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ESPD – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW – European single procurement document

Posted on by John Hudson

ESPD – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW – European single procurement document

ESPD & Procurement policy – not the most known or thrilling of topics. We know that reviewing changes does not exactly make for riveting reading, so we have condensed this information into what you actually need to know.

Due to the European Public Procurement Reform which kicked off in April 2016, one of the key elements featured was the introduction of the ESPD (European Single Procurement Document).

What is an ESPD?

An ESPD is an online electronic form that any supplier can complete, download and submit as part of their bid for a growing number of public procurement agencies, both nationally and internationally.

Access to the form can be found HERE.

As part of the reform, this process simplifies cross-border procurement, cuts down on paperwork, and helps provide access to new opportunities for businesses of all sizes.

The procurement policy remains the same as a pre-qualification questionnaire stage (or PQQ for short), where buyers can assess your response to specific criteria to determine the capability of your delivery in order to be invited to tender (ITT).

CLICK HERE for further information about the PQQ process.

What does an ESPD include?

This contains all of the similar exclusion criteria and selection criteria that enables your company to subsequently be invited to tender (ITT), which remains from the prior PQQ document. It’s the YES/NO questions that ensure you are an upstanding member of the national business community and are not faulting in certain areas, such as criminal convictions, tax evasion, fraud etc.

The biggest new element is the idea of self-certification. During our team’s procurement careers, what happened in the past was that on a typical PQQ, you had to attach endless amounts of financial accounts and policies. Now, as per the reform and introduction of an ESPD, you must self-certify that you maintain all this documentation and provide the evidence later at any time. So, make sure you have your policies and financial documents in place, ready to attach when prompted by the buyer.

How does it affect you?

 This has been put in place to ensure that you don’t need to keep completing the same old questionnaire time and time again. Many buyers now will ask you if you have completed this generic document and you can attach this in order to save time (see example below).

Procurement Policy
ESPD & Procurement Policy

One thing to remember is the Technical & Professional Capability section as part of the PQQ (or Selection Questionnaire-SQ). You must adapt this for every contract, because no two contracts are the same and you’ll need to show off your technical capability and experience in different ways, for different previous contract examples. Make sure this is adjusted based on the new contract requirements at hand.

Other than this, this affects you minimally. If you have tendered before you’ll be used to the questions asked here – it’s purpose is merely to make it simpler and save you time.

We are here to help you SUCCEED

Get in touch with our Tender Consultants for more information

ECONOMIC FINANCIAL STANDING – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Posted on by John Hudson

ECONOMIC FINANCIAL STANDING – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Economic financial standing is primarily established through annual turnover, financial ratios and their level of insurances.

This is typically assessed on a PQQ but can easily translate to more formal tender procedures.

CLICK HERE for an overview of the basics to a PQQ.

This is one of the two ways to assess the suitability of the supplier and to pursue a specific activity/contract – the other being the technical and professional capability.

Your economic financial standing reflects multiple financial aspects of your business. Three being:

  • Annual turnover – you need to usually attach your most recent audited/unaudited accounts
  • Financial ratios – this is usually found in your full financial accounts and can include the ratio of your assets to liabilities (acid-tests / quick ratios)
  • Your insurance[s] – you usually need to attach your Insurance documents and commit to potentially increasing your amounts before contract commencement.

One of the key things a lot of our clients assume when they start tendering is their ambitions will become reality almost immediately, especially in terms of finance. You cannot have your turnover increase within the first year to that 7-figure amount we all desire. This is as rare as blood diamonds on a blue moon.

As per a new requirement introduced in the 2014 Public Procurement Directive, “the minimum yearly turnover that economic operators are required to have may not exceed twice the estimated contract value unless there are specific circumstances which justify a higher level.” This means if you’re turning over £100,000 per year, the most you can typically bid for, based on your economic financial standing, will be £50,000, unless there are specific circumstances which may justify this – going over this amount, we’ve found, is extremely rare and will only increase slightly – not massively. We encourage you to aim for opportunities that are half your turnover or lower.

In a nutshell, make sure your finance is in order, so the above attachments maximise your chances to passing to the subsequent stage, not hinder your overall efforts!

Need further advice in filling out PQQs? Get in touch with our Tender Consultants.

We’re here to help you succeed!

PQQ BASICS – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Posted on by John Hudson

PQQ BASICS – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

PQQ is something you’ll hear most often in the tendering and procurement world.

The term can take many forms including SQ (Selection Questionnaire), Stage 1 Tender and the recently established ESPD (European Single Procurement Document).

PQQ stands for Pre-qualification questionnaire and it does exactly what it says on the tin!

This is typically the first stage of a tender process and helps the buyer filter through organisations that are more suited to deliver upon their requirements and needs. This allows a select few to be invited to tender (ITT) and making it easier to narrow down competent suppliers. It also ensures any previous convictions or misconduct is declared as per procurement regulations.

A lot of people assume that this is the easy part of the tender process. If you have all of your business affairs in order, then you’d be right! Think of it as an application form. It doesn’t necessarily win you the contract, but it’ll get you to the next stage!

The image below represents what’s featured in a typical PQQ – where you, as the supplier, would complete all relevant fields, including basic company information and registrations etc.

PQQ
PQQ

The PQQ is predominantly a ‘tick-box’ exercise, where you and your organisation state compliance with key legislative requirements in order to do business.

This includes:

  • Legal Compliance
  • Financial Standing
  • Insurance Cover
  • Modern Slavery
  • Equality & Diversity
  • Health & Safety Regulations
  • and Environmental Standards etc.

