Sources of market information
Understand the range of market information sources, how to make the most of them and when to share insights with others.
This page guides buying teams through the sources of market insight and how to weigh up their validity. It also explains provisions that support the sharing of market insight between agencies and other jurisdictions. It builds on the industry engagement guidance provided on buy NSW.
Buying teams can choose between many information sources to learn about suppliers, products, services, an emerging technology or ways of solving problems. Each information source contributes to different types of insights, and each comes with a unique set of strengths to consider, and risks to manage.
Using a range of information sources helps understand the market and choose a procurement approach that will reach the right suppliers and attract the most relevant responses.
External sources of market information
When using, or planning to use, external market sources of market information, buying teams should carefully consider:
- Probity: Suppliers involved in market research do not need to be automatically excluded from a procurement arising from the research. Buying teams will need to ensure there is no actual or perceived advantage for the supplier involved in market research, for example through releasing market research outputs as part of the tender. Buying teams should ensure that suppliers have clear expectations about any commitments arising from their involvement. Any interactions with suppliers need to be well documented.
- Confidentiality or privacy: Buying teams will need to assess the level of confidentiality of any information or data they share with suppliers as part of market research. They may consider asking suppliers to sign confidentiality agreements or agreements to manage data or information in a specific way.
Expand the headings below to learn more about how each source can help and risks to manage.
Market sounding involves floating an idea with the market to get feedback before formally approaching suppliers with a request for tender or quote. When buying innovation, consider floating the challenge statement or proposed procurement pathways. This helps refine ideas before you finalise the procurement strategy.
Market soundings can take various forms, including requests for written responses, discussions with eligible suppliers or structured question and answer sessions.
Can help with
- Opportunity to provide consistent information to all eligible suppliers.
- Improving the industry’s understanding of the government needs.
- Understanding of the market without commitment to suppliers, including whether a competitive market exists.
- Getting a preview of how suppliers might work with us.
- Refining scope before publishing an opportunity, for a more achievable, more specific or clearer statement of requirements or problem definition.
- Understanding the feasibility of, or getting feedback on, the procurement approach.
- Understanding potential solution categories and capabilities.
Risks to manage
- May limit competitive insight to more established suppliers or ‘the usual suspects’ depending on channels used to reach suppliers.
- If working with a limited group, may create a perception of unfairness.
- Suppliers are likely to focus on their solutions while buying teams will need to refocus the activity on the procurement activity’s viability.
- Suppliers will want assurance that their intellectual property will be protected.
Approaching peak industry bodies (and potentially their members) can be a more targeted way to run a market sounding. This information source has all the same pros and cons as market sounding, with some additional ones below.
Can help with
- Understanding recent innovations and advancements.
- Knowledge of and access to emerging technology providers and SMEs.
- Raising awareness of upcoming opportunities with emerging technology providers and SMEs.
Risks to manage
- Insights may be biased or a conflict of interest may arise, depending on the organisation(s) sponsoring or running the peak body.
- The peak body may have selective membership, enhancing the perception of unfairness.
Universities or other academic institutions may have research strengths and intellectual capital that align with the challenge area or technology types. Access to intelligence could be supported through a range of mechanisms, such as informal conversations, commissioned research and development, grant programs, co-design or collaborative partnerships, bringing in researchers through professional service agreements, purchasing research material directly or leveraging existing research or innovation networks. Examples of these networks in NSW include:
- Connectivity Innovation Network
- Transport for NSW Research Hub
Can help with
- Access to research findings and data in peer-reviewed journals and other sources that may not be readily available to buying teams.
- Access to research methods that can uncover new information or connect related information.
- Access to specialised knowledge, data or information to help define a previously unknown problem.
Risks to manage
- Academic institutions and researchers will want assurance that their intellectual property will be protected and may require a commercial agreement and consideration of how information needs to be managed.
- Buying teams may need to put boundaries or constraints on the duration and cost of academic research activities. This typically takes place over longer time periods than projects may be able to accommodate.
- Buying teams should be aware of any other motivating factors or funding sources driving the research that could create biases or conflicts of interest.
Some organisations take on the role of conducting market research and scanning the market for appropriate solutions and providers, on behalf of government. The services provided can include:
- access to a database of solutions, capabilities or categories
- analysis of the database and recommendations based on project objectives
- insights into how well suppliers have performed in procurements
- insights into how similar problems have been solved.
