22nd July 2011, 12:42 PM
Devillish Advocate Wrote:Don't really see how. Of course the client wants you to work for as close to nothing as he can legally make you. It's the role of the archaeology company to insist on appropriate recompense for their services. If they bend over and agree to put in a low tender with no overtime, expenses or whatever then they are, as RedEarth says, undercutting companies that do want to do right by their staff.
Even if the client refuses to pay such things, you as the archaeology company just increase your flat daily rate to cover all your expenses and overtime, and put in your tender on that basis.
Of course it won't work, but only because you'll be undercut by someone who doesn't value their profession or their staff.
Complex in terms of who is causing the undercutting...........in the case in point.....the company had got the tender (theoretically), but the client then threatened to put it out to tender again unless they agreed to the new conditions.
On a different recent tender specification I saw, the breakdown of the decision criteria was 80% cost 20% on a demonstration of sufficient understanding of the archaeology.
One of our managers said that he always asks for feedback on why we didn't win a tender. It is always cost.
To survive an archaeological company has to win tenders.