Single Supplier Registration – a Simpler PQQ and Tendering Process?

April 10th, 2013 by Tony Zemaitis

The Cabinet Office has launched a Single Supplier Registration platform to simplify the tendering process for public sector contracts.

At present, to bid for public sector and government contracts, suppliers have to register on many different systems to view, access and tender for business opportunities. This makes tendering more difficult – increasing time and costs.

The new centralised system should make bidding for government and public sector opportunities easier and cheaper. The Single Supplier Registration should enable suppliers to register just once to gain access to a range of contracts.

Cabinet Office Minister, Francis Maude, said:
“We’ve always said we want to simplify the procurement process, and it won’t make it easier for new suppliers to bid for government business if we’re asking them to register on several systems in order to access these opportunities.

“That’s why we asked GPS to bring together the current myriad systems and tools into one single place of registration, holding accurate and up-to-date information on suppliers. It’s simple and innovative; it will reduce the time and cost spent tendering for government business – especially important for SMEs – and will improve how we share analysis of supplier financial information across government.”

The new Single Supplier Registration platform is available from April 2013 for the health sector (replacing the existing SID4health system) and should extend across other sectors in the following months.

Full details at the Cabinet Office

It will be very interesting to see how this develops – there are just too many different portals and systems to keep track of. Some charge to register (eg Achilles and ConstructionLine) but appear to be just another filter as suppliers still need to complete comprehensive PQQs to get to tender.

If anyone has dealt with the Single Supplier Registration platform, please do comment to share your experience.

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Tendering Terms and Abbreviations

March 7th, 2013 by Tony Zemaitis

Tendering terms are often complicated and confusing – especially council and government tenders! How about these:

  • Accelerated, Restricted and Negotiated Procedures
  • Alcatel Standstill Period
  • Best Value
  • CPV
  • Diversity
  • IEO
  • NUTS

It is enough to drive you nuts!

To try and help, some time ago we created a guide to the  jargon, abbreviations, acronyms and most frequently used tendering terms and we’ve just updated it.

You can read the Tender Terminology / Tendering Glossary on-line or download it as a PDF.

Things are constantly changing so any ideas, updates or comments are most welcome.

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Badly Written Tender Documents

January 28th, 2013 by Tony Zemaitis

Do you ever wonder why some Invitation to Tender documents are so poor?

Maybe you think that ALL tenders are bad! That’s understandable. However, decisions on large purchases need to taken with care; that is why organisations use the tendering process. Furthermore, the public sector must follow rules which can make some tenders more complicated.

Nevertheless, none of that excuses:

  • Confusing / incorrect specifications
  • Too much detail requested
  • Irrelevant or overly complex questions
  • Overlapping or repeated questions – asking the same things over again
  • Excessively complicated instructions / procedures

Why are some Invitation to Tender Documents so Bad?

It’s clear that some ITTs are not thought out properly. There can be many reasons for this:

  1. Committees – many different inputs over-complicating matters
  2. Procurement – buyers too busy or maybe inexperienced (and some are just careless!)
  3. Tender templates or ‘cut and paste’ used – standard formats do not suit all types of products or services
  4. Lack of industry knowledge – leading to inappropriate questions asked

How to Deal with Poor ITT Tender Documents

Even though the tender documents might not be great, you still need to try and submit your very best bid. Look again at the reasons above – the tender panel didn’t intend to issue a bad set of tender documents! So try to not get too annoyed – if you start getting ‘tender rage’ then stop work and recommence once you have calmed down and have a clear head.

You need to:

  • Think about the real intentions of the tender
  • Ask appropriate clarification questions
  • Then deal with the ITT as you would any other tender

Unfortunately, if the tender documents are bad then it is quite possible that the whole process will be painful. So don’t always expect that you will receive helpful responses to your clarifications questions. But do remember that all others tendering are in the same position as you.

We frequently have to deal with lacklustre tender documents but by keeping calm and following the tips in How to Respond to Tenders, we go on to win the contracts.

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