiple territories with varied and complex needs, Extrn represents the ideal solution, allowing them to maximize opportunities while minimizing errors and inefficiencies.
How do we join this service, how does it work?
How to Get Started with Extrn
Consult the “Frequently Asked Questions” section, which covers all relevant topics. This might help raise other questions you may have.
- Next, on the main page of Extrn.ca, click “Quick Demo” after filling out the short form (your data remains confidential and is not shared with anyone).
- After watching the short video (2 minutes 30 seconds), if you are interested, click at the bottom of the page to book a personalized demonstration.
The personalized demonstration is intended for the company’s management. The person who will sign the agreement with Extrn should be present to avoid unproductive meetings. The website content is sufficient to inform and give a clear idea of the service. Invite the members of the company who conduct tender searches and those who will use Extrn to ask relevant questions and describe how they currently search for tenders and where the difficulties lie.
We conduct the meetings on Teams, and they are recorded to share with the team the actual parts where you explain your needs. Watching and hearing you explain is much better than reading keywords without context; this is our way of offering a personalized service.
After explaining your searches and difficulties to us, we will show you how we will proceed (screen sharing), how we will overcome the difficulties, and facilitate your team’s work while collaborating closely. We will also leave traces to request feedback and approvals, just as an internal employee would.
Emphasize continuous feedback and short meetings:
The success of the experience relies on feedback. A short meeting (about 10 minutes) every three months will greatly help adjust the service, maximize satisfaction, and especially the outcomes. We will review the platform that groups all the opportunities to briefly discuss the opportunities, their relevance, and outcomes. Many companies do this work internally, and we only discuss the most important points for Extrn to know.
During the demonstration, after noting your specific requests, we will provide you with a detailed offer including prices and terms. If you accept, we will send the offer for signing the same day, and the service can start the next day with a review of open opportunities and a daily search.
Technical Detail Interesting for Large Organizations
For large sales teams, Extrn offers personalized emails by divisions. The opportunities contained in Extrn emails are customized by team or territory. Teams are divided into groups that appear as tabs on the Extrn platform, which the client can organize according to their needs. Users can be assigned by tab and a specific search index by tab, and each receives the opportunities relevant to them.
For example, sales agents in Quebec only receive tenders from that province, and the same applies to other provinces or territories. Similarly, for product groups, some receive services, others receive products. In case of changes within the company and reassignment of contacts, you can modify the assignment at any time, and the opportunity emails will follow.
Everything is designed to provide each person with the most relevant content possible and to ensure that opportunities are well seen and read.
These arrangements are free of charge and included in the service.
How is Extrn finding my tenders?
Richard Chenier Owner: “We’ll find your tenders about the same way you would if you had all the time in the world”, “passing trought every sources of tenders one by one”.
Every site is scanned by Extrn. In Canada, this includes 310 sites, and in the United States, 614 sites are currently monitored, aiming to cover up to 2,000 sites daily. Some sites are manually scanned by researchers who perform simple searches for all new opportunities from the previous day, reviewing each opportunity individually. For others, an email aggregates ALL newly published opportunities. A specialized tool developed by Extrn scans a long list of smaller websites to detect daily changes. An agent then reviews these updates using an index to ensure every source is covered daily.
We also refer Upcomming projects and clients are welcome to submit any new pages announcing upcoming projects they might find.
Extrn identifies contracts that classic keyword searches cannot detect. Collaborating with your sales team, we create a precise search index—more than just a list of keywords. Unlike tender websites, we first understand the tender to better match it to client needs. By reading each opportunity individually, we reference the best ones that might otherwise be missed.
Every client provides feedback to refine searches continuously, achieving a precision level that IT tools and artificial intelligence cannot match. In some cases, we perform in-depth analysis of tenders and use AI to summarize complex projects. This approach allows us to uncover contracts that conventional keyword-based methods would miss.
What tender sites des Extrn monitor?
Extrn is like the site of the sites when you know the service is looking in each public tender web sites in Canada and Usa.
