In IT, as in many other areas, local vendors may be competitively disadvantaged against international companies that might have more experience in composing tender documents. Local vendors may be competitive, but companies who have dealt successfully with UNDP before often know how to refine their tender documents and handle the process of bidding better. Language may also be a entry barrier for local companies if the tender documents are in for example English, or not in the local language, as for example is the case of Cambodia where the language was Khmer, Afghanistan where the language was Dari or Pashto and Moldova where the language was Russian or Romanian. Most of these local markets are very small and to afford a translator is for them already a considerable investment for one process.
To avoid this issue, in many cases the tender are specified “local only.” Yet in many cases the local market is very small and many vendors fail the minimum requirements of the tender. In such situations, in order not to compromise competitive requirements while still aiming at including as possible local vendors, a potential strategy is to encourage international companies to partner up with local companies.
Another solution would be to host a pre-bid conference/training explaining the different required documents to the prospective vendors. The conference can for example clarify on issues related to:
