Privacy policy.

Enquiries, quotes and general contact

When you complete our contact or quote forms, or email or call us, we collect your name, business name, email address, phone number, the service you are interested in, and whatever you choose to tell us about your business and the opportunity you are pursuing.

Free tools and downloadable resources

Our free tools — including the Go/No-Go Bid Calculator, the tender compliance checklist and the tender readiness assessment — may ask for your name, email address, company name and details of the tender you are assessing, such as the issuing authority, tender reference, jurisdiction, estimated value, closing date and your estimated bid cost.

Client onboarding and tender briefs

If you engage us, our onboarding and tender brief forms collect more detailed information, including contact details for your nominated representatives, your business and postal addresses, billing details, and the specifics of the tender we are being asked to work on.

Information you give us during an engagement

This is the category most relevant to our clients, and it deserves to be stated plainly. To write a tender response, capability statement or prequalification application, we routinely receive documents that contain personal information about people other than you — for example the names, positions, qualifications, licences, tickets, employment history and CVs of your employees, and the names and contact details of your referees and project contacts.

We collect that information from you rather than from those individuals. Where it is reasonable and practicable to do so, we rely on you to have told them that their information will be provided to us and included in a tender submission. If that has not happened, please tell us before you send the material.

Website and technical information

When you visit our website we may collect your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you view, the site or search that referred you, and how you move through the site. Some of this is collected through cookies and analytics tools — see section 03.

Sensitive information

We do not seek sensitive information as defined in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), such as health information or information about race, religion or union membership. Occasionally tender documentation touches on related matters — for example Indigenous participation commitments, workforce diversity reporting, or a workplace injury history disclosed in a safety record. Where that occurs we collect and use the information only for the purpose of preparing your submission, and only with your consent.

Who we disclose personal information to

We disclose personal information only where it is necessary, and to the following kinds of recipients:

• The issuing authority — a council, government agency, head contractor or principal — where your information forms part of a tender submission we prepare or lodge for you. This is the point of the engagement, and submissions are then handled under that authority’s own procurement and privacy rules.
• Our service providers, including website hosting, email and document storage, form processing, analytics, accounting and payment processing.
• Professional advisers such as our accountant or lawyers, where reasonably required.
• Anyone you direct us to, including your own consultants, joint venture partners or subcontractors.
• Regulators, courts or law enforcement, where we are required or authorised by law.

Overseas disclosure

Some of the providers we rely on are based outside Australia or store data on overseas infrastructure. This includes our website host, our email and document storage provider, and the analytics tools named in section 03, which are likely to involve recipients in the United States. Where we disclose personal information to an overseas recipient, we take reasonable steps to ensure it is handled consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles.

Confidential and commercially sensitive information

Much of what clients send us is commercially sensitive rather than personal — pricing, rates, margins, methodologies, project history, financial statements and prequalification submissions. We treat that material as confidential. We do not disclose it, use it for any purpose other than your engagement, or reuse client-specific content in another client’s submission.

Where we hold generic, non-client-specific know-how — templates, structures and drafting approaches developed by us — we may continue to use it. Our confidentiality obligations are set out more fully in our Terms of Service.

How we store and protect information

We hold information in cloud-based systems protected by access controls, authentication and encryption in transit. Access is limited to those who need it to deliver your work. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we take reasonable steps to protect information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.

If we become aware of a data breach likely to result in serious harm, we will respond in accordance with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including notifying affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner where required.

How long we keep information

We keep client engagement records for as long as we have a relationship with you and afterwards for as long as we are required to for legal, tax, insurance or dispute-resolution reasons. Enquiries that do not become engagements are kept for a reasonable period and then deleted. Where information is no longer needed and we are not required to retain it, we take reasonable steps to destroy it or de-identify it.