Proove it!
In Canada: Extrn displays a list of monitored sites on the “monitored sites” page. Tender websites can be divided into two main types: those managed by public entities and those run by private companies. Public entities ensure the proper functioning and distribution of the tenders themselves. On the other hand, private companies act as aggregators, republishing tenders that have been published by others. However, these aggregators often do not name the original sources because the references are frequently incorrect, with interruptions without explanations, missing details, and often lacking links to the original pages. This prevents readers from independently consulting the tenders and scrutinizing their details further. Extrn excludes aggregators and only searches for original pages. Acting as a representative of your company, Extrn’s results are exclusive to you. In this sense, Extrn is legitimate and can outperform any aggregator tender site because it covers all sources all the time. |
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In the United States: A map shows American states, and clicking on each state reveals the names of the monitored organizations. When we look at how tender sites are organized in the Usa and each state, it’s a well-organized system each needs to learn to bid and win contracts but we decided to invest time in this and learn each one and it really helps because we help our customers to navigate to the tender documents because we know our sites by heart. The usa has always been a rich country with many sites to discover where tenders might be on one site, documents on a second a third site for uploading your bids. Some are free and others require a subscription that might take time to finish and you might have to upload tax documents and other formal documents proving your company’s identity. We did the full process in each site and we will tell you what to do when we find you a relevant opportunity. This represents a very good advantage for the user who will invest time only when a tender is found, not before. What you will find Extrn monitors in the Usa: We started in 2023 with All states followed by the 50 biggest cities (budget-wise) and D.O.T. (departments of Transportations for each State) and now we are focusing on University and Health sector. In January 2025, we are now at 633 sites and aiming for about 2000 public tender web sites. Usa tender service is sold as an American subscription or combined with a Canadian public tender referral service. |
Why doesn’t Extrn have competitors?
Extrn’s service is unique because potential “competitors” are merely databases that replicate tenders and offer keyword searches or email reports.
- Without Extrn: You would need an account on every site to read notices and tender documents.
- With Extrn: You get summarized notices and excerpts of tender documents (just enough information). If the opportunity interests you, you can purchase full access.
Source | Communications | Pros/Cons |
Aggregators (Merx, Biddingo, Bids&Tenders) | Paid services that replicate tenders from other sites with delays and changes | Users are overwhelmed with irrelevant offers; no geographic segmentation possible. |
Monitoring services (other than Extrn) | Partially replicate all sites | Different fields for each source; inconsistent due to anti-piracy efforts; requires a paid account for more details. |
Extrn | Accesses sites like a legitimate user, summarizes tenders with excerpts and images, sends a daily email with all sources in one communication | Provides value-added content, access to the source as if the user found it directly, Extrn’s tips on navigating websites, and no account needed to view tender details. |
Why Extrn is Your Best Ally for Finding Tender Notices: FAQs
Aggregator sites that simply copy notices without the quotes.
When the text of a notice is not sufficiently documented, Extrn continues into the quotes and finds what no keyword search can cover. Extrn’s extensive experience in opportunity research allows researchers to extend the search to the quotes, and when that’s not enough, analyzing the list of bidding companies helps establish the connection between you and the tender.
You can’t make lemonade without lemons, and this saying makes sense because, with so many missing details, keyword search sites quickly reach their limit, while Extrn goes far beyond.
Searching for Tender Notices: Why Extrn Outperforms Keyword Alerts
In the business world, searching for tender notices is crucial for companies looking to secure new contracts, and the real work begins only after finding those interesting tenders. However, the method used for this search can make all the difference between success and failure. Although keyword alert tools are popular, they are often ineffective and can lead to a considerable waste of time. Here’s why manual search, by reading new opportunities one by one, is more efficient and why it is wise to hire a researcher like Extrn inc. to carry out this work.
Limits of Keyword Alerts
- False positives: Keyword alerts often generate irrelevant results. Keywords can appear in contexts unrelated to the company’s needs, forcing users to manually sort through numerous useless results.
