[CAUT] bid savvy

[Fred Sturm]

Hi Lance,
	That's a great question. The short answer is no, I don't know of any  
such thing. But it raises all sorts of issues, from standards to  
qualifications, with communication thrown in for good measure. And it  
exposes the bid process as the abomination it is, since we do lack  
ways to define these things. We (the caut committee) are inching  
along in that direction, but it's a troublesome thing to do  
(suggestions are welcome any time).
	For the present, the university can try to limit bids to people who  
meet certain standards: RPT, years experience, factory training  
programs, people whose work has been examined and found acceptable,  
these are a few suggestions. How to describe the work they want done?  
I'm not sure factory spec is going to lead to the results they want.  
Concert level prep might describe it (assuming that is, indeed, what  
they are after). But of course that is going to be dependent on the  
skills of the bidder.
	I'd emphasize skill, and focus on "body of work": bidder to provide  
references and access to pianos he/she has worked on. See if the  
state bid laws (I assume that's what you're dealing with) have  
flexibility to allow for that kind of thing. Probably under  
professional service contract regulations, for legal services and the  
like (as opposed to things like building contracts). Structure the  
bid to emphasize qualifications over price, probably by a rating  
system, where you give, say, 60% to qualifications, 40% to price. You  
could have a team of maybe three evaluators, each of whom rates the  
bidders as to qualifications. Each of them goes out and examines the  
sample workmanship. We do something similar in our bidding process  
for purchasing pianos at UNM.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu


On Jan 31, 2007, at 8:42 PM, <lafargue at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> Sorry if this is a duplicate, My other computer doesn't appear to  
> be posting this msg.....
> Can anyone advise me on advising a university here on how to word a  
> bid to techs and maximize the chance of getting what they want as  
> far as level of work.  I mean, is "to factory spec"the only thing  
> they can use as a standard to level the playing field on bidders?  
> If they asked for a price on regulating a piano, seven techs will  
> do more than one level of work and charge different amounts and all  
> be able to call it a "regulation" (and factory spec is not even  
> optimum at the highest levels).  They can ask for bids for concert  
> tuning and voicing and get lots of different levels of work, even  
> from RPT's.  Are there sources of info on handling this and  
> optimizing the chances of getting what they are paying for?  The  
> whole system just doesn't seem to be conducive to getting good  
> quality work, just the cheapest price.   Thanks in advance.
>
> Lance Lafargue, RPT
>
> LAFARGUE PIANOS, LTD
>
> New Orleans Chapter, PTG
>
> 985.72P.IANO
>
> lafargue at bellsouth.net
>
> www.lpianos.com
>
>
>
>
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>

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