You can buy from this agreement using both direct award or further competition. All customers must take the following steps:
- review all guidance documents
- make sure that the scope of this agreement provides a solution for your needs
- request pricing by contacting info@crowncommercial.gov.uk (pricing will be sent to you in commercial confidence for the purposes of your procurement)
- decide whether direct award or further competition is the most appropriate route
- consider your own internal commercial and legal advice
- keep documents to support decision rational during the procurement process
Pre market engagement
You should consider engaging with suppliers on the appropriate lot before awarding a contract.
Pre market engagement is a useful tool which can help you to state your needs and determine whether direct award or further competition is the best procurement route.
Direct award (all lots)
Check your organisation’s policy to make sure that direct award is a compliant route. You should only use direct award if you are certain:
- this agreement can meet your product and service needs
- one supplier meets your needs more than the others and can provide the best value for money
- you do not need to make any changes to the contract terms and conditions
To place a direct award you will need to:
- clearly define your needs by developing your specification
- establish your award criteria using Framework Schedule 7 call off award procedure
- perform an evaluation of your requirements against supplier price and quality information
- award your contract by signing Framework Schedule 6 order form template
- publish your contract on Contracts Finder
Direct awards will be priced based on minimum agreement rebate rate for lot 1 and the maximum agreement rates for lot 2 and lot 3.
Further competition (all lots)
Before running a further competition you should consider what information you need to provide suppliers and how you will provide it.
Suppliers will need accurate and up to date information about:
- your card/voucher usage and user behaviour
- your future payment solution needs
This will help them to understand your current profile so that they can accurately respond to your further competition.
If you would like to use the further competition process, you will need to keep in mind this route to market can take around 4 to 6 weeks to complete, depending on the size of your need.
You can use your own internal eSourcing system to run your further competition or you can use our eSourcing tool. If this is your first time using our eSourcing suite, you will need to register an account. If you have already registered, sign in to your eSourcing account.
To run a further competition you will need to:
- take part in pre-market engagement with suppliers to help you define your needs (optional)
- identify the suppliers that can meet your needs and develop your specification (make sure your specification is detailed and includes timescales)
- complete your further competition documents, such as:
- invitation to tender
- evaluation criteria
- draft order form
- invite all lot suppliers to submit a tender in writing (this could be by email or through your preferred e-Sourcing tool)
- set a time limit 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 ended
- evaluate supplier responses (make sure you evaluate all suppliers equally and fairly)
- award your call-off contract by sending the following to the successful supplier:
- a completed and signed Framework Schedule 6 Order Form
- provide unsuccessful suppliers with written feedback on why their tenders were unsuccessful
- publish your contract on contracts finder for transparency purposes
Optional schedules
When selecting which optional schedules are relevant to your specific needs, we advise that you follow your own internal process and seek legal advice where appropriate.
You can find a summary of all mandatory and optional schedules within the Guidance and Supplier Quality questions. You can get this by emailing info@crowncommercial.gov.uk or calling 0344 410 2222.