- Lack of precision: Tender notices are often written in a complex and varied manner. Keyword alert tools cannot always grasp the nuances and specifics of opportunities, leading to the potential loss of interesting contracts.
- Time and frustration: Managing keyword alerts can become a time-consuming and frustrating task. Users have to sift through many results to find relevant opportunities, which can discourage them and lead them to abandon the search.
Advantages of Manual Search Done by Extrn for You Daily
- Increased relevance: By reading each opportunity, researchers can evaluate the relevance of each tender notice based on the specific needs of the company. This ensures that only the most relevant opportunities are retained.
- In-depth analysis: Manual search allows a deeper understanding of tender notices. Researchers can identify hidden details and subtleties that automated tools might miss, increasing the chances of success.
- Customization: By working with a researcher like Extrn inc., companies benefit from a personalized service. Extrn inc.’s researchers work closely with clients to understand their business objectives and success criteria, ensuring strategic and relevant recommendations.
When Extrn’s search is complete, the researcher sends an order, and each user in your company receives a personalized email for their division with search results tailored to the specific index that your company and Extrn have established.
How to Find Public Tender Notices, Rfq, rfi ect
To find calls for tenders, it is necessary to monitor and scour the internet for published opportunities. You will need to open accounts on tendering web sites in the name of your company and often incur fees for acquiring the specifications and addenda (addenda are the modifications to the call for tenders that must be taken into account in your submission).
It is easy to find tender notices because they are available on many websites and are easily accessible. By using appropriate keywords, one can certainly find suitable opportunities. However, the difficulty lies in the fact that tender notices are often grouped by issuing authorities, such as provinces, states, or by aggregators that partially or fully replicate opportunities from other websites. The original documents and addenda are not copied, and you will need to return to the site where the tender originated, and this link to the opportunity is never provided (unless the buyer themselves republishes voluntarily to increase visibility, in which case they take care to add a link).
These aggregators do not disclose the other sources from which they obtain their tenders, contenting themselves with mentioning the total number of opportunities published, hoping to attract users to subscribe to their monthly services. The list is never available because they cannot guarantee the regularity of the copied sources. Tender listing sites engage in a real technological war to prevent copying of information on tenders from one site to another, and the bots are becoming increasingly efficient and continuing. You will notice that many sites warn suppliers that to submit, you must have obtained the documents in your name, from your account on the site where the tender is published. This is essentially because to be valid, you must have received all the addenda; otherwise, you may have missed important changes and your submission would be incomplete. For legal reasons, you must have received and considered all addenda attached to the opportunity you wish to bid on.
Opportunities are classified by categories (there are several types of categorization of goods and services, the Internal Trade Agreement managing the electronic display of tenders in Canada leaves it to each government level to establish with which system the tenders will be categorized. The other fields are more specific to trade agreements and not useful for suppliers.
To search for tenders effectively: You must consider that legitimate opportunities on the consulted website are those that include official documents. You must read the new opportunities published daily so as not to miss anything. First, regardless of the categories chosen by the buyers (often incorrect) and test the alert tools offered to see if they would suit you. You guessed it, you will end up with a list of sites to search manually and several alert emails to reread, not to mention the more in-depth reading of the most interesting opportunities.
Thus, the most effective method for searching for tenders involves geographically targeting the sites of final buyers, where official documents and addenda are published. It is crucial to aim for a precise geographical scope and to qualify the publications to ensure that the categories used to segment the tenders are correct. Additionally, you need to check the frequency of publications and above all, carefully monitor the words used to create effective alerts, as well as alert emails. It is important to note that a lack of alert emails does not always mean there are no opportunities because email alert systems can sometimes fail or skip certain days.
Reread all the new opportunities published, note those that were not captured by your email alerts, and adjust your filter until you are confident in capturing the right opportunities without too many false positives.
