How an IT consultancy built its public sector pipeline from scratch
DataBridge grew from zero to 40% government revenue in two years. Their strategy: find framework agreements before the competition.
This is a fictional case study based on typical user profiles. Names and specific figures are illustrative.
DataBridge is an IT consultancy based in Ghent, Belgium. 28 employees, specialising in data architecture, business intelligence, and cloud migrations. Founded in 2019, they grew through private-sector clients in retail and logistics. Two years ago, they decided to start serving government clients.
Today, the public sector accounts for 40% of their revenue. Most of it runs through framework agreements.
Why the move
Co-founder and CEO Sarah Declercq had two reasons. “Our private clients are cyclical. When the economy slows, IT projects are the first to be cut. Government invests counter-cyclically — precisely when the private market contracts, more public tenders go out.” The second reason was more practical: framework agreements offer predictable revenue over two to four years.
But Sarah had no idea where to begin. “I knew government outsources IT services, but not how to find those tenders, how the procedures work, or what you need to compete.”
The search strategy
DataBridge started with TenderWolf’s Free plan and set up two search profiles:
- Data & BI Belgium — CPV codes 72310000 (data processing), 72320000 (database services), 72330000 (content services), combined with keywords: business intelligence, data warehouse, data architecture, ETL, Power BI, Azure
- Cloud & infrastructure BeNeLux — CPV codes 72210000 (software development), 72250000 (system maintenance), keywords: cloud migration, Azure, AWS, microservices, DevOps
After a month, they added a third profile specifically for framework agreements:
- IT framework agreements — form type framework agreement, CPV 72000000 (broad), all of Belgium and the Netherlands
The discovery: framework agreements as a business model
In the first three months, DataBridge didn’t bid. They monitored. And what they saw changed their strategy.
“We discovered that the major government institutions — federal departments, Flemish government, large cities — almost exclusively work with framework agreements for IT consultancy. They select a pool of three to six companies, and then individual assignments follow through mini-competitions. If you’re not in the pool, you can’t participate for four years.”
That observation became their focus: not chasing individual tenders, but finding and winning the framework agreements that give them multi-year access.
TenderForecast as a head start
The real breakthrough came through TenderForecast. DataBridge saw that a framework agreement for BI consultancy at a major Flemish institution was expiring in eight months. That gave them time to prepare: document references, sort out certifications, and pre-assemble a strong team.
“By the time the publication appeared, we had our dossier largely ready. We knew the contracting authority, knew which parties held the previous contract, and had mapped the expected selection criteria through AI Quickscan analysis of comparable tenders.”
They were selected as one of four framework contractors.
Winning the selection
In service tenders, price is rarely the only criterion. Quality — methodology, team composition, experience — carries more weight. DataBridge used the screening feature to see which companies had previously worked with the same contracting authority.
“We knew that two of the three incumbents were large IT firms. Our pitch was deliberately different: specialised team, short communication lines, flexibly scalable. We emphasised exactly the pain points that large consultancies have: slow mobilisation, generic profiles, high overhead costs.”
Through company profiles, they’d also reviewed their competitors’ win rates and track records. “That gave us confidence that our pricing was realistic. We weren’t the cheapest, but we were the most specific.”
The numbers after two years
| Start | After 2 years | |
|---|---|---|
| Government revenue | €0 | €1.2M/year |
| Active framework agreements | 0 | 3 |
| Mini-competitions won | 0 | 11 |
| Government share of total revenue | 0% | 40% |
| Average contract duration | — | 3 years |
Sarah’s advice
“Two things. First: start by monitoring, not by bidding. You need to understand the market before you enter it. Which authorities outsource IT? Which companies win? How are selection criteria structured? You learn that in two months of monitoring.
Second: focus on framework agreements. Individual tenders are fine, but the real value is in long-term relationships. One won framework agreement delivers more than ten individual contracts.”
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