What is a tender?

A tender is a formal invitation to submit a bid for defined work, under rules fixed before bidding opens. The point of the formality is comparability: everyone answers the same question, so the answers can be judged against each other rather than against whoever negotiated hardest.

What a tender document contains

• Scope of work — what is actually being bought, in enough detail to price
• Eligibility criteria — who may bid at all
• Bill of quantities or specification — the priced line items
• EMD and tender fee, if any
• Timeline — issue date, clarification window, submission deadline, opening date
• Evaluation method — how the winner is chosen
• Contract terms — what the winner is signing up to

Public vs private tenders

Public-sector tenders in India are published on portals such as GeM, CPPP, IREPS and various state systems, and are governed by procurement rules that constrain how they must be run and awarded.

Private tenders have no such obligation. A private business can invite bids however it likes — which in practice often means an informal email round with no fixed criteria, no comparable bid format, and no record of why the winner won. The structure is not legally required, but the benefits of it are real regardless.

What people get wrong

Changing the criteria after seeing the bids. If evaluation criteria move after opening, the exercise stops being a tender and becomes a negotiation with extra steps.

Writing eligibility around a preferred vendor. It works, and it is visible to everyone who reads the document, including the vendors you wanted to attract next time.

Skipping the clarification window. Ambiguity in scope becomes variation claims later, which is far more expensive than answering questions up front.

On Bidancer

Any KYC-verified business can host a tender, set its own eligibility rules, receive bids in a comparable structure, and award it. Hosting costs nothing; bidders spend credits, and unsuccessful bids are refunded. See how tenders work.