Here is what to do to optimize your search for bids:
Step | Description |
1. List of sites to monitor | Create a list of target sites and purchasers (Example: if targeting the federal level, monitor AchatCanada.ca and Merx for Defense Construction and other crown corporations) |
2. Annual review of sites | Recheck each year as sites can change and some may be added (Example: in 2024, Ariba was added with a large number of federal bids in Canada) |
3. Type of monitoring | Describe the type of monitoring done for each site: manual visit and frequency (daily, weekly, email, etc.) |
4. Identify gaps | Identify the gaps observed in the process and explain the means to achieve suitable monitoring anyway (Example: Make a manual request every week to check the similarity of results obtained by email and online alerts) |
As you progress in your monitoring, you will refine your methods. A company should always keep precise records of the information on the websites monitored and the method used to find opportunities. This is essential so that a replacement can take over the work at any time, particularly in case of staff turnover, to ensure that no opportunities are missed during a pause.
It is crucial to understand that this process requires considerable time and effort. Restarting this work with every interruption would be unproductive. To be effective, it is imperative to maintain this monitoring actively and according to a rigorously respected schedule. Without continuous and disciplined updating, monitoring efforts quickly become futile.
How does Extrn search for my company rfq and opportunities?
Discover the Best Research Tools for Business Opportunities
How Extrn Revolutionizes Tender Searches
Introduction
Are you tired of manually sifting through countless websites to find the most relevant business opportunities? Extrn is here to revolutionize your search process with its cutting-edge research tool designed to simplify and optimize tender searches.
Why Choose Extrn?
Extrn is a premier research service that takes the hassle out of finding tenders. Unlike traditional keyword searches that often yield numerous false positives, Extrn’s system delivers precise and relevant results directly to your inbox.
How Extrn Works
Our service begins with the creation of a comprehensive search index tailored to your business needs. For instance, a query like “IT project management tenders in Canada” would guide our researchers. Further refinements, such as excluding regions where your company cannot operate, make the service even more efficient.
Monitor All Opportunities
Extrn ensures that no opportunity is missed. We monitor an extensive list of over 310 websites in Canada and 633 in the United States, with plans to expand to 2000 sites. Some sites are checked daily by our team, others by advanced tools that report changes, and some through email alerts.
Personalized and Detailed Analysis
One of Extrn’s unique strengths is the personalized touch our researchers add. Each opportunity is thoroughly reviewed, and a concise summary is provided, highlighting the essential details you need to know.
Seamless and Efficient Communication
We send daily summaries of new opportunities from the previous day, avoiding the disruption of live alerts. If no relevant opportunities are found, you receive no email, but our online platform remains available for direct communication.
Conclusion
Experience a smarter way to find business opportunities with Extrn. Our service not only saves you time but also ensures that you never miss out on valuable tenders. Discover how Extrn can transform your business search process today.
Everything begins with the creation of a search index to guide the researcher. A query like “IT project management tenders in Canada” would be ideal for the company seeking these contracts. Refinements, such as “except in Quebec” if the company cannot provide services in French, are then added. The service becomes more efficient, especially when resource persons collaborate with Extrn, making the results even more impressive.
All tenders are monitored by Extrn in Canada (a list is published on the web page) in the same way the client would search themself. In Canada, there is an average of 310 websites, and in the United States, there are currently 633 websites, aiming for 2000 sites soon.
Some websites are manually visited every day (sites that publish a large number of opportunities daily), others are checked by a tool that reports changes from day to day, and for others, a simple email alert of all new opportunities published is sufficient. A research agent is responsible for reading each opportunity to refer the most relevant ones to clients based on the search index.
By reading each opportunity one by one and following all interesting leads, we ensure to have a thorough understanding of each contract and make an informed connection with the company. For some opportunities, the analysis is clearly easy, while other cases are less business-relevant but more enriching for “business knowledge” or as “interesting upcoming opportunities”.
In these situations, we opt for the client’s opinion for future references when it comes to less obvious cases. Our clients often say they prefer to know more rather than less, which accurately reflects the intuitive and relevant aspect of our service, distinguishing it from keyword searches that often return many exhausting false positives to read.
