Your search profiles deliver results. Every day, matches appear in your dashboard — sometimes five, sometimes fifteen, sometimes more. The question is not whether you find tenders. The question is how you efficiently decide which ones are worth the investment of a bid and which are not.
That decision is the difference between a bid team that works strategically and one that drowns.
Step 1: Quickscan — the initial triage
A new match appears. Before you open the eighty-page specification, you want to know three things: what exactly is it, what are the requirements, and is it realistic for us?
The AI Quickscan analyses the specification and gives you a structured overview within seconds: the subject of the contract, estimated value, the publishing authority, the submission deadline, the procedure type, selection criteria (required references, minimum turnover, certifications, accreditations), award criteria with their weightings, and the lots if applicable.
That overview is enough for an initial decision. Three outcomes are possible:
To the workflow. The contract is relevant, the selection requirements appear feasible, and you want to conduct a thorough analysis. You add the tender to your workflow for full qualification.
Feedback to TenderDNA. The contract is not relevant, but it was matched for an understandable reason — perhaps too broadly targeted, or a CPV code that covers both your specialisation and something entirely different. By rating the match, you refine the matching algorithm. Next time, TenderDNA matches more precisely.
Reject. The contract is clearly not for you. Wrong sector, unfeasible selection requirements, too small, too far. Discard it, move on to the next.
That triage — for every match, every day — is where the difference begins. A bid manager who spends twenty minutes on a quickscan of ten matches and retains three for the workflow works fundamentally differently from one who starts reading each specification and after two hours is still on the third.
Step 2: Qualification — eligible, capable, willing
The tenders that pass the quickscan deserve thorough evaluation. In the workflow, you assess each tender on three dimensions — supported by the AI analysis.
Are we eligible?
The formal test. Do we meet all selection criteria set by the contracting authority? This is binary: you qualify or you do not. And it is the first thing you check, because if the answer is no, there is no need to look further.
Selection criteria vary by contract and sector, but the structure is recognisable. Economic capacity: minimum annual turnover, sometimes specifically in the relevant domain. Technical capability: references of comparable contracts, executed in the past three to five years, of a specified minimum scale. Professional qualifications: accreditations (construction), certifications (VCA, ISO 27001, ITIL), registration with a professional body (architects). Social and fiscal obligations: social security certificate, tax certificate, no exclusion grounds.
The AI Quickscan extracts these criteria from the specification. You do not need to search for them yourself in an eighty-page document — they are presented in structured form. Do we meet everything? GO on this dimension. Not? Then it is already NO GO here, unless you can cover the missing qualification through a consortium or subcontracting.
Can we deliver?
The capacity test. Aside from the formal requirements: are we able to execute this contract if we win?
Do you have the right team available in the required period? Does the timeline fit with your other ongoing projects? Do you have the technical capacity, equipment, licences? For framework agreements: can you deliver over three to four years, including peaks during mini-competitions?
This is where internal alignment is needed. The bid manager can check the formal requirements, but the availability of people and resources must come from operations. The faster you can make that assessment, the less time you lose on tenders you ultimately cannot serve.
Do we want to?
The strategic test — and often the hardest. A contract can be formally feasible and operationally executable, and still not be a good choice.
Is the expected margin sufficient? How strong is the competition, and how do you compare to the likely rivals? Does this contract fit your strategic focus, or does it distract from it? Does it strengthen your reference portfolio for future contracts? And if it is a framework agreement: do you want to commit to this contracting authority for three to four years?
This is where market screening becomes valuable.
Step 3: Market screening — knowing who you are up against
You have established that you are eligible and able. The question now is: is it wise? That depends in part on who else will bid and how strong they are.
The Screening in TenderWolf works at two levels.
At the contracting authority. Which companies have previously carried out contracts for this specific authority, in the same domain as the tender at hand? In public procurement, that is no secret — awards are published, opening reports are public. TenderWolf aggregates that information per authority and per domain. You see not only who is active, but also how often they win and — where opening reports are available — at what price they bid.
In the broader market. Which companies carry out similar contracts at other contracting authorities, in the same or other regions? This gives you a picture of the full competitive field. A competitor you do not know at this authority may have a strong track record elsewhere.
That information is the difference between an informed GO decision and a gamble. If you see that three major players have been active at this authority for years and keep winning, you weigh that differently than when the field is open. If you see that the prevailing price levels are far below your cost structure, you spare yourself weeks of work on a bid that has no chance.
The result: a pipeline instead of a pile
Bid managers who apply this process consistently work with a pipeline rather than a growing pile of unread specifications. Every tender has a status: scanned, in evaluation, GO, NO GO. The team knows what it is working on and why. And the bids that do get written are better — because more time and attention goes into them.
That is not theory. It is the difference between a team that writes fifty bids per year with a 15% win rate, and a team that writes twenty bids with a 40% win rate.
Get started
With the Free plan (€0/month) you can use the AI Quickscan and workflow via credits: 25 credits per quickscan, 50 credits per screening. With 3,000 starter credits you can begin immediately.
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