An oilfield equipment maker can keep tender leads and distributor follow ups in a GoHighLevel pipeline with one card per tender and opportunity custom fields for the closing date, offer validity, required certificates, and the distributor's authorization letter. A workflow that fires whenever the closing date changes covers the corrigendum problem. The bottom line: tender documents are full of dated conditions that are easy to miss, so each dated condition should be a field with an alert.
What real tender terms require
Oil India Limited tender NIT SDG0849P19 requires items manufactured, tested, and certified to API Spec 7K, with certificates valid continuously for five years before the original bid closing date, and a delivery schedule within five months of the letter of credit or order, or the offer is rejected. It requires bidders without an e tender login to register at least seven days before closing. Tender DFD7257L16 requires an original equipment manufacturer to show three years of API 7K certification, and requires a distributor to furnish a back up authority letter from the manufacturer that stays valid through execution of the order. It sets offer validity at 120 days from bid opening and rejects shorter validity. Amendment 2 to tender SJG9335P19, dated November 12, 2018, changed the API certificate clause and extended the closing date to November 27, 2018, with technical bid opening at 15:00 the same day.
Those are the dates and documents a CRM should hold: closing date, which can move, offer validity, certificate expiry, authorization letter expiry, and delivery commitment. Our own guides on when a drilling rig equipment tender is worth pursuing cover the certification gate before the bid.
Fields that hold the terms
| Field | Why |
|---|---|
| Tender number and buyer | Finds the record |
| Bid closing date and time | Can change by corrigendum |
| Offer validity end date | Bid opening plus the required days, such as 120 |
| Required API certificate and expiry | Missing or lapsed certificates reject bids |
| Bidder type: OEM or distributor | Decides the documents needed |
| Distributor name and letter expiry | The letter must stay valid through the order |
| Delivery commitment | Rejected if missed |
Build it in GoHighLevel
Stages: Found, Go or no go, Preparing, Submitted, Awaiting award, Won, Lost.
- Go to Settings, then Custom Fields, and create the opportunity fields listed above before you build the pipeline.
- Go to Opportunities, then Pipelines, and create the pipeline with the stages listed above.
- Add one opportunity per tender, with the buyer's procurement officer as the contact, and turn on Allow multiple Opportunities.
- Build a workflow with the Opportunity Changed trigger filtered on Bid closing date that sends an internal notification and creates a task when the date changes.
- Set an internal notification 14 days before the certificate expiry and the letter expiry, using a contact date field and the Custom Date Reminder trigger, or manual tasks at intake.
- Add a distributor contact for each tender and a monthly email to the distributor with the tender status and any documents still needed.
- Build a workflow for Won that creates a delivery tracking opportunity, and a workflow for Lost that asks for the winner and price.
- In the workflow's Settings tab, turn on Stop on Response, choose the Timezone, and set a Time Window for weekday business hours.
- Test with your own contact and your own phone, then move a test card through every stage and read the workflow history.
GoHighLevel's Workflow Settings page says Stop on Response removes a contact from the workflow when they respond to a message sent from that workflow, and only for that contact. It says Allow Reentry controls whether a contact can enter again, that Allow multiple Opportunities lets each of a contact's opportunities start its own run (on by default in new workflows), that the Timezone can follow the account or the contact, and that the Time Window restricts when communications go out, uses one window for every day, and does not affect internal actions such as tags, fields, or opportunities. Its Automating Opportunities page lists the Pipeline Stage Changed and Opportunity Status Changed triggers, both filterable by standard and custom opportunity fields, and its Opportunity Changed trigger page adds that this trigger also detects changes to lead value, assignment, and custom fields, with date field filters. A HighLevel agency help center article says opportunity custom fields are created under Settings, then Custom Fields.
What the workload looks like
For example, a manufacturer tracking 25 open tenders with 3 dated conditions each has 75 dates, and any corrigendum can move one. The alert on change means a shifted closing date reaches someone the day it is posted.
Mistakes to avoid
- Storing only the original closing date. Corrigenda move it.
- Ignoring certificate expiry. An expired API certificate rejects a bid.
- Not tracking distributor letters. They must stay valid through the order.
- Contacting the buyer against the rules. Check the tender's contact terms.
How this was handled before
Manufacturers handled tenders with a tender desk and a shared folder, and distributors through a contact list. That held when tenders were few and paper. Online tender portals publish corrigenda and each tender carries its own certificate and validity terms, so the record has to hold dated conditions. A pipeline gives each condition a field and each change an alert.
Check before you switch it on
US text messages sent from a standard 10 digit number need A2P 10DLC registration. The HighLevel support portal says registration is required for texts to US recipients from 10 digit long code numbers and that toll free numbers do not require it. HighLevel's opt in guidelines also say a person cannot be forced to agree to text messages in order to submit a form, so keep the consent box optional. One compliance guide separates informational texts, which need documented consent, from marketing texts, which need prior express written consent. Ask your attorney which category your reminders fall into. Tender contacts and distributors often work across time zones, so set the Timezone to the contact's. This is general information, not legal advice.
Questions people ask
What does an oilfield tender track?
Closing date, offer validity, certificates and expiry, bidder type, distributor authorization, and delivery commitment.
Can a closing date change?
Yes. Oil India's Amendment 2 to tender SJG9335P19 extended the closing date to November 27, 2018.
What if I am a distributor?
Oil India's tender DFD7257L16 requires a back up authority letter from the manufacturer, valid through execution of the order.
Ready to try it yourself? Start a GoHighLevel account here.
You can also see this in action in our GoHighLevel capabilities demo.