One of the most important aspects of a PQQ is your response regarding technical and professional capabilities. This is where you must list [usually 3] references/contract examples to show the buyer of your capabilities to undergo the required works based on your past experience (see extract below).

Response
Response

Most questions throughout a PQQ are quite clearly ‘pass and fail’. If you don’t commit to providing the correct insurance cover (for example) – you fail and that’s that!

However, the technical and professional capability is one of the few questions that is scored based on the quality of what is provided.

See our ‘Importance of Relevant Case Studies’ blog to make sure you are ahead of yourself when it comes to contract examples and case studies.

How to tackle PQQ information…

You’ll find PQQ information is quite repetitive. As long as you aren’t breaking the law in any way or have been found guilty of any misconduct, you’ll find you are answering the same information over and over. The more PQQs you complete, the easier they are to submit.

In 2017, the Crown Commercial Service wanted all procurement bodies/suppliers to stop using the typical PQQ and now use an SQ (Selection Questionnaire). This is nothing to worry be concerned about. The bulk of the PQQ questions still remain, with just a few tiny amendments, such as the inclusion of Modern Slavery compliance.

Also, the European Public Procurement Reform kicked off in April 2016. One of the key elements to this was the introduction of the ESPD (European Single Procurement Document).  This is an online electronic form that any supplier can complete, download and submit. Mainly as part of their bid for a growing number of public procurement agencies, both nationally and internationally.

In a nutshell, a PQQ is a document you complete to show you are both capable of delivery and compliance with specific regulations. Once you’ve passed this point. You’ll then move onto the core part of a tender process – the Invitation To Tender (ITT).

Need further support with your PQQs? Get in touch now with our Tender Consultants!

Start by receiving those all-important opportunities today by receiving a free demo from one of our 10-industry-specific portals. We are dedicated to helping you DISCOVER the right tender opportunities to bid for!

CLICK HERE to arrange a free demo!

WHAT IS A DYNAMIC PURCHASING SYSTEM? The DPS in Tendering!

Posted on by John Hudson

WHAT IS A DYNAMIC PURCHASING SYSTEM? The DPS in Tendering!

Here we go again – another term which is not well known in all industry sectors across the UK – a Dynamic Purchasing System.

As always, we are here to help you understand all these ‘niggly’ bits to tendering, to ensure you are prepared to undergo some serious business development planning across your sector and beyond!

You can see the different bidding terminologies applicable in our ‘Tendering doesn’t have to be complicated’ blog. 

In a nutshell – a Dynamic Purchasing System (or DPS for short) is basically a supply chain list where tenders or other bidding opportunities are published to specific members that have been successful in maintaining a position on that list.

As quoted in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, “[a] DPS should be set up for identified types of requirement, which may be divided into categories of products, works or services.”

This could be any organisation or group of organisations, who wants to outsource work in either one or more service areas [or LOTs] and rather than having 50-100 applications come through for the [potentially many] tenders they publish, they start by narrowing down a set-list of applicants onto their own DPS.

Differences between Dynamic Purchasing System & General Tender processes

The main differences from the typical tender process are that a DPS is to:

  • be run as a completely electronic process (no paper or posting required here)
  • allow new suppliers to join at any time (meaning that if you have been unsuccessful at securing a place – you can always try again in the future)
  • and show longevity in its run (we’ve come across DPS’s which are open for 10 or more years)

All that suppliers would need to do, is register their company onto this DPS online, click which service area they are interested in delivering and undergo a Stage 1 submission in order to secure a place. Once secured, Stage 2 is the actual tendering of the works in question.

For example – A Housing Association could create a DPS for their outsourced Creative activity, which includes a range of service areas/LOTs – i.e. Branding, Printing, Website Hosting etc. They would publish this DPS opportunity to all and then undergo multiple stages to narrow down the process of awarding the work via the ‘most economically advantageous tender’ (MEAT).

Stage 1

In the average UK tender process, a lot of suppliers may be asked to complete a Pre-qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) to help the buyer narrow down their list of Invitations to Tender (ITT). This is now being taking over by a ‘Selection Questionnaire’ on many portals. It’s similar with a DPS – the supplier has to get onto the DPS in order to be Invited to Tender for works and they do this by completing a Stage 1 application process that heavily resembles a PQQ, with maybe a few additional questions thrown in.

Like a typical PQQ-to-ITT process, securing access to the DPS reflects a ‘weed-out’ procedure, with the buyer ensuring they progress all applicants who demonstrate greater strengths in their financial, technical and professional capabilities.

Stage 2

Once you are successful and Stage 1 is complete – it is complete. You do not have to re-do any capability and competency-based questions. Every time a tender is published in relation to your service area, as part of this Dynamic Purchasing System, you are automatically invited to tender and answer all questions specific to that service!

Once on the DPS then a range of tenders will then ensue (as and when required), allowing the buyer to streamline a more technically-focused evaluation on the responses collated.

Where we stand in all of this!

Our Tender Connect platform, which will be launching within the next 12-months, has many traits of a Dynamic Purchasing System, in that a buyer, let’s, for example, say a Design agency on our Creative Tenders portal, seeks a professional company who can support their financial/accountancy needs. All that the Design agency would do is:

  • Log on to Tender Connect
  • View a list of our Professional Tenders subscribers, which encapsulates a large list of Accountancy firms
  • Publish their ‘private opportunity brief’ to a filtered list of suppliers
  • Receive responses, evaluate and award

The reason we filter this list is to avoid publishing opportunities that bare minimal relevance to our suppliers. And to streamline the process for our buyers, helping them publish specific competitive opportunities to the most competent suppliers.

So, if you ever come across a DPS that contains services specific to your offering – get on board.

Our Tender Consultants can help you succeed!