Can help with
- Getting insights quickly when facing limited time or resource constraints.
- Access to knowledge of significant numbers of innovative solutions and suppliers.
- Access to insights based on direct experience and/or active engagement with suppliers.
Risks to manage
- Buying teams will need to consider if the cost of the service represents value for the project, considering innovation objectives and the risks of inadequate market research.
- There is potential for a conflict of interest depending on the operating and commercial model of the service.
- Buying teams may not have the option to be selective about the parts of the service offering they engage.
Some organisations provide research services to support project teams in the Discover phase. They can help understand the challenge space, the key stakeholders and validate the value of solving a challenge before the team is committed to a buying project. Due to their experience and insights, they may have a point of view on which challenges Government should be focused on. They may also be able to fill knowledge gaps and share what problems or solutions other jurisdictions and organisations are working on.
Can help with
- Access to research methods that can uncover the latest information or connect related information.
- Getting insights quickly when facing limited time or resource constraints.
- May include service to help shape a problem statement.
- Building confidence that a project is focused on the right problem, has defined it thoroughly or that it is worth solving.
Risks to manage
- Buying teams will need to consider if the cost of the service represents value for the project, considering innovation objectives and the risks of inadequate market research.
- There is potential for biased findings depending on the operating and commercial model of the service.
- Buying teams may not have the option to be selective about the parts of the service offering they engage.
- Researchers may want assurance that their intellectual property will be protected.
Some organisations provide access to market research, often through a subscription model. Services include access to market and trend reports for various solution categories. Reports can also be commissioned for specific research or consulting services. Research organisations provide clear frameworks and expectations, outlining the value you can gain from their services. They may make a limited amount of information freely available.
Can help with
- Up to date competitive information for mature solutions across several categories and shaping evaluation criteria to align with insights.
- Market scanning and recommendations for less mature products.
- Can undertake primary research in areas where information is limited, such as emerging technology or less mature markets, or applications of technology to new use cases.
- Can provide consulting services to support market analysis.
- High awareness of the hype cycle for innovation and merging technology.
Risks to manage
- Accessing services can be costly, often via subscriptions.
- There is potential for bias in information depending on the operating and commercial model of the service.
- May put forward solutions in foreign jurisdictions that may not meet NSW Government data and privacy requirements.
- Innovative solution providers and approaches may not yet be on the researchers’ radar.
- Insights from the client are likely to be folded back into the knowledge base and sold on to other clients.
Accelerators can be run by government agencies or outside of NSW Government. They offer a range of services that help take a problem through the ‘double-diamond’ design stages of discover, define, develop and deliver. Project teams can usually choose how much of the accelerator’s services they take up.
Accelerators generally work collaboratively with key people to understand the business need. They then support project teams and other stakeholders, often through co-design, to define the challenge, success criteria and outcomes.
Accelerators might build the solution themselves or run engagements to find out how others would build it (e.g. hackathons), before taking the solution hypothesis through several stages of design.
Can help with
- Undertaking a time-boxed discovery that may include primary research, problem definition, challenge framing, ideation, prototyping and testing or validation.
- Iterating and testing a solution hypothesis.
- Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and testing via pilot or trial.
- Can speed up discovery processes and outcomes compared to internal project delivery due to time-boxed methods.
- Identifying the case for change.
- Validating change readiness of key end users by actively engaging them in the methodology.
- Getting insights quickly when facing limited time or resource constraints.
Risks to manage
- Buying teams will need to understand the methods used to select participants. It may not be possible to implement the solution at scale unless the value for money or fitness for purpose of the output can be tested against other solutions in the market.
- Buying teams will need to set clear requirements around how the stages of design will interact with procurement. This is to avoid a scenario where a solution is designed when a market approach would have been more appropriate and to ensure compliance with procurement requirements.
- Options for ongoing support of the solution may be limited.
- There is potential for bias or conflicts of interest depending on the operating and commercial model of the service.
- Buying teams will need to consider if the cost of the accelerator service represents value for the project, considering innovation objectives and the risks of inadequate market research.
Many suppliers offer showcases and demonstrations to build awareness of their solutions. Showcases can take the form of large, planned events, such as sales conferences, usually run by large and well-established suppliers. Demonstrations can often be smaller and more ad-hoc, based on approaches by suppliers with a specific product.
