Tender Performance: A Case-Study of a Contractor’s EMVI Tender Performance in the Dutch Infrastructure Sector

This thesis is a case-study of a relatively novel tender award mechanism used by RWS, called ‘EMVI: Economic Most Advantages Tender. EMVI is a method used in the award of RWS’ procurement; not only considering price but also the value of (quantified) qualitative factors such as public focus, sustainable development, and project management. By incorporating incentives aside lowest price, RWS tries to guide bidders to make the best possible offer.
Facing EMVI tenders, many contractors seem to have a difficult time analysing the tender dynamics and making clear choices about different criteria, values and wishes. The aim of this research is therefore to show tender dynamics that affect the performance when facing EMVI, analyse contractor’s current performance when facing EMVI, and to enable contractors to consistently redevelop their tender strategy when facing EMVI. For my thesis I have looked at Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors b.v. This is a worldwide oriented Dutch dredging company. The analysis in this thesis shows that the EMVI-award mechanism is not fully exploited by VON in a consistent beneficial manner. Analysing qualitative factors require a different mind-set than required by quantitative factors. When the core business activities of VON keep revolving around generating a competitive subscription price only, the gap between the quality needs of RWS and quality offers of VON will only increase due to the lack (or, lag) of proper analytical focus by VON.