[CAUT] bid savvy

[Porritt, David]

Much of this depends on state laws that affect bidding.  In Texas it
used to be that a project under $5,000 bidding was not necessary.  I
think (but don't know) that this has been raised to $10,000.  People
have been known to break projects into less-than-state-limits
sub-projects (1> replacement parts for piano X  2> regulate new parts
for piano X).

 

dp

 

David M. Porritt

dporritt at smu.edu

________________________________

From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Fred Sturm
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 9:30 AM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: [CAUT] bid savvy

 

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 <http://www.lpianos.com/> 

<http://www.lafarguepianos.com/>  

 

 

 

 

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