Showcases can sometimes be hosted or sponsored internally to NSW Government, for example through themed NSW Government events or to raise awareness of suppliers within a buying category or as part of a supplier panel.
Can help with
- Assessing functionality, usability and case for change for low cost or no cost.
- Learning about customer success stories and case studies.
- Engagement with suppliers in a standalone event without commitment to procurement.
- Boosting engagement with suppliers to better understand their value propositions.
- Gathering evidence to support procurement strategy, including direct negotiation or limited tenders.
- Resource availability – easy access to people who can answer questions, provide insights and link up to relevant specialists for the project scope.
Risks to manage
- Working with a limited group may create a perception of unfairness.
- Potential for participation to be limited to known or established suppliers, the ‘usual suspects’ as innovative suppliers may not engage with standard government channels.
- Buying team will need to carefully consider which suppliers are invited to showcases or demonstrations to ensure fair opportunity for market participants and a range of solutions.
Events run by industry organisations differ from supplier showcases in that they focus on broad trends rather than sales. They generally have a wider cross-section of supplier participation. Speakers and topics tend to focus on a domain, category or theme. They will often share success stories or other evidence of how the industry domain is performing.
Can help with
- Learning about a range of suppliers and solutions in one or more categories.
- Assessing functionality, usability and case for change.
- Learning about customer success stories and case studies.
- Gathering evidence to support procurement strategy, including direct negotiation or limited tenders.
- Resource availability – easy access to people who can answer questions, provide insights and link up to relevant specialists for the project scope.
Risks to manage
- Depending on the event organisers, sponsors and invitees, information may be biased or there may be conflicts of interest that have not been disclosed.
- May not consider other competitive suppliers and solutions available in the market.
Other government agencies within and outside of NSW are an important source of market insights. They may have solved a similar problem before and have experience scaling a solution. They may also understand market trends and supplier capability within their jurisdiction. Some of this information, as well as insights into methods and ways of working, may be publicly available. For more detailed walkthroughs, buying teams should leverage contacts and networks.
Can help with
- Learning what else has worked in the public sector across similar use cases.
- Finding proven technology to apply to a different use case.
- Taking advantage of existing contract arrangements.
Risks to manage
- Information may not be publicly available and therefore difficult to find.
- Suppliers may not have been informed that their information would be shared with other agencies and threfore may need to consent.
You can invite suppliers to an Expression of Interest (EoI) to find out whether suppliers are interested in, and capable of, undertaking the specific work (in the case of innovation – solving a problem). Typically, an EoI only elicits responses to a broad set of criteria and doesn’t result in the awarding of a contract.
Learn more about EoI in the Traditional market approaches guide.
A Request for Information (RfI) is like an EoI, but might not be tied to a procurement opportunity. It can be used to gather information from suppliers to better understand capabilities, commercial models, maturity and the state of competition in the market. This allows buying teams to refine a procurement approach.
Both EoI and RfI engagements can include more interactive components, such as a briefing to the market about the problem to be solved, question and answer (Q&A) sessions or supplier presentations (also known as demonstrations or pitches).
If using an EoI or RfI, buying teams should aim to attract innovative ideas by framing the opportunity in terms of outcome, e.g. as a challenge statement. To keep the barrier to entry low, the detail requested of suppliers should be light, with a focus on how a proposed solution solves a challenge. More detailed responses and deliverables can be introduced when potential solutions are understood, with a smaller number of suppliers participating.
Can help with
- Understanding the range of possible solutions that could solve a challenge.
- Improving understanding of the supply market and including maturity to help formulate a procurement strategy.
- Signalling future opportunities to suppliers that may follow the EoI or RfI.
- Assessing appetite of suppliers to participate in a tender.
- Getting feedback on the proposed market approach.
- Getting indicative pricing or understanding commercial models to help with budgets and business cases.
- Short-listing potential suppliers and inviting them to a limited tender.
Risks to manage
- Insights from an EoI or RfI can be limited if the challenge is not well defined or mandatory requirements and evaluation criteria are not indicated.
- Suppliers will want assurance that their intellectual property will be protected.
- Suppliers may be hesitant to invest time in a submission if there is a low chance of it leading to a contract, or if it could shape a future procurement.
- Indicative pricing information might not be readily available for less mature solutions.
- If running engagement events, suppliers may be hesitant to reveal their participation or their solutions in the presence of competitors.
Pre-tender or tender briefings give potential suppliers a better chance to understand your requirements. These are particularly valuable for challenge-based market approaches, which may be less familiar to suppliers. Challenges can be brought to life through presentations from business functions or end users.
Suppliers will get the most value from a briefing if tender documentation is released before the briefing is held. This allows them to ask meaningful questions during the session. The briefing format should ensure all suppliers have equal access to information.
Read more about notifying and briefing the market.
Can help with
- Understanding what questions suppliers have and the level of detail they need for a robust proposal.
- Responding to questions and/or adjusting tender documentation if information gaps are uncovered by issuing an addendum to the tender.
- Bringing a challenge to life for suppliers and providing direct access to subject-matter experts.
- Providing consistent information to all suppliers.
- Getting feedback on the market approach.
Risks to manage
- Does not provide an opportunity to ask suppliers questions about solutions.
- Requires good preparation of potential questions from suppliers and approved answers.
- May need to take some questions on notice and respond via an addendum to a tender.
Procurement plans generally include activities that involve interaction with suppliers. A tender briefing, supplier questions and clarifications are the common, minimum activities. It is highly recommended that innovation buying teams make these more interactive than is standard practice. Buying teams can bring user stories to life, include business functions in supplier briefings, allow live questions and answers, make time for co-design between suppliers and users and invite suppliers to demonstrations, pitches or Proofs of Concept.
Can help with
- Opportunity for a thorough Q&A session.
- Opportunity to provide consistent information to all suppliers.
- Opportunity to bring challenges to life and improve supplier understanding and therefore the quality of their responses for more accurate evaluation.
- Assessing the appetite of suppliers to participate and understand users.
- Boosting engagement with suppliers to better understand their value propositions through low value contracts as part of a multi-stage procurement.
- Opportunity to assess maturity of solutions and supplier capabilities.
- Ability to test and learn before committing to implement at scale.
Risks to manage
- Suppliers need to understand the requirements of any interactive engagements where they will be evaluated and will need sufficient time to absorb and address requirements.
- The more complex the engagement, the more highly it is recommended to be funded so smaller suppliers are not excluded.
- Probity risks arise with engagement, so buying teams will need to lean on guidance and samples to create robust plans and processes for engagements.
Desktop research focuses on data and information from existing sources like company records, published reports and other online resources. It is a secondary research method. Conducting original data collection, including directly from suppliers, would be a primary research method.
Can help with
- Keeping costs down (low cost).
- Understanding the state of the market relatively quickly.
- Finding information about suppliers with established solutions and capabilities.
Risks to manage
- Search results will be constrained by what the researcher knows to look for, potentially excluding innovative solutions or expected capabilities.
- It’s difficult to search for solutions by problem or use case.
- Indicative pricing or performance information might not be readily available for less mature solutions.
Internal sources of market information
Several sources of internal information can help build insights into the market for potential solutions. Expand the headings below to learn the strengths and weaknesses of each.
The buy NSW Supplier Hub is a place for buyers and suppliers of products and services to connect. NSW Government buyers can browse suppliers who are ready to sell to NSW Government and have registered their businesses on the Supplier Hub. Suppliers need a Supplier Hub account to submit tender responses through the buy NSW platform and to do business with the NSW Government. Learn more about how to register and use the Supplier Hub.
Suppliers can also apply to join one or more schemes, including the ICT Services Scheme. This may involve a higher level of due diligence and category-specific requirements.
Can help with
- Keeping research costs down (no cost involved).
- Keeping research costs down (no cost involved).
- Finding suppliers with mature products and capabilities quickly.
- Understanding how suppliers describe their capabilities.
- Knowing which suppliers have become members of NSW Government Schemes, and therefore have accepted their terms and conditions.
Risks to manage
- While some due diligence can be done at the Supplier Hub or scheme level – for example, checking for an active Australian Business Number (ABN) or a history of corrupt conduct – no project-level due diligence can be done on capabilities, services or products at the scheme level. Teams need additional information sources to assess these.
- Search results will be constrained by what the researcher knows to look for, potentially excluding innovative solutions or expected capabilities.
- Buying categories can constrain research and encourage buyers to exclude potential solutions or capabilities from other categories or those that can’t be easily categorised.
- Supplier Hub does not provide information on whether suppliers already supply solutions to other parts of the NSW Government.
- Suppliers of innovative solutions may not have registered with Supplier Hub or joined a scheme if they have not previously done business with the NSW Government.
Insights from other government tenders can help to understand the market. These insights can come from proposals, clarification processes and tender-related activities like briefings, demonstrations or pitches. Buying teams might not always have access to original tender responses. In these cases, they can benefit from evaluation reports and discussions with tender team members.
Can help with
- Identifying suppliers that participated constructively in tender processes.
- Assessing the likely appetite of suppliers to participate.
- Identifying shared use cases in other parts of the NSW Government.
- Understanding the types of solutions, maturity and level of competition.
Risks to manage
- The quality of insights from a tender depends on the strength of its requirements and evaluation process.
- With the speed of technology evolution, insights from historical tenders can become outdated quickly and may need additional validation.
Subject-matter experts know a lot about specific technologies, industry standards and trends. They can identify potential solutions and assess feasibility. They also think ahead about complex technical needs and supporting capabilities. This helps a buying team consider supplier track records, technical risks, budgeting and strategic alignment.
Can help with
- Getting insights about suppliers of known solutions, their capabilities and performance.
- Accessing deep technical domain knowledge to support risk identification and management.
- Accessing commercial knowledge to inform budgeting and building leverage for negotiation at later stages.
- Accessing knowledge about technical standards, policies or requirements.
- Understanding the range of possible solutions within a buying category.
Risks to manage
- Subject-matter experts may make assumptions about solution based on their knowledge.
- Knowledge could be biased by previous experience or become outdated quickly in emerging markets.
- Knowledge may be restricted to a buying category or technology type, whereas innovative solutions might span across several buying categories or technology types.
Talking to business owners about delivered solutions gives valuable insights into solution performance. The business unit with operational experience might be the one looking for a new solution, or there might be a separate business unit using similar suppliers or solutions.
Can help with
- Getting information about the problem, project scope and case for change.
- Understanding usability and functional capability requirements.
- Understanding resources needed and costs for development and support, managing change and training.
- Understanding the capabilities that might be needed to deliver a solution.
- Understand service levels for existing capability, gaps or areas for improvement.
Risks to manage
- Insights would be limited to incumbent solutions or suppliers.
- Operational teams may make assumptions about preferred solutions.
- Technical knowledge may be outdated or biased by previous experience.
Research and development (R&D) programs can include, but are not limited to, NSW Government grant programs with an R&D focus. These programs support early stage research and development of innovative technologies, services or processes that will help achieve certain NSW Government objectives. They typically work with lower maturity technology (i.e. Technology Readiness Levels up to 6). They may be linked to NSW Government industry priorities and/or have direct applications for NSW Government services.
Can help with
- Building an understanding of use cases for technology still under development.
- Building an understanding of solution maturity for the sorts of priority areas covered by R&D programs.
- Building an understanding of capability of solution to address a problem and deliver outcomes.
Risks to manage
- R&D program scope may not align with the scope of the buying project, limiting applicability of insights.
- Solutions may have lower maturity and need more testing before investment and implementation decisions.
- Buying teams may not be able to validate whether solutions have delivered tangible outcomes elsewhere, instead leaning on testing.
- Buying teams may not be able to assess the technical feasibility or commercial viability of less mature solutions, instead leaning on testing and/or building risk mitigation into the contractual arrangement.
Sharing market insights
Perceived or actual constraints on sharing information can act as a barrier to getting insights from elsewhere in government. Buying teams can learn from other buying projects without breaching any requirements around managing personal or confidential information.
By sharing insights, buying teams can refine a procurement strategy based on proven approaches. More robust strategies can provide access to more relevant solutions, faster, and can avoid risks. Specific insights buying teams could get from other tenders or buying projects include:
- which market approaches and/or projects were successful and could be repeated or leveraged
- the state of the market in terms of solution types, capability, maturity and competition to supplement desktop research which can be limited in emerging markets
- whether a procurement may have uncovered and approved a supplier or solution with application across different use cases
- accessing lessons from other projects that would otherwise remain unknown to the buying team.
Sharing information can help avoid risks. Not sharing information can inadvertently create risks. Buying teams should therefore take smart risks with gathering and sharing market insights. Teams can start by understanding their obligations under legislation and policy. Then they can put specific types of controls in place for specific types of information. This enables them to remove barriers to sharing information not covered by these controls.
Determine what insights can be shared with other agencies
This section helps buying teams determine what they can disclose to other public sector agencies. It also covers what they might reasonably be able to request. Expand the headings below to help navigate some of the requirements that apply.
The NSW Government Procurement Policy Framework provides some general rules for information sharing. The type of information and reasons for sharing it can create complexities that should be addressed on a case-by-case basis. To support sharing insights from tender responses, buying teams should seek legal or procurement advice (depending on the nature of the information).
Below are some considerations to help determine the level of risk of sharing insights from a tender process. The higher the risk, the more caution and advice buying teams should take.
Insight from tender responses may be considered low risk for sharing if:
- it does not identify suppliers or solutions and would not enable a reader to determine the identity or performance of tender participants
- it can be gleaned from publicly available information sources.
Insight from tender responses might be low risk but some advice might be needed to confirm this, if:
- suppliers were notified that certain information could be shared and with whom (confirmation may be needed that the information matches what was consented to)
- information is anonymised or aggregated but there is still a chance that a supplier could be identified.
Insight from tender responses may be higher risk and should only be shared based on advice (where the type of advice depends on the type of risk – e.g. probity, confidentiality, intellectual property or legal terms) if:
- it arose from tender responses and evaluation where suppliers were informed information would be used only for the purpose of evaluation
- suppliers were not informed the information would be shared with other agencies or the public and it is not publicly available.
The NSW Procurement Policy Framework provides some general guidance around probity and fairness that may influence how supplier responses to a tender are managed:
NSW Government buying teams have a general obligation to minimise the amount and type of information they ask of suppliers at every stage of the procurement cycle, as well as to make it easy to supply information. For more detail, visit guidance on notification and briefing obligations to suppliers.
This will mean any insights gleaned through supplier responses will be limited to the scope of the tender opportunity. Buyers should only ask suppliers to provide information necessary for assessing a proposal. They should ask once, at the latest possible stage of the contracting process. They should also ask only if the supplier is still being actively considered.
Buying teams should consider sharing insights from procurements with other agencies and should consider any relevant legislation. This might include:
- Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (PPIP Act).
- Data Sharing (Government Sector) Act 2015 (Data Sharing Act).
All ‘personal information’ must be managed in accordance with the PPIP Act. Most of the insights about suppliers and technologies from a procurement process would fall under the definition of data in the Data Sharing Act. The Data Sharing Act has the objective to remove barriers to, and speed up the sharing of, government sector data between government sector agencies.
Section 13 of the Data Sharing Act provides for the treatment of government sector data that is confidential and commercial-in-confidence. It refers to contractual obligations which, in the case of tender responses from suppliers, may vary on a case-by-case basis. For example: stage of the contracting process and only if the supplier is still being actively considered.
The terms and conditions of participating in a NSW Government tender can vary between tenders. Buying teams should understand terms relating to confidentiality and information sharing that apply to their tender. This will help manage the sharing of information or insights from the tender process.
Below are two phrasing examples of tendering conditions indicating to suppliers how information contained in a response will be treated. NSW Government agency tender templates may contain slight variations of these.
Example 1
- 'By Submitting a response, the Respondent authorises the Principal to gather, assess and communicate to the Commonwealth, other state and local government agencies and authorities any information about the Respondent, including its financial position and the Respondents performance in respect of any contract awarded as a result of the tender process. Such information may be used for assessment of suitability of future response, tender, pre-qualification or contract opportunities.’
Example 2
- ‘The Principal's public disclosure obligations are set out in the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW), and the Tenderer acknowledges and agrees that any information provided as a part of a Tender may be subject to disclosure under that legislation.
- Without limiting (a), the Principal is at liberty to disclose any Tender (including an Alternative Tender or Non-Conforming Tender) and any other tendered information, to such persons as it considers necessary for the purpose of evaluating Tenders, or obtaining advice, finance or approvals, for government purposes or as required by law.
- Where any information or document is provided by a Tenderer on a confidential basis or relates to a Tenderers trade secrets or confidential financial affairs, the Tenderer should endorse the Information or document accordingly and the Principal will take that into account when deciding if and to what extent or on what conditions the information might be disclosed to others.’