BSW criticizes SBB pitch
BSW Leading Swiss Agencies criticizes the tender for the competitive presentation "Further development of SBB umbrella communication" of the Swiss Federal Railways and demands an adjustment of the conditions.
The association BSW reacts with incomprehension to the currently published tender of SBB/IMS Infrastructure for the further development of the SBB umbrella communication. The approach of the largest national transport company ignores valid rules and recommendations of the entire industry, it says in a statement on Wednesday. In the open invitation to tender, agencies were asked to work for the federal government free of charge, nourished solely by the hope that they would be allowed to present their work in person in a second round. The SBB requires that, in addition to the usual references, complete free presentations, including creative concepts with implementations and binding offers, be submitted by March 23, 2015.
In addition, SBB expected that all participating agencies would be willing to assign the right of use, including the right of modification, to it without compensation. Ignoring the generally valid industry recommendations by a federal company is unacceptable for the association of leading communication agencies in Switzerland.
BSW Leading Swiss Agencies has therefore sent a letter to those responsible at SBB requesting that the current evaluation process be suspended and the conditions adjusted accordingly. A response to this is still pending, according to the statement.
Summary of industry recommendations:
According to the recommendation of BSW Leading Swiss Agencies, which has become the industry standard, the following approach is appropriate when selecting a communications agency:
1. in a first phase, agencies should be able to apply for the contract with an agency presentation, guideline offers and the demonstration of competencies. Such an agency evaluation without project-specific creation and concept work to be developed, does not have to be compensated.
2. in the second phase, the actual competitive presentation, the selected agencies (recommendation 3-4 agencies) are commissioned to develop project-specific creative work and concepts. Transparency must be maintained in this process. This means that the participating agencies must know who the other competitors are. The losing agencies are to be compensated with an appropriate cancellation fee.
3. the transfer of the rights of use (copyright) must be compensated.
