Our proposed workflow for managing either a Competitive Procedure with Negotiation or a Competitive Dialogue Procedure on the software is a multi-stage questionnaire process:
- First stage - Selection process questionnaire used to establish capability, experience and suitability of bidders.
- Second stage - Initial Invitation to Tender questionnaire that the shortlisted suppliers are then invited to submit initial response to tender.
- Third stage - Additional Invitation to Tender questionnaires amongst Negotiation/Dialogue stages between procurement and suppliers
- Fourth stage - Final Tender questionnaire is issued once negotiation(s)/dialogue(s) are complete
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Create and set-up a Requirement for the Tender
3. Create templates for your two Tender Questionnaires
4. Link your two Questionnaires to your Requirement and set-up the rules
4. Link your two Questionnaires to your Requirement and set-up the rules
5. Test your Tender Questionnaires
6. Publish your two Questionnaires and Notice(s)
7. Keep an eye on Account Requests from new suppliers
8. Respond to Clarification Questions raised by participating suppliers
9. Evaluate and Qualify supplier responses for the First Stage SQ questionnaire
11. Moderate the evaluation scores and qualify suppliers for the next stage
14. Evaluate suppliers responses once the bid opening date has passed for the Final Tender
15. Moderate the evaluation scores
1. Create and set-up a Requirement for the Tender
- Create a Requirement. See here for guidance on creating a requirement.
- Input the details of the contract and set-up each tab of the Requirement (adding a long description, people, categories etc.) See here for guidance on inputting requirement details.
2. [If applicable] Create and publish a Research Questionnaire (if you wish to gather information from colleagues and/or early market engagement)
- Set your Requirement stage to Research.
- Create and publish a Research Questionnaire via RFX tab. See here for guidance on creating and publishing Research Questionnaires.
- Create and publish an Early Engagement Notice via Notices tab:
- Find a Tender - Pipeline
- Contracts Finder - Early Engagement
- Public Site - Early Engagement
- See here for guidance on creating and publishing Notices.
3. Create templates for your two Tender Questionnaires
- Set the Stage of the Requirement stage to Define. This indicates you're defining and creating your Questionnaire for the Tender.
- Create a template for your first stage Selection Questionnaire.
- You can pull in sections from the SQ template and edit as needed.
- Create a template for your second stage Invitation to Tender questionnaire.
- Pull in sections from example IT Templates, or create your sections and questions for the IT part of the Questionnaire.
- Add Scoring for your IT questions that are marked.
- N.B. Weighting is applied separately and at section level, so if your quality questions have different weighting you'll need to create them as separate sections in order to automate the weighting.
- See here for guidance on creating a template
- See here for guidance on how to pull in sections, create sections and questions, and adding scoring
- [If Applicable] You can also create and publish the following notices:
- Find a Tender - Prior Information Notice
- Contracts Finder - Future Opportunity Notice
- See here for guidance on creating and publishing Notices.
4. Link your two Questionnaires to your Requirement and set-up the rules
- Set the stage of the Requirement to Tender and specify the closing date of the questionnaire.
- Upload your Tender Documents into the Document Library of the Requirement.
- Create your two stage questionnaires on your Requirement from your templates.
- Set up the rules for your two Tender Questionnaires:
- First Stage - Selection Questionnaire
- Make sure to name your questionnaire clearly as Selection Questionnaire
- Set the Supplier Participation as Public
- Set the Qualification will result in as Another Questionnaire
- Second Stage - Invitation to Tender
- Make sure to name your questionnaire clearly as Invitation to Tender
- Set the Qualifying Questionnaire as your Selection Questionnaire
- Set the Supplier Participation as either Public (so qualified suppliers must register interest and then fill in) or Invitation Only (so qualified suppliers are invited and respond directly from My Questionnaires)
- Set the Qualification will result in as Approved for contract as a whole
- Set the Weighting for the questionnaire
- See here for more guidance on setting up a Tender Questionnaire.
- First Stage - Selection Questionnaire
- Create your Tender Notices and save these as Drafts:
- Find a Tender - Opportunity (if above threshold)
- Contract Finder - Live Opportunity
- Public Site - if you are using the Public site to advertise your opportunities
- See here for guidance on creating and publishing Notices..
4. Link your two Questionnaires to your Requirement and set-up the rules
- Set the stage of the Requirement to Tender and specify the closing date of the questionnaire.
- Upload your Tender Documents into the Document Library of the Requirement.
- Create your two stage questionnaires on your Requirement from your templates.
- Set up the rules for your two Tender Questionnaires:
- First Stage - Selection Questionnaire
- Make sure to name your questionnaire clearly as Selection Questionnaire
- Set the Supplier Participation as Public
- Set the Qualification will result in as Another Questionnaire
- Second Stage - Initial Invitation to Tender
- Make sure to name your questionnaire clearly as Invitation to Tender
- Set the Qualifying Questionnaire as your Selection Questionnaire
- Set the Supplier Participation as either Public (so qualified suppliers must register interest and then fill in) or Invitation Only (so qualified suppliers are invited and respond directly from My Questionnaires)
- Set the Qualification will result in as Approved for contract as a whole
- Set the Weighting for the questionnaire
- See here for more guidance on setting up a Tender Questionnaire.
