Our approach to securing business varies according to the size and complexity of the opportunity:

• Our major sales team pursues complex, long term contracts worth over £10m. It can draw on the resources of the whole Group to design integrated solutions tailored to individual client requirements
  
• Sales teams in each business unit pursue contracts usually focused on a single service. Where these are worth over £10m, the major sales team may provide extra support.

Identifying opportunities
In the UK, public sector contracts are subject to defined procurement processes. EU policy requires ‘fair and open competition’, and opportunities are formally advertised or notified. In the private sector, we actively seek out organisations where we see opportunities to generate real business value. We generally identify these through business intelligence and relationships, and the procurement process is determined by each individual customer.

Tracking success
One measure of our success in finding and developing significant opportunities is the bid pipeline. It contains contracts of £10m or above, where we have been short listed to the last 4 or fewer: all bids are capped at £500m to prevent very large individual contracts from distorting the total.

Because our long term bid success rate is 1 in 3 and our current rate is 1 in 2, the sales pipeline is a useful indicator of future sales growth. We report the pipeline in our full and half year results, providing a snapshot of the size and progress of bids. Once a bidding process is completed, the contract moves out of the pipeline which is constantly replenished as other bids progress to a shortlist stage.

The bid pipeline is backed by an active ‘prospect list’ of opportunities where we are working on bids which are yet to reach a shortlist or final bidding stage. In turn, this is backed by a list of ‘suspects’ and relationships which we are nurturing to generate future bid opportunities.

Addressing opportunities selectively
Major bids are costly, in time and resources: public sector procurement processes can take up to 2 years to complete. We are highly selective, only bidding where we can see clear benefits to both the client and the Group. Critical factors include:

• a defined bid process with clear decision criteria, set by clients with whom we can build a strong relationship
• a fit with our core competencies of service transformation
• limited requirement for capital investment, unless there is a real value proposition for the Group
• fair risk/reward balance
• acceptable contractual obligations.

Responding to client requirements
Just as we are selective with the opportunities we pursue, our clients are highly selective when engaging an outsourcing partner. Each client looks for a unique set of services and deliverables. Most, however, are looking for a partner with a track record of:

• service excellence
• service improvement
• cost savings
• process efficiencies
• innovation
• depth and flexibility of expert resources
• added value services
• market expertise
• financial strength and stability

Securing appropriate pricing and contract terms
Our major contracts are long term commitments. On average they last over 9 years, so we need to get our pricing and contract terms right.

As part of the bid process we make detailed risk assessments of the contract requirements and our service delivery proposals. We build in flexibility and make provision for changing needs where possible. Our extensive experience in measuring and accounting for risks is a valuable benefit. Where we identify risks we build them into our model and price accordingly. We will not accept responsibility for risk that is outside our control.

To ensure prudent pricing, we clearly separate responsibilities. Sales teams are responsible for client relationships and sales support teams develop pricing and risk models. On all major bids, pricing is agreed by the Group Board.