We search for all tenders published the previous day because many sites publish new offers at any time. Unlike keyword filters that capture these new offers live, Extrn sends the results of its searches from the previous day each day, which is more efficient and less disruptive. If no opportunities are found, there is no email, but the online platform remains a very effective and reassuring means of direct communication for our clients.
The real talent of Extrn lies in summarizing and presenting each opportunity well. The researcher adds a touch of personalization to clearly convey to the reader the essential elements they need to know about a tender.
Email Content | What you will find | Benefits for the reader |
Website logo | Logo of the website from where the opportunity originates | Quick link to the buyer’s page, no need to search |
Full title of the call for tenders | Identical to the original site without any modification | No possible confusion |
Description under the title | Name of the contracting organization and description of the need expressed in the published call for tenders. | A passage from the call for tenders text highlighting only the key elements to know |
Image and file carousel | Extracts from the quote such as price schedules or extracts from a page showing budgets and timelines | The reader can better understand the reason for the Extrn reference |
Researcher’s comment | A direct communication from the researcher to the business | A one-on-one relationship with Extrn to clarify or ask questions |
Why Extrn is Unique and Has No Competitors
Extrn stands out in the marketplace for several compelling reasons, making it not only unique but virtually unrivaled in its field.
Comprehensive Coverage
Extrn monitors hundreds of tender sites across Canada and the United States, offering an unparalleled breadth of information. In Canada, Extrn provides a detailed list of monitored sites on its “monitored sites” page. In the United States, a map interface allows users to click on each state to reveal the names of the monitored organizations, ensuring no opportunity is missed.
In-depth Insights
Extrn’s platform goes beyond merely aggregating tender data; it offers rich descriptions under each title, including the contracting organization’s name and a detailed explanation of the need expressed in the published call for tenders. This level of detail helps users quickly grasp the essential elements of each tender, facilitating informed decision-making.
Enhanced Understanding
The image and file carousel feature is particularly valuable, providing extracts from quotes, such as price schedules and budget timelines. This visual and detailed presentation aids users in understanding the context and requirements of each tender, making it easier to assess and respond effectively.
Direct Communication
One of the standout features of Extrn is the ability to have direct communication between researchers and businesses. Researchers can provide comments and engage in one-on-one relationships with businesses to clarify or ask questions about specific tenders. This personalized approach ensures that users have all the information they need to pursue relevant opportunities.
Unmatched Expertise
Extrn’s team of researchers brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table, continuously monitoring and updating the database to reflect the latest opportunities. This dedication to accuracy and relevance means that users can trust the information provided and focus on what matters most—winning tenders.
In summary, Extrn’s unique combination of comprehensive coverage, in-depth insights, enhanced understanding, direct communication, and unmatched expertise sets it apart from any competitors. These features ensure that users have access to the most relevant, up-to-date, and actionable tender information available, making Extrn an invaluable tool for businesses looking to expand their opportunities.
Does Extrn use Artificial Intelligence to find Request for proposals?
What makes Extrn unique is the integration of human expertise into the research process. Unlike artificial intelligence and other automated tools, Extrn specialists understand the nuances and specifics of each company’s needs. They do not just search for keywords but analyze each opportunity in depth to ensure it perfectly, or sometimes not quite perfectly, meets their clients’ requirements, but relevance is key.
Extrn experts use their know-how and experience to uncover hidden details and subtleties that AI algorithms might miss. For example, they can identify potential opportunities by reading between the lines of project descriptions, interpreting the intentions behind the words, and assessing the viability of proposals considering the current business context.
Extrn search team experience
Moreover, Extrn professionals bring a personalized touch to each search. They work closely with their clients to understand their business objectives, specific constraints, and success criteria. This tailored approach ensures that each recommendation is not only relevant but also strategic, thus optimizing the chances of success.
Personalized touch in public tender referal
In summary, Extrn skillfully combines the precision of technology with human wisdom and intuition, offering an unparalleled and unmatched opportunity search service. Where automated tools often fail to provide fully satisfactory results, Extrn excels thanks to the direct involvement of its experts, thus ensuring undeniable added value for its clients.
