Tender monitoring for small businesses: how to use TED without a bid team

Public buyers in the EU must publish contracts above certain values on TED, the Tenders Electronic Daily. Several thousand notices appear every week. For a company with five people, the problem is not access. It is reading.

What you will find on TED

• Contract notices: an open competition you can bid on. These are the ones that matter.
• Prior information notices: announcements of upcoming tenders, sometimes with a call for competition.
• Award notices: who won a past contract. Useful for research, too late to bid.

Search only the first two if you want work.

Keywords beat categories at first

Every notice carries CPV codes, the EU's classification of goods and services. They are precise but unfamiliar. Start with keywords in the languages your buyers write in, for example "Website, Webentwicklung, web development". Add a CPV prefix later to sharpen results: codes starting with 72 cover IT services, 7241 internet services.

Score instead of filter

A notice that mentions your keyword in the title is a better match than one that mentions it on page 40. A transparent score helps: keyword in title, keyword in description, matching CPV code, value above your minimum. You see why a tender appears, and you can change the rules when the matches are off.

Deadlines are the real risk

Most missed tenders were found too late, not missed entirely. Set two reminders, seven days and two days before the submission deadline. Seven days is enough to decide; two days is the last call.

What TED does not cover

National tenders below the EU thresholds are published on national portals. They are not on TED, and a TED search cannot find them. Be clear about that when you rely on one source.

Try it

Run a live search in the TenderAlert demo with your own keywords and country.