Guides to public procurement.
Practical guides for bidders: the Procurement Act and the procedures, thresholds, small procurements, municipal minutes and how to anticipate tenders. 28 guides written by Tendera's procurement specialists.
Procurement procedures
The open procedure – a bidder's guide to the most common procurement procedure
The open procedure is the most common form of tendering in public procurement. Under section 32 of the Public Procurement Act, in an open procedure the contracting…
Read the guide →Innovation partnership – when no ready-made solution exists on the market
The innovation partnership under section 38 of the Public Procurement Act is perhaps the most exceptional of the procedures, because in it the public buyer does not…
Read the guide →The competitive dialogue – building the solution together with the buyer
The competitive dialogue under sections 35 and 36 of the Public Procurement Act is reserved for the most complex and demanding public procurements. It is typically used…
Read the guide →The negotiated procedure – a tendering format that calls for dialogue
The negotiated procedure under the Finnish Public Procurement Act (section 34) differs significantly from the open and restricted procedures, because it allows…
Read the guide →The restricted procedure – two-stage tendering in public procurement
The restricted procedure under section 33 of the Public Procurement Act is a two-stage form of tendering. Unlike the open procedure, where anyone may submit a bid, in…
Read the guide →Direct award – the exception procedure in public procurement
The main rule of the Procurement Act is always open and non-discriminatory competition. A direct award (sections 40 and 41) is a strict exception to that rule. In it the…
Read the guide →Procurement law
The 2026 reform of the Procurement Act
The Procurement Act reform (government bill HE 2/2026 vp), passed by parliament in the spring and in force since 18 June 2026, is one of the most significant updates to…
Read the guide →The Procurement Act in plain language – how the public sector buys
The public sector buys goods, services and works for enormous sums every year. To keep the buying fair and to use tax money efficiently, these procurements are governed…
Read the guide →Procurement thresholds – when does the Procurement Act apply, and what does it mean for a bidder?
Public procurement is governed by legislation, but not every order of office supplies or small piece of expert work has to go through a heavy tendering process. The line…
Read the guide →A bidder's rights – the Procurement Act as a seller's protection
Taking part in public procurement can sometimes feel as though all the power lies with the buyer and the rules are endless. The Public Procurement Act (1397/2016) does…
Read the guide →Award criteria
When tender documents are published, an experienced B2G seller's eye goes straight to one place: the award criteria. They are the heart of the whole tender and the rules…
Read the guide →Building a bid
Maximising quality points in public procurement – analysing the award criteria and optimising strategically
In public procurement, quality is not assessed on subjective impressions, brand or marketing communication. When a contracting authority chooses the most economically…
Read the guide →Trade secrets in a bid – protecting a bidder's intangible assets in public procurement
A core principle of public procurement is openness, aimed at ensuring transparency in the procedure and allowing decisions to be assessed afterwards. Openness does not,…
Read the guide →An abnormally low tender price (section 96) – pricing strategies and the bidder's duty to explain
Public procurement is often a competition on price, but even free price competition has statutory limits. Section 96 of the Procurement Act deals with abnormally low…
Read the guide →The "or equivalent" rule (section 71) – using brand names and demonstrating equivalence in public procurement
One of the central aims of the Procurement Act is to safeguard equal and non-discriminatory competition. This principle stands out especially when a contracting…
Read the guide →Alternative bids in public procurement – room for innovation within strict rules
The starting point in public procurement is strict conformity: a bidder must respond exactly to the technical specification and solution model the contracting authority…
Read the guide →B2G sales
How to read municipal meeting minutes from a sales perspective
Meeting minutes and officeholder decisions reveal upcoming procurements, budgets and competitors' prices before the tender documents are…
Read the guide →Small-scale procurements – the fastest route to growth in public procurement
Procurements below the national threshold are an SME's most agile route to public-sector…
Read the guide →Tendera in your own AI: MCP connection to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot
With Tendera's MCP connection, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot get access to the same procurement data you use in Tendera. You ask in your own AI; the answer comes from…
Read the guide →Officeholder decisions – the most valuable B2G signal about upcoming procurements
Thousands of decisions that never appear in Hilma reveal what the public sector intends to buy — and on what…
Read the guide →Eligibility & ESPD
Subcontractors in public procurement – rights, obligations and a bidder's risk management
Public procurements are often large and complex. The Public Procurement Act (1397/2016) recognises that few companies can deliver all the required services, goods or…
Read the guide →The ESPD in public procurement – a bidder's guide to declaring suitability
The European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) is a central part of the bidding process in public procurement. Under section 87 of the Procurement Act, it is a…
Read the guide →Grounds for exclusion in public procurement – assessing a bidder's background and reliability
The Procurement Act requires companies taking part in public tenders to be reliable and financially sound and to have met their statutory obligations. To ensure this,…
Read the guide →Reference requirements in public procurement – demonstrating a bidder's technical and professional capacity
In public procurement the contracting authority must satisfy itself that the winner of the tender genuinely has what it takes to meet the obligations of the contract.…
Read the guide →Results & appeals
Procurement rectification vs. the Market Court – a bidder's legal remedies at the moment of the award
When the procurement decision has been made and you spot a clear error in the procedure or in the comparison, being annoyed is not enough. The Public Procurement Act…
Read the guide →Analysing a procurement decision – a bidder's guide to reading the decision documents
Once a tender has been decided, the contracting authority sends every participant a written procurement decision. For a professional bidder the decision is not merely an…
Read the guide →Amending a contract mid-term (section 136) – a B2G seller's guide to additional sales without a new tender
Once the public tender has been won and the contract signed, many consulting and software sellers run into the rigidity of the B2G market: the customer would like to buy…
Read the guide →The standstill rules (section 129) – a bidder's critical window after the procurement decision
Once a public procurement decision has been made and the winner chosen, the contracting authority cannot sign the contract immediately. In procurements above the EU…
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