How does Extrn communicates it’s tenders and opportunities?
Extrn understands that an unremarkable tender title (sometime no meanings at all) might not catch the attention of its clients. To counter this and properly inform its clients, Extrn includes excerpts from the quote, files, and even a summary as a comment from the researcher. This approach goes beyond mere reference, steering the communication towards a conversational mode with the reader. The resulting collaboration works wonders, enabling a deep understanding and informed decision-making.
Why a Personalized Demonstration is Better than a Trial Period for Tender Searches
Maximize Your Tender Opportunities with Extrn
Precision and Relevance of Opportunities
Unlike a trial period where the user might encounter a complex interface and make incorrect interpretations, a personalized demonstration allows for a clear display of how opportunities are identified and analyzed. Extrn’s experts present real examples, comment on each proposal, and explain the methodology used. This gives the client a precise and detailed vision of the quality and relevance of the proposed opportunities.
Presenting the Research Method
The demonstration is also an ideal opportunity for Extrn to showcase its unique research method. By explaining the steps of the process, from needs analysis to opportunity identification, the experts demonstrate their expertise and ability to uncover hidden details that automated tools might miss. This transparency in the approach strengthens the client’s trust in the service.
Establishing a Trust Relationship
The demonstration plays a crucial role in establishing a trust relationship between Extrn and its clients. By showing the care and attention given to each search, Extrn demonstrates its commitment and expertise. Clients can thus see the quality of the service and make an informed decision about their subscription. This personalized approach lays the foundation for a fruitful and lasting collaboration.
A Concrete and Convincing Preview
Like a custom-made glove, the demonstration allows for an understanding of the client’s specific needs while offering a concrete preview of Extrn’s service. Rather than a trial period where the searched contracts might not be published or could be misinterpreted, the demonstration clearly shows the added value of the service. Companies thus realize the extent of the possible benefits and are more inclined to adopt Extrn’s service.
Conclusion
In summary, a personalized demonstration is far more beneficial than a trial period for companies wishing to retain Extrn’s services. It allows for a better understanding of the client’s needs, ensures the precision and relevance of opportunities, showcases the research method, establishes a trust relationship, and offers a convincing preview of the service. Sign up now for a personalized demonstration and discover how Extrn can transform your way of seizing opportunities.
Why opt for public contracts? Discover the key benefits.
Public contracts through tenders deserve special attention for several reasons.
First, they represent a stable and continuous market, unaffected by economic fluctuations. Public needs exist at all times and must be met, even during economic crises. Unlike the private sector, which may reduce spending during a recession, public institutions must continue to provide essential services, ensuring consistent and predictable demand.
Second, bidding for public contracts is a guarantee of profitability. Operating in a competitive environment keeps companies in shape, sharpens their skills, and constantly confronts them with their competition. This not only strengthens their financial resilience but also gives them excellent knowledge of the market and the practices of their competitors. This competitive dynamic is beneficial for the financial health of the company, stimulating it to innovate and adapt quickly.
Third, meeting the rigorous requirements of public contracts allows companies to gain valuable experience. Companies learn to satisfy demanding clients, helping them to maintain strict discipline and high-quality standards. This rigor and constant adaptation to high expectations are major assets for conquering new markets, even in the face of new competition.
In short, public contracts through tenders offer a multitude of strategic and operational benefits, making this market an essential pillar for any company looking to ensure its stability, growth, and long-term competitiveness.
Profitable companies maintain an average of 20% to 40% of their turnover through public contracts. Industries such as clothing, furniture, construction, and professional services sustain their business thanks to this market. It may not be the most lucrative, but it is what keeps them afloat when making significant investments, facing an economic crisis, or simply dealing with an increase in interest rates. It is a difficult market to penetrate, but necessary.
Can the Extrn service make mistakes?
