Before using this agreement you will need to read our buyers guide. This document will help you to select the right award procedure for your needs.
You can select suppliers capable of meeting your needs by using the digital filtering tool (or the Capability Matrix which can be found under the documents tab). This tool allows you to filter suppliers by specialism.
You can buy services under this agreement in 2 ways:
- further competition
- direct award
Before taking part in either a further competition or direct award, you will need to complete framework schedule 6 (order form template and call-off schedules).
Apart from framework schedule 6, there are no templates that you need to complete as part of your call-off procedure. You may use your own internal tender documents as part of your bid pack.
You can use our eSourcing tool to run your further competition or direct award. If this is your first time using the eSourcing suite, you will need to register an account. If you have already registered, you can log into your eSourcing account.
You should check your own internal policies and processes to make sure they follow your standard operating procedures.
Further competition
To award a call-off contract through further competition you should:
- Develop a clear specification of your needs.
- Use the available tools to shortlist the number of suppliers you invite to bid, where suitable.
- Use framework schedule 6 (order form template and call-off schedules) as the basis of your call-off contract.
- Refine your contract deliverables, including liability cap.
- Develop your further competition award criteria, including your intended pricing mechanism.
- This will form the basis of your decision to award your call-off contract.
- Invite all identified suppliers to submit a tender in writing by publishing your tender documentation in line with the Public Contract Regulations.
- This can be by email or through your preferred e-Sourcing tool.
- Find contact details for each supplier representative in the RM6179 supplier contacts document.
- Set a deadline for the submission of tenders. Take into account the time needed to create and submit tenders and the complexity of your needs.
- Keep each tender confidential until the time limit set out for the return of tenders has expired.
- Apply your published award criteria to each submitted tender.
- Award your call-off contract by sending a completed and signed framework schedule 6 to the successful supplier.
- Suppliers should promptly sign and return this document. This can be done electronically.
- Provide unsuccessful suppliers with written feedback.
- Publish your contract on Contracts Finder.
Direct award
To direct award under this agreement you should:
- Develop a clear specification of your needs.
- Determine which suppliers can meet your needs by reviewing the capability matrix.
- Apply the direct award criteria to the prospectuses for each capable supplier to establish which supplier provides the most cost effective solution.
- Contact the supplier that you have selected and provide them with your specification so that they can complete their conflict of interest checks and confirm that they have capability and capacity.
- Award the call-off contract with the supplier by sending a completed and signed framework schedule 6 (order form template and call-off schedules).
- Suppliers should promptly sign and return this. This can be done electronically.
