Entering tenders more effectively 

Tendering is cumbersome. And that's putting it mildly. The whole process has not been innovated since the advent of TenderNed. Speaking is Matthijs Huiskamp, founder of Altura, based in Utrecht. Altura is a platform that uses new technologies to help companies bid more effectively for tenders. "We ensure that our user can bid smarter for tenders using data."

"The idea for Altura came about in late 2019," says Huiskamp, who has years of experience as a consultant implementing digital transformations. "We noticed a great need to simplify the process of tendering. Intensive conversations and interviews with more than 250 managers including in the construction and infrastructure industry provided the input for the platform. There appeared to be a lot of demand to make information more accessible and to be able to work more efficiently." After a year and a half of research, testing and construction, Altura has been operational since July 2021. 

Being one step ahead of competitors

According to Huiskamp, Altura basically replaces all public platforms in one user-friendly application. "The target group has all the information needed to win a tender in one place and thus no longer needs to collect the information on five different platforms. With that alone, we achieve a huge efficiency gain for our users. All current tenders are available at a glance. All relevant information is transparent; what competition you can expect, what the course of the tenders is, et cetera."

Another unique aspect of Altura is that you can filter by criteria so that only tenders relevant to them are shown. "We also show all information about both tendering and purchasing organizations. So you can quickly see which tenders have been issued in the past (up to 2010), are currently open and are still in the pipeline for the future based on expiring contracts. This enables users of our platform to engage in early discussions with the contracting party." 

All municipal budgets are also listed on Altura, allowing companies to spot more opportunities when tendering. "In GWW, a lot is also purchased without a tender, for example because it falls below the tender threshold, you can capitalize on that too."

"The data platform for viewing current tenders is publicly accessible. For access to additional and enriched data such as competition, we charge a monthly or annual fee," explains Huiskamp. "Now we are going to scale up. For example, we have already connected several tender consultants who can assist companies with tender preparation. A no-obligation tender can be requested directly through our platform. And so we continue to develop continuously with new services and integrations with other software from users and providers for optimal information exchange. A nice first integration is the link with the 12Build platform. This allows a user to send out a targeted request for quotation, based on their own selection, directly from a tender on Altura to construction specialists and suppliers in both the Netherlands and Belgium. In addition, we are now finalizing our next major update with which we are guaranteed to greatly increase the effectiveness of all our users, a must for anyone serious about tendering. We are very much looking forward to all these next steps on the roadmap and can't wait to share this with you!" Moreover, Huiskamp is not ruling out expansion abroad either. To be continued, then.