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Public Contracts Scotland Awareness Raising Session

connecting public and private sector business

Public Contracts Scotland

Agenda• What is www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk• Key Drivers• Portal Stats• What’s in it for suppliers?• Portal Demonstration

• OJEU

• Break• Portal Demonstration

• Quick Quote

• Summary and Next Steps

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connecting public and private sector business

What is Public Contracts Scotland

• The Public Contacts Scotland portal (PCS) (provided by the Scottish Procurement Directorate), is the national public sector advertising portal for Scotland

• Is a key part of the Scottish Government’s Public Procurement Reform Programme

• Public Procurement Reform Programme aims to drive up standards in the way public sector procures goods and services

• PCS provides a national advertising website for Scottish public bodies to post large Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) notices, lower value contracts commonly known as sub-threshold notices, quotations for low value/risk contracts and subsequent contract awards for all varieties of contracts

• It was launched in October 2008

• PCS is a free service for contracting authorities and suppliers and provides an open and transparent resource which promotes a competitive market environment.

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What is Public Contracts Scotland

Contracting Authorities:• For public sector contracting authorities in Scotland, PCS enables the procurement process to be

electronically managed from end-to-end - from preparing standard documentation to advertising a notice, receiving electronic tenders to awarding a contract

• PCS achieves consistency across Scotland’s public sector procurers, but also promotes individual organisations to advertise contracts on their own micro sites, which are integrated with the portal, to deliver maximum suppliers access and information

Suppliers:• For suppliers, in particular SMEs and third sector organisations, PCS provides a one-stop, single

access point to public sector contract opportunities

• Once registered, suppliers can receive e-mail alerts with contract opportunities relevant to their business

connecting public and private sector business

EU Rules

“For contracts that fall below the European thresholds the contracting authorities must now also ensure a degree of advertising which is sufficient to enable open competition and meet the requirements of the principles of equal treatment, non discrimination and transparency” (Regulation 8(21) of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulation 2006 No 1)

Conforms to:European Code Of Best Practices - Facilitating Access By SME’S to Public Procurement Contracts - June 2008

• Adherence to EU Rules

Public Contracts portal stats

• Over 49,500 suppliers registered

• 84% of suppliers are SMEs

• Almost 3,000 buyers trained and registered on the portal

• Over 300 Scottish public sector organisations using Public Contracts Scotland

3,876 OJEU Contracts published

4,790 sub-threshold opportunities published to date

2,677 Quick Quotes issued to date

What’s in it for suppliers?

Finding opportunities can take a bit of detective work……

Benefits for Suppliers

• Free to Register and use

• Simple, one-stop access to contract opportunities

• Once registered receive tailored e-mails with relevant business opportunities

• Reduces the administrative burden of searching for public sector business opportunities

• Improves access to Scottish public sector contract opportunities – a huge area of opportunity for SMEs:

• 45-50% of total public sector spend is with SMEs• 80% of suppliers to the public sector are SMEs• 84% of registered suppliers on PCS are SMEs• Value of spend to SMEs has increased from £3.3bn to £3.5bn during the last 4 years

• Public sector processes, policies and procedures are more open and transparent – helping improve links between buyers in the public sector and private sector suppliers.

connecting public and private sector business

Public Contracts Scotland

OJEU Portal Demonstration

Access the Notice Workspace

Select Contract Title

Change Deadline or Cancel

Changing The Deadline

Choose the new deadline date and time for submissions using the calendar and clock icons and complete the ‘Reason for Change’

View Noted Interest List

Noted Interest List

List of suppliers who have registered an

interest in the opportunity

Supplier details can be downloaded as

an Excel file

Additional Information and Documents

Additional Information / Documents

View Supplier Questions

Questions and Answers

Accessing the Submission Postbox

Postbox Status

Status of submitted

documents from

suppliers

List of authorised openers

Click on Unlock to open the postbox

Postbox Status

‘Open’ button

appears

Postbox View

Supplier details

Click on the document title to download

Postbox Status

Public Contracts Scotland provides a full audit trail and all postbox actions are recorded in the ‘PostboxAccess Log’

Restricted Procedure – Stage 2

If you are operating a Restricted Procedure you will be able to issue your ‘Invitation To Tender’ (ITT) to those suppliers who have successfully completed the Pre Qualification Questionnaire stage.

