An open bid process is available to any interested party and after bid closing, bids can be opened either in the presence of the bidders (publicly), or with only the owner’s representatives and possibly the major consultants present (privately). Private procurers of construction rarely; if ever, adopt an open bid approach whereas public procurers are sometimes compelled by law to make bidding open to all potential contractors. Open bidding can result in a large number of submissions and detailed review can be unwieldy, time consuming and expensive. Within the context of an open bid, the issue of qualification or competence comes into question. Post-bid research may be required to determine whether the low bidder is suitable or is capable of executing the work. Some of the following techniques can assist with the issue of bidder qualification in an open bid context:

• Open Bid – Two Part Submission: A two part (single phase) bid submission consists of a qualification statement and a price / schedule proposal.  Such approach often treats the qualification portion of the “bid” as a primary sort; either the proponent is considered suitable or it isn’t. If not, the second part of the bid isn’t opened.  The extent of measures employed to determine bidder suitability depend entirely on the scale and complexity of the project. They could include agreements to bond, bid bonds, CCDC-11 Contractor’s Qualification Statement, and proposed staffing and references. In such a bid process, the prerequisites a contractor must meet to be considered qualified must be clearly defined, hopefully saving both time and effort in preparing and reviewing bids.
  
  An open bid could also be a two phase bid, the first phase being a formal prequalification process for bidders or specific sub-contractors.  This might be considered for projects that are large, complex and / or have specialized trade requirements that go beyond standard items such as bid bonds – for example requirements for specific heritage restoration experience or projects.  A two phase open bid offers another level of fairness in that bidders who do not meet the requirements will not have spent the time and effort in preparing bids that ultimately would not be considered.
  
  

• Post-bid negotiations: Negotiations with a small selection of bidders is a normal practice among private buyers but such approaches are often considered problematic by public buyers due to a real or perceived (in)ability to maintain transparency and fairness of the tender documents. For example, one might question whether a change in product might give a bidder an unfair advantage due to their preferential relationship with the supplier or manufacturer of said product, or that if the change had been known beforehand another might have been the successful bidder.