Public tenders: everything businesses need to know
A public tender is a competition in which a public buyer invites suppliers to bid for a contract. In Norway, contracts above the national threshold are announced on Doffin, and those above the EEA thresholds also on TED, the EU's procurement journal. To win one you need to find the notice in time, meet the qualification requirements, answer the award criteria better than the other bidders and submit before the deadline in the buyer's own tendering system. This guide takes the steps in that order.
How big is the market, and how much competition is there?
According to the European Commission, public authorities in the EU spend around EUR 2 trillion a year on works, goods and services. In Norway, public procurement is worth more than NOK 740 billion a year (Statistics Norway, national accounts). Competition is often thinner than suppliers expect: in Tenderen's analysis of TED award notices, a Norwegian contract award published in 2025 received a median of 3 tenders, and 18.9% of awards had only one tender (2,039 awards with a reported bid count). That is the main argument for bidding: many contracts are decided among very few suppliers.
Where are tenders published?
Doffin is Norway's national notice database, run by the Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ). TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the EU's journal for notices above the EU/EEA thresholds, so larger Norwegian contracts appear in both. Other countries have their own national portals; in France it is BOAMP. Smaller contracts below the thresholds are often published only nationally, or not at all. Tenderen indexes Doffin (checked every hour), TED (every two hours) and BOAMP (once a day) in one search, but not other national portals, so a tender published only elsewhere will not show up.
Thresholds decide which rules apply
The estimated contract value decides how strict the procedure is. Below the national threshold the rules are light, and the buyer mainly has to follow the basic principles of competition, equal treatment and transparency. Above it, the contract must be announced on Doffin. Above the EU/EEA thresholds, which are much higher for construction works than for goods and services, the full EU-based rules apply, including publication on TED and standstill periods. The values are revised regularly; DFØ publishes the current ones on anskaffelser.no.
Procedures, and why they matter for your odds
In an open procedure anyone can bid. In a restricted procedure the buyer first selects qualified suppliers and only they may bid. Competitive procedures with negotiation and competitive dialogue let the buyer negotiate or develop the solution with the bidders. In exceptional cases the buyer may award a contract without prior publication. The procedure changes the competition you face: across the Nordic countries in 2024–2025, 89.6% of contracts awarded through negotiation without prior publication had a single bidder, against 18.4% in open procedures. Framework agreements are a large share of the market, and they had a lower single-bid share than other contracts (17.0% against 24.7%).
Qualification requirements and award criteria are two different tests
Qualification requirements decide whether you may take part: turnover, certifications, references, tax and registration certificates. Fail one and the bid is rejected, however good it is. Award criteria decide who wins among the qualified bidders, usually a weighted mix of price and quality. In EU-level procedures you first declare that you meet the requirements in the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD), and the winner documents it afterwards. Read both sets before you decide to bid: the qualification requirements tell you whether you can bid, the award criteria tell you whether you can win.
From notice to submitted bid, step by step
1) Set up searches or alerts on the CPV codes and regions you deliver to, so you see notices on the day they are published. 2) Read the notice and the tender documents, and list the requirements. 3) Decide whether to bid, with knock-out questions first and a weighted score after. 4) Ask the buyer about anything unclear before the question deadline, instead of writing reservations into the bid. 5) Write the answer criterion by criterion, with concrete evidence. 6) Check every requirement against your answers, then submit in the buyer's tendering system before the deadline, with time to spare. 7) When the award arrives, read the justification and record the outcome.
Where Tenderen fits, and where it doesn't
Tenderen covers steps 1 to 6: one search and alerts across Doffin, TED and BOAMP (free for one user with daily email alerts), and on Pro an AI analysis of the tender documents, a go/no-go scorecard, drafts of answer sections and a requirement check. It does not submit bids for you: submission always happens in the buyer's own tendering system. AI output can be wrong, so check requirements and figures against the original documents.
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