Yes, just like any IT tools that can have technical issues, we can also make mistakes. It would be unreasonable to claim otherwise. When reviewing tenders daily, human errors are possible. However, with years of experience, we have implemented measures to minimize such errors as much as possible.
Sometimes our clients inform us about contracts they have heard of or found themselves that we did not consider. These complaints, far from being negative critiques, actually demonstrate their desire to work closely with us. They also show their trust in our ability to continually improve.
Our clients frequently mention, whether in formal or informal discussions, that for every opportunity we might miss due to human error, technical problems, or ambiguity, we successfully identify many others that they would have missed without our intervention. Their overall satisfaction is such that occasional omissions are generally forgiven, as the positive aspects of our service far outweigh the negatives.
In reality, reminders about missed tenders highlight the importance they place on our service and their desire to see us progress and strive for an ideal perfection. This motivates us to always seek improvement. Our mistakes allow us to strengthen our collaboration with our clients, ensuring a better understanding of their needs and continuous optimization of our opportunity selection process.
In summary, occasional errors are part of our learning and improvement process, and they are mitigated by the significant number of opportunities we successfully identify for our clients. We greatly appreciate feedback from our clients, whether positive or constructive, as it helps us refine our approach and offer an increasingly precise and effective service.
Extrn stands out in the market because few companies dare to commit to accountability, which requires a genuine willingness to help and ensure good customer service based on experience. Customer satisfaction relies on trust and collaboration. Modern self-service tools fall short as they allow users to make mistakes. Extrn, although fallible, makes the best use of human intelligence. Admitting mistakes is essential to remain honest.
What are the hidden benefits of the service?
Avantage | Pros | Cons | Unique and Avantageons Aspect |
Personalized search for each division | Provides relevant information to each team | May require detailed initial setup | Allows teams to receive exactly what they need without being flooded with irrelevant information |
Keywords highlighted | Facilitates quick identification of key elements | May depend on the accuracy of the keywords used | Reduces the risk of missing crucial information |
Task creation tool in calendar | Helps plan and organize follow-ups | May need integration with existing calendars | Improves time management and preparation for client calls |
Note-taking and organizing tool for tenders | Centralizes information and facilitates collaboration | May require initial learning | Enhances organization and tracking of opportunities |
Drag-and-drop tender platform | Facilitates the organization and classification of opportunities | May require regular updates | Allows for visual and intuitive management of tenders |
Offer sharing tool with read receipt | Ensures that offers are received and viewed | May depend on the recipients’ responsiveness | Improves communication and traceability of exchanges |
Do you assist with bid writing?
Extrn do not help assisting with bid writing two main reasons. First, as our service is offered to all, including competing companies, we want to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest. For this reason, Extrn stays away from its clients’ tenders to maintain exemplary impartiality.
Secondly, all of Extrn’s resources are dedicated to serving each client’s annual (or biannual) subscription. We have decided to specialize our tasks towards contract search rather than direct response to tenders. However, we provide free general advice on writing a submission. Additionally, we often collaborate with our clients to identify relevant points in notices that may escape the proposal writer. In summary, our collaboration focuses primarily on identifying and understanding opportunities, while leaving the preparation of submissions to our clients.
General coaching is offered and often constitutes all the help a company needs. A simple phone discussion or a Teams meeting is often sufficient to provide the small push a company needs to learn how to bid and win contracts.
Why is the same opportunity found on several sites
Trend | Explanation | Consequences |
The buyer wants to attract as many companies as possible by publishing on multiple platforms | Tenders are published on several sites to maximize visibility. | It becomes unclear where to search for quotes |
Competing sites publish project announcements redirecting to another site | Some sites display general announcements and redirect to another site for full details and final quotes. | Competing sites create confusion, making it hard to find the original announcement |
Competition among aggregator sites | Aggregators compete for the first publication of project announcements and publish quickly to attract users. |
Extrn is aware of these practices and only provides the ultimate link to its client users, saving them from all this hassle, as it always leads to the final link with sometimes specific instructions.