Bid Manager
Location: Reading (Hybrid)
Job Type: Full-Time
* The purpose of the role is to support Ultima’s significant investment in growing a successful and reliable Public Sector business.
* One of the key principles of this role will be supporting the success of gaining spaces on key Public Sector Frameworks, including CCS’s TePAS.
* Working within the Presales and Bid Office as a Bid Manager. Assisting with the scoping, qualification and management of IT fulfilment, professional services and managed service bids and proposals.
* Accountable for a range of activities, from initial discovery of opportunities to the completion of proposals, PQQs, further competitions and ITTs.
Main duties and responsibilities:
* Initial assessment, allocation, and collation of information required for Framework responses. This will involve organisation of information from across the entire business, meeting key milestones throughout the period prior to deadline.
* Support the successful management of submitting a Framework response to the highest possible degree of quality.
* Assist in the formal qualification process in order to assess opportunity suitability, before making a recommendation alongside potential resource requirements/costs. For strategic opportunities, carry out additional deal profiling, prior to presenting it to the Ultima leadership team to seek approval to bid.
* In conjunction with the wider virtual teams, help develop an understanding of the client’s business goals, outcomes and drivers, identifying ‘win themes’ and ensuring they are articulated within our responses.
* Develop high quality proposal and bid submissions, leveraging existing - or working with our subject matter experts to develop new - technical, compliance, governance and regulatory information to accompany bids and expressions of interest.
* Attend Customer/Framework Authority meetings and workshops (both remote, in-house and at client site) as required, in order to qualify, scope, progress and formally present the proposal or bid to the Customer, alongside our subject matter experts and sales teams.
* Where new collateral is generated, ensure existing knowledge bases are updated, so that the information is made available to support subsequent presales engagements.
* Where required, undertake non-technical compliance reviews, ensuring that consultant-led proposals meet the customer’s requirement, are standardised in accordance with our guidelines and templates, are commercially accurate, and represent the company’s experience and capabilities in the best way possible in order to secure the opportunity.
* Contribute towards Ultima’s on-going presales improvement strategy (under the direction of the Head of Presales Architecture), helping to review and improve upon win / loss rates.
* Develop an excellent understanding of our go-to-market strategies, packaged services, capabilities and key service areas, in order to help qualify, advise and maximise new business generation opportunities.
Essential Knowledge skills and experience:
* Organisation skills are core to managing the dependence on key resource from across the business.
* Time management to have the ability to own bids from initial definition through to submission and subsequent closure with minimal supervision.
* ·Excellent customer-facing skills, with the ability to present a bid to senior staff, alongside the Ultima development/virtual team.
* ·An eye for detail, and a thorough and methodical approach to quality assurance and the development of own work.
* Advanced user of the Microsoft Office suite of products (specifically Word, Excel and PowerPoint).
Desired knowledge skills and experience:
* Previous experience working for an IT Reseller, Solutions Provider or similar services organisation in the IT industry.
* Degree or equivalent professional qualification.
* Five years experience in the IT industry with a general awareness of technologies and solutions across one or more of the following disciplines - Workspace, Data Centre, Cloud, Automation, Networking, Security and Managed Services
* Three or more year’s practical bid or proposal writing experience, ideally for an IT reseller or Solutions Provider.
* Certification to APMP’s Bid and Proposal Management foundation would be a plus
* Awareness of structured Project and Service Delivery methodologies such as PRINCE2 and ITILv3 would be advantageous. Qualifications to at least foundation in either would be a benefit, but not mandatory.
* Skills in Adobe Creative Cloud would be beneficial, but not mandatory - specifically InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator
Key Competencies for the role:
* Ownership - Following existing processes, maintain a logical, structured and analytical approach to the completion of bids and proposals, undertaking all facets of presales development, often working under strict deadlines and while being commercially aware at all times.
* Portfolio Management - Maintain excellent time management skills with the flexibility and ability to manage multiple bids at the same time, whilst maintaining a clear focus on their immediate and individual requirements.
* Communications - Excellent communication skills and be able to establish a strong working relationship with both the Sales and Services teams, as well as Customers, giving a professional impression at all times.
* Work Ethic - Develop good team-working skills with the ability to work independently as and when required. Maintain a high level of self-organisation, motivation and independence.
Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Ultima we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles