Visser knows that Dutch industry and research organizations like Nikhef are well regarded at CERN. “They deliver quality and are reliable.” One thorny issue is that Dutch companies are often not among the cheapest, while competitors from other countries often come up with more opportunistic deals. According to Visser, it would be good if CERN did not decide solely on the basis of cost price, but also factored quality in. “Companies can in any case submit alternative offers to CERN. This is a way of saying: ‘We can make the product for X number of euros.’ But, if we look closely at what you need, we will also offer you an alternative. That might cost more, but in our opinion, it’s a better deal in the long run.” Precision Fair Visser has also noticed that there is a great appetite from within the industry to meet up with each other. “Whenever a Big Science organization puts out a tender, companies have very little time to respond to it and submit a competitive bid. If a company wants to compete for a complex tender, it is imperative that it knows its potential partners really well. Once a tender is issued, you can then act quickly.” As part of ILO-net, Visser is involved in the organization of the Big Science lectures at the Precision Fair. This collaboration started in 2012 and the purpose of these lectures is to show companies what is happening or about to happen at research organizations so that industry is able to prepare for it. 29
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