The hunt for public tenders: Why finding opportunities is harder than winning them

Finding the right tender to apply for should be easy, right?

After all, governments and public authorities are supposed to publish their tenders publicly so that everyone has a fair chance.

But if you’ve ever actually tried to search for tenders in Europe, you know the truth: finding opportunities can be harder than winning them.

Instead of one simple system, companies must:

• Search across dozens of national, regional, and sector-specific portals
• Navigate different languages, formats, and registration systems
• Stay updated on daily changes, new announcements, and amendments

We’ve already written about this in our blog “Why public procurement in Europe is broken: Pain points that are hurting businesses”. 

According to the European Commission, many companies miss out on tenders simply because they can’t find them on time.

In this blog post, we’ll explore why the tender discovery process in Europe is so difficult, what it costs companies, and how you can build a better system to find tenders faster and more reliably.

Let’s dive in by looking at where all the tenders actually are — and why you probably aren’t seeing them all.

In theory, the European Union promotes open access to public tenders.

In practice, however, tenders are scattered across hundreds of different platforms, making it extremely hard for companies — especially small and medium-sized ones — to keep track of everything.

Here’s where tenders are typically published:

1. Tenders Electronic Daily (TED)
   
   • The official EU platform for tenders above EU thresholds (€143,000 for goods and services, €5.5 million for works).
   • Covers only the largest contracts, and often with basic information.
2. National public procurement portals
   
   • Each EU country has its own portal.
   • Examples:
     
     • France: Marchés Publics
     • Germany: Bund.de
     • Italy: Acquisti in Rete
3. Regional and municipal websites
   
   • Some cities, regions, and local agencies post tenders on their own platforms, sometimes without linking to national systems.
4. Sector-specific platforms
   
   • Specialized areas like healthcare, defense, IT services, or construction often have their own procurement portals.

As we already said in our blog post, these are the problems caused by this fragmentation:

• No single source for all tenders, even within one country.
• Different search systems — every platform uses its own categories, filters, and languages.
• Registration hurdles — some platforms require complicated, multi-step signups just to view tenders.

Manual effort — companies must monitor several sources daily, or risk missing deadlines.

Even if you manage to find tender opportunities across various portals, another major obstacle quickly appears - language barriers and inconsistent systems.

Here’s how these challenges affect companies:

• Local Language Requirements
• Most national and regional portals publish tenders only in the official language of the country.
• For example:
  
  • Tenders from France are usually published in French.
  • Tenders from Germany are typically in German.
  • Tenders from Poland are posted in Polish.

Even when companies are allowed to submit proposals in English, the tender notices, instructions, and legal terms are often only available in the local language.

• Different Terminology and Categories
  
  • Procurement categories (goods, services, works) aren’t standardized across platforms.
  • A “consulting service” tender in Germany might be categorized differently than in Italy or Denmark.
• No Universal Search Tools
  
  • While some portals offer basic keyword search, advanced filters (like CPV codes, contract value, deadlines) are missing or work differently from platform to platform.
• Translation Risks
  
  • Using automatic translators like Google Translate can help — but errors in understanding legal terms or bid requirements can be extremely costly.

And if you think the problems stop there, think again.

Let’s now look at another hidden barrier: the inconsistent and messy ways tenders are published and formatted across Europe.

Even when you find a tender and overcome the language barrier, you still face another major problem: the format of tender information is inconsistent and often messy.

Here’s what companies usually have to deal with:

• Tender documents uploaded as scanned PDFs - some portals only offer tender notices as scanned documents, which means you can’t easily search or copy important details.
• No standardized data fields - while some platforms (like TED) offer structured databases where you can filter by sector, value, or location, many national or local sites simply list tenders as text announcements or PDFs with no advanced search options.
• Tender details hidden inside attachments - instead of providing a clear description online, some platforms require you to download several documents (sometimes dozens) just to find basic information like contract value, deadline, or eligibility criteria.
• Email notifications are unreliable - some portals allow you to subscribe to tender alerts via email — but often the filters are too broad (sending you irrelevant opportunities) or the notifications come too late, when deadlines are already tight.

And what happens if you miss an opportunity because it was buried or late?

Next, we’ll explore how the hidden costs of poor tender discovery can seriously hurt your business growth.

When it’s hard to find and track tenders properly, companies don’t just face frustration — they also suffer real business losses.

Here’s what poor tender discovery can cost you:

• Missed opportunities - simply put, if you don’t see a tender, you can’t apply. Every missed opportunity could have been a new project, a new client, or a new revenue stream.
• Wasted staff time - teams spend hours or even days every week manually checking different portals, opening PDFs, translating documents, and sorting through irrelevant notices — without any guarantee of success.
• Higher operational costs - some companies hire external consultants or build internal roles just for tender searching, adding to operational expenses without necessarily improving win rates.
• Lost competitive advantage - quick, early discovery allows companies to prepare better bids and respond faster than competitors. If you find a tender late, you might have less time to prepare a strong, customized offer — or you might miss the deadline entirely.

So how can companies solve this?

It starts by building a smarter, more centralized system for monitoring tenders — and using the right tools to automate the heavy lifting.

Let’s look at how you can move towards smarter tender discovery.

Given all the challenges with finding tenders manually, building a smarter discovery process is essential if you want to compete effectively.

Here’s how smart companies are solving the tender discovery problem:

1. Use tender aggregators - platforms like Tendify collect tenders from multiple countries across the EU, sectors, and portals into one centralized system. This saves you hours of manual searching every week.
2. Set up custom alerts - instead of browsing endlessly, you can set up personalized notifications based on your keywords, sectors, regions, and contract values. This ensures you only receive tenders that match your business needs.
3. Automate daily monitoring - automated systems can check for updates, deadline changes, and new tender releases in real time — so you’re never caught off guard.
4. Improve early planning - when you discover tenders earlier, you have more time to prepare strong proposals — increasing your chances of winning.

Companies that use tender monitoring platforms report saving up to 30% of their bid preparation time, according to a survey by Public Spend Forum.

Tendify simplifies European tender discovery by:

• Aggregating public tenders from across the EU, national, and regional platforms
• Offering smart filters to find tenders by sector, country, value, and keywords
• Sending customized alerts directly to your inbox
• Helping businesses focus less on searching and more on winning