Cobrief as a competitive advantage: – In a busy workday, it's incredibly efficient

NoA Ignite was one of the first to adopt Cobrief. Nearly two years later, the tool is an integral part of their daily work -- and the key to both applying for and winning more tenders.

-- Just being able to quickly see who has previously submitted on a tender, gives a great picture of the competition. It saves us an enormous amount of time, says Øyvind Aak, Senior Bid Manager and Partner Manager at NoA Ignite.

He explains that it previously could take hours to find out who had submitted before. Now it's done in minutes, if not seconds, in Cobrief.

Since NoA Ignite has a lean sales operation, it's important to prioritize resources correctly. Each tender round must be carefully evaluated: Is this worth submitting on? What are the chances of winning? -- Cobrief helps us succeed with this.

We save a lot of time in the initial phases -- time we can spend on what actually matters: Developing and delivering a winning tender, says Aak.

Has had a hand in the development

NoA Ignite was one of the first to start using Cobrief. Since the start of 2024, the company has provided regular feedback on functionality and areas for improvement. The Cobrief team has welcomed the input with open arms.

-- It's been fun to follow the development and see how much better it has become in such a short time, says Henriette Vien, Client Operations Manager at NoA Ignite.

Øyvind Aak nods and adds: -- A lot has happened -- and it's happened fast. The tool has evolved faster than we've been able to adopt all the features, he says with a smile.

NoA Ignite has gone from heavy, manual processes to qualifying -- and disqualifying -- tenders in a fraction of the time. -- It's hard to imagine how we worked before, says Øyvind Aak. Here together with Henriette Vien.

Builds digital solutions for all of Norway

NoA Ignite is a Nordic consultancy with around 400 employees spread across Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki, and Wroclaw. The company is part of The North Alliance (NoA). NoA Ignite specializes in user-centric digital products and services.

Among the solutions NoA Ignite has delivered are the Ruter app, new websites, a new housing journey and a digital service platform for Studentsamskipnaden i Oslo (SiO), and the AMK project for Vestre Viken Health Trust, which allows 113 operators to see emergency situations in real time via mobile camera.

NoA Ignite has also delivered major projects for websites such as Regjeringen.no and BaneNor.no -- with advanced CMS solutions, content models, and complex integrations. -- Regjeringen.no is actually one of the world's largest information portals, and there we work with both technology and content structure, says Vien.

Cobrief makes it easier for more people at NoA Ignite to evaluate and contribute to tender processes -- and thereby catch opportunities that might otherwise have been overlooked.

-- Can apply for more relevant tenders

Before Cobrief became part of the daily workflow for the sales team at NoA Ignite, the tender work was characterized by time-consuming and manual processes: Documents had to be downloaded, forwarded, uploaded, and made accessible to multiple people.

The sales team ended up becoming a form of "gatekeepers" for all information related to public tenders. They spent a lot of time sharing various documents and files and similar things across departments all the time.

-- Now everything is shared in Slack via the Cobrief integration, so anyone who wants to can follow along, says Aak with satisfaction. The fact that more people can now evaluate tenders quickly and independently means that potential opportunities are always captured.

-- It's not always the sales team that spots everything. Now a subject matter expert can quickly see the potential in a tender we might have overlooked. In practice, this means we can apply for more relevant tenders, he says.

-- Incredibly efficient

There are especially two features the duo at NoA Ignite highlights. -- The landing page for each tender has become a key tool. There we get evaluation criteria, key information, and contract value quickly -- without having to open and read the entire tender package, says Vien.

The AI features also deliver concrete benefits in terms of time saved. The chatbot is used to find details that previously could take a long time to locate -- such as requirements for local presence, contract type, deadlines and dates, or special terms.

-- We use AI to ask specific questions. In a busy workday, it's incredibly efficient. Now we can quickly evaluate a tender. Very little time is wasted on evaluating whether this is something for us or not, says Vien.

-- Tenders that actually win

Although NoA Ignite today primarily uses Cobrief for qualification and information gathering, they see greater opportunities on the horizon -- particularly in AI and reuse of previous submissions.

-- We are now testing AI-based text suggestions, based on previous tenders. It's an exciting path forward -- but the quality must be top-notch. You don't win with something that's "good enough", says Aak.

For him, it's not about saving time in the writing phase, but about using time more wisely. It's about cutting everything unnecessary at the start and instead putting energy where it matters: Writing a tender that hits the mark.

*PSST**: Did you know that Cobrief has free tender alerts, with no trial period? **Check it out here!*