- First Stage - Selection Questionnaire
5. Test your Tender Questionnaires
- Test your Questionnaires before publishing to check the structure/format, scoring and test Weighting.
- N.B: Once a questionnaire is published you can no longer edit it, so we highly recommend testing it first.
- See here for guidance on how to test a questionnaire.
6. Publish your two Questionnaires and Notice(s)
- Publish your Tender Notice(s)
- Publish the two Tender Questionnaires once you've finished setting up and are happy with the format for both.
7. Keep an eye on Account Requests from new suppliers
- New suppliers without logins will need to request accounts in order to participate in the Tender.
- If the supplier details match an existing organisation, it will go to the primary contact at that supplier organisation to approve - Key Users can accept if happy to do so.
- If the supplier details don't match an existing organisation, the software will self-service the account request without a need for a Key User to approve (granted that the option Supplier is picked)
- See here for guidance on how to accept these user account requests.
8. Respond to Clarification Questions raised by participating suppliers
- Participating suppliers may raise Clarification Questions about the Tender. You can also create your own Clarification Q&As to broadcast additional information.
- See here for guidance on how to answer Clarification Questions, or to add your own.
9. Evaluate and Qualify supplier responses for the First Stage SQ questionnaire
- Evaluate supplier responses to the first stage Selection Questionnaire as they come in. See here for guidance on how to evaluate responses
- Qualify suppliers if they have passed the first stage questionnaire to allow them to start responding to the second stage questionnaire.
- If you set the Supplier Participation as Invitation Only, ensure you send the supplier an Invite in order to allow them to participate
- If you set the Supplier Participation as Public, ensure you send the supplier an e-mail to notify them that they can now access the second stage questionnaire
- Disqualify the suppliers that haven't passed the first questionnaire.
- See here for guidance on qualifying/disqualifying suppliers.
10. Evaluate supplier responses for the Second Stage ITT questionnaire once the bid opening date has passed
- Set the stage of the Requirement to Evaluation
- Evaluate supplier responses to the Tender Questionnaire. See here for guidance on how to evaluate responses
11. Moderate the evaluation scores and qualify suppliers for the next stage
- Moderate the evaluation of each supplier response by entering evaluation notes and amending the final scores if needed.
- Download the Evaluator Scores Report to compare scores across all suppliers.
- See here for guidance on moderation.
- Qualify suppliers if they have passed the second stage questionnaire
- Disqualify the suppliers that haven't passed the second stage questionnaire.
- See here for guidance on qualifying/disqualifying suppliers.
12. Record negotiations/dialogues with your suppliers in the Requirement
- Set the Stage of the Requirement to Negotiation
- Record any meeting notes from your negotiation(s) and dialogue(s) in the Comments tab of the Requirement
- Upload any relevant files from your negotiation(s) and dialogue(s) in the Document Library of the Requirement
13. [If Applicable] Create and publish additional Invitation to Tender questionnaires
- Create your additional Invitation to Tender questionnaires on the Requirement using the Initial Invitation to Tender template
- Edit the questionnaires as required
- Record any meeting notes from your negotiation(s) and dialogue(s) in the Comments tab of the Requirement
- Upload any relevant files from your negotiation(s) and dialogue(s) in the Document Library of the Requirement
- Here in the Requirement you can record, in the Documents tab and the Comments tab meeting notes and files from your Negotiation(s) and dialogue(s)
14. Evaluate suppliers responses once the bid opening date has passed for the Final Tender
Supplier Management > Evaluate & Review
- Set the stage of the Requirement to Evaluation
- Evaluate supplier responses to the Tender Questionnaire. See here for guidance on how to evaluate responses
15. Moderate the evaluation scores
Supplier Management > Moderate (Qualify)
- Moderate the evaluation of each supplier response by entering evaluation notes and amending the final scores if needed.
- Download the Evaluator Scores Report to compare scores across all suppliers.
- [If Applicable] Save your moderation and leave these until your standstill period has passed.
- See here for guidance on moderation.
16. Award your Supplier(s)
Supplier Management > Moderate (Qualify)
- Set the Stage of the Requirement to Award
- Moderate (Qualify) the successful supplier(s), and if you've set up a category(s) make them 'Live' - if standstill applies, you will need to do this after the standstill period ends.
- Unmoderate (Disqualify) the unsuccessful suppliers.
- See here for guidance on moderating (qualifying/disqualifying suppliers.
- Create and Publish Award Notices on:
- Procurements commenced prior to PA23 Act
- Find a Tender - Award
- Contracts Finder - Awarded Opportunity
- See here for guidance on creating and publishing Notices prior to PA23 Act
- Public Site - Awarded Opportunity (if you are using the Public site to show your awarded contracts)
- Procurements commenced prior to PA23 Act
- Upload Signed contract documentation
- Use Nudge to send successful suppliers contracts to sign
- Upload all signed documentation and contract awards into the Document Library of the requirement
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