TenderWolf is an online platform that gives you access to millions of public contracts from all over Europe. You can easily search, filter, analyze and track these contracts using TenderWolf's powerful search engine. In this article, we explain how you can best use the search engine to find the most relevant contracts for your business, both current and historical.
TenderWolf's search engine consists of two parts: the search bar and the filter options. You can use both to refine and personalize your search.
The search bar
The search bar is the easiest way to search for government contracts. Here you can enter one or more keywords related to the contracts you are looking for. For example, if you are looking for contracts to supply medical equipment, you can enter the words "medical" and "equipment." You can also use quotation marks to specify an exact search term, for example, "medical equipment." The search bar works like Google. The best results are at the top.
Tip #1: Use quotation marks to increase precision and effectiveness
Putting words in quotation marks in TenderWolf is a useful search technique for getting specific results. When you put a phrase or series of words in quotation marks, you instruct TenderWolf to search for exactly those words in the exact order you typed them. It leads to more targeted and relevant search results when you are looking for specific government contracts:
- Precision in search results: without quotation marks, TenderWolf can interpret each word separately and display tenders containing each of these words in any order or context. By using quotation marks, you limit the search to tenders that contain the exact phrase. This is even more powerful if you apply it to searches in addenda or specifications as well.
- Useful for specific information: this method is particularly useful if you are looking for specific information, such as an exact phrase from a text, a specific set of technical terms, specific names or certificates or methods.
- Filters out inaccurate results: it helps filter out results that happen to contain the same words, but in a different context.
Tip 2: Use logical operators (AND, OR, NOT) to strongly delineate your query
Like Google, TenderWolf offers the ability to use logical operators such as "AND," "OR," and "NOT" to refine searches. Below we briefly discuss how these operators work, and give a few examples in the domain of public procurement:
- AND: This operator ensures that all search terms must be present in the search results. It is useful when you want to see government jobs that contain multiple specific search terms. Say you are searching for contracts that include both "construction" and "renovation. Then it's best to search for construction AND renovation. This will return government contracts that contain both terms, "construction" and "renovation."
- OR: This operator is used to expand searches by allowing results that contain one or more of the specified terms. It is useful if you are flexible in your search criteria. If you are interested in government contracts related to 'IT' or 'software,' you would search for IT OR software. This will return results that contain either 'IT' or 'software' or both.
- NOT: This operator excludes specific terms from your search. It is useful when you want to exclude certain aspects of a search. If you are searching for government contracts in the area of 'transportation,' but have no interest in 'courier services,' you could search for transportation AND NOT courier services. This will return results related to "transportation," but exclude those that are specifically about "courier services.
- These logical operators can be combined to create complex searches that are very specific. For example, if you are interested in government contracts related to "energy" or "environment," but not "oil," you could search for(energy OR environment) AND NOT oil.
Using these operators in TenderWolf allows users to effectively filter the vast amount of public procurement data and search for exactly those tenders that are most relevant to their needs or expertise.
Tip 3: Use an '*' to enforce an exact match, without variations or inflections
TenderWolf offers a way to enforce an exact match in searches, giving you only government queries that contain the exact word, with no variations or inflections. You do this by adding an asterisk, "*," after a word. By adding an asterisk immediately after a word, e.g. LEED*,you instruct TenderWolf to show only government contracts where the word "LEED" appears exactly as typed. This means that government contracts that contain variations such as "LED," "LEEDS" or "MEMBERS" will be excluded. It's a simple but powerful way to improve the precision of your searches, especially when searching for specific terms or phrases. This is especially important with abbreviations, and technical terms that also have different meanings.
Tip 4: designate the language you are searching in
TenderWolf's search engine is extremely powerful and, like Google, uses all kinds of clever technology to keep search results intuitive, taking into account slight variations and inflections. If you search for school building, TenderWolf will also show you government contracts that mention school buildings. This smart technology works optimally if you include with your search terms what language you want to search in. If you don't, there will be a bit of contamination, because certain words of one language also appear in one or more other languages, often in a different meaning, thus polluting the search results.
The filter options
The filter options are another way to refine and personalize your search. You can find these on the left side of the search results. You can select different criteria here to filter the jobs based on your preferences. For example, you can filter by:
- Country: you can choose from more than 20 European countries where TenderWolf collects government contracts.
- Contract type: you can choose from different types of contracts, such as services, works or supplies
- Deadline: you can choose from different time frames
- CPV code: you can choose from more than 9,000 CPV codes, which describe the various products and services purchased by the government.
- European publication: an important filter because it gives an indication of the value of the contract
- Approvals: you can filter public contracts by class and category (highly relevant for construction contracts)
- Labels: you can attach to each public contract one or more self-created labels, which allow you to easily classify public contracts. Labels are much more interesting than the classic folder structure (you can only put a contract in one folder).
Tip 5: Use an asterisk as a wildcard, to search on a range of CPV codes
When searching by contract codes or CPV codes, you can use the asterisk. For example, if you type in '45*', TenderWolf will give you all government contracts whose CPV code begins with '45'.
You can combine the search bar and multiple filter options to further refine your search. For example, if you are looking for medical equipment supply contracts in Belgium, published in the last 30 days, with an estimated value between 100,000 and 500,000 euros, you can select the following filter options:
Tip 6: Use the 'Search in attachments' filter to search only in the assignment documents (specifications, measurement statements, etc.).
This is very interesting if you are looking for government contracts where specific technical information determines whether or not a tender is relevant to you. That information is typically in the specifications.
Tip 7: Use the 'My sector' filter to search the entire archive with your current search profiles
If you designate the filter "Search my sector" in the "Search" tab, TenderWolf will automatically make you search only within government contracts that match your search profiles. This is the perfect way to see how your current search profiles would have worked in the past. What do I bring up in government contracts with my current search profiles? You can also apply this, if you add other countries to your search profile.
TenderWolf's search engine is a powerful tool for searching a huge archive of government contracts. You can use it to find, track and analyze the most relevant contracts for your company. This way you can increase your chances of winning government contracts, and strengthen your competitive advantage.