Restricted Stage 2 Question List

A number of the responses to the question list will be pulled across from the original contract notice

Distribution of the Invitation To Tender

You must select those suppliers

who have been taken forward to

the Invitation To Tender stage.

Suppliers who returned documents to the postbox will

be shown on this tab

Search for suppliers who returned

documents by post

Supplier who used Postbox

Search for Supplier who did not use Postbox

Awarding The Contract

To award the contract access the Notice Status area using the navigation menu:Purchasers> Notice Workspace> Published Notices

Select the contract title from the list of published notices

Contract Award

Click on ‘Award’ and complete

Contract Award details

Break

What is Quick Quote?

• Quick Quote is an online request for quotation facility

• It is to be used to obtain competitive quotes for:

• The Quick quote request is created online and sent to selected suppliers

• Only those suppliers selected to quote can access the details of the quote and submit a bid

• Full electronic audit trail is maintained

• Public Contracts Scotland provides:

• Standard simplified method of operation in line with best practice

• Standard business process for low value procurement

• Demonstrate transparency

• Can be used for mini competitions

• Award notification issued to invited suppliers

Low Value

connecting public and private sector business

connecting public and private sector business

Public Contracts Scotland

Quick Quote Portal Demonstration

Supplier Quick Quote invite

• The supplier receives an email inviting them to ‘accept’ or ‘decline’ the opportunity to provide a quotation for the goods, services or works

• The supplier then signs into the portal and accesses the quick quote via ‘Interests and Responses’ on the member homepage.

Suppliers complete

• the required details;• upload the quotation documents; and • submits documents using the secure

tender post box by the deadline date and time.

Quick Quote and Tender Post box…

Buyers are notified when a supplier has uploaded a quote by

• email; and• by accessing the current response status

• Access your issued Quick Quote using the navigation menu. Purchasers>Notice Workspace>Published Notices

• Select the title of the Quick Quote to view the notice status

Additional Notice Options

Quick Quote Award

Quick Quote Award Questions

Quick Quote Award - Value

Quick Quote Award – Date of Award

Quick Quote Award

• Complete the Quick Quote award details

Successful and Unsuccessful Bidder Email Notification

Quick Quote Summary

• Ensure your suppliers are registered on Public Contracts Scotland, by registering for free on the portal contracting authorities may invite suppliers to provide a quotation ... suppliers cannot be invited to quote unless they are registered

• Only suppliers selected can provide a quotation

• Once the quick quote has been distributed you cannot add more suppliers to it

• Public Contracts Scotland enables you to upload your requirements electronically and allows the suppliers submit their quotations to the contracting authority using the secure tender post box – providing a visible audit trail

• Ensure details of Framework / Mini Competition are noted in the quick quote description area or additional information area

• Remember to complete the quotation award

PCS The Future

• Quick Quote (V3) – will differentiate between the Quick Quote process and mini competitions. It will also allow suppliers to better inform buyers on what goods, services and works they can provide

• Commodity Category Codes. It is anticipated that an improved category structure will be deployed early in 2011

• Standard Pre-Qualification Questionnaire In response to supplier feedback, a nationally agreed standard questionnaire for pre-qualification information will be introduced during 2011. Combined with an online national database for suppliers to store their pre-qualification information, this will minimise administration and duplication of effort for business bidding for public contracts. The standardised PQQ will integrate with the PCS portal

• SME Collaboration – It is hoped to allow suppliers a better opportunity to work with other SMEs to bid for public sector contracts

• Community Benefit Clauses – It is hoped to flag contracts with Community benefit clauses

• Contract Register onto buyer profiles – During early 2011, contracting organisations contract registers will be displayed on PCS.

• Increased Reporting for public bodies and suppliers - Improved reporting on the site for both public bodies and suppliers will be developed.

• Subcontract – It is hoped that functionality will be developed to enable SMEs to understand where they can bid for Public Sector subcontract opportunities from major capital projects. This will include the Forth Road Crossing project.

Support….

Support Help Desk: 0844 561 0673Email: support@publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk

Training Website: http://scotland.training.klickstream.com

Progress Report: http://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/news/news_article.aspx?ID=582

Procurement Journey: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/procurementjourneyhome

User Guides: http://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/sitehelp/help_guides.aspx

connecting public and private sector business

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www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk

Connecting public and private sector business