Buy through CCS
CCS has a wide range of commercial agreements you can use. Depending on what you are buying you should consider:
- How much of it you want – do you want one item or thousands, in one location or many?
- When you need it delivered – do you require delivery quickly or can you wait?
You can access CCS commercial agreements in two main ways: catalogues and running a competition. There are a number of buying routes for each.
Catalogues
Catalogues are for simple everyday purchases, such as technology products, which can be bought online for next-day delivery. You will pay the price per item published in the catalogue
-
Purchasing platform
- What you can buy
-
- technology products and education technology products, such as a laptops
- Time to supply
- From next day
- Pros
- Quick, click-to-buy, low admin
- Cons
- Limited to 2 catalogues
- Links
-
Digital marketplace
- What you can buy
-
- cloud hosting, software and support
- user research labs and participants
- digital specialists
- digital outcomes
- datacentre space
- Time to supply
- Depends on complexity of requirements, for example, 4 weeks to supply a digital specialist
- Pros
- Wide range of digital services and people, flexible agreements
- Links
-
eMarketplace
- What you can buy
-
- Back Office Software
- Data and Application Solutions
- Network Services
- Technology Services
- Transport Technology and Associated Services
- Cloud Compute
- Building Materials and Equipment
- Time to supply
- From next day, depending on procurement route
- Pros
- Quick direct award mechanism
- Cons
- Limited to 7 frameworks
- Links
Frameworks
You can use frameworks to buy a range of common products and services, from simple to complex requirements and from low to high volumes of products. Frameworks comprise a description of the requirements, a list of suppliers and standardised contract terms. They are often divided into lots by product or service type.
-
Further competitions
- What you can buy
-
- high-value or complex goods and services: anything from stationary to complex facility management contracts.
- Time to supply
- From a few weeks to several months depending on complexity of requirements
- Pros
- Thorough, open and fair way to compare suppliers. Lower prices possible by committing to spend
- Links
-
Direct award
- What you can buy
-
- Anything you can buy through a framework that permits direct award
- Time to supply
- Depends on the type of goods or services required. Common stock items could be delivered in 1 or 2 days.
- Pros
- Quick for off-the-shelf goods and services
- Cons
- Does not demonstrate competition
- Links
-
Dynamic Purchasing System
- What you can buy
-
- Research, fleet vehicle conversions and health and social care network connectivity services
- Time to supply
- Depends on complexity of requirements. Simple requirements can be quoted within 10 days
- Pros
- Suppliers can join at any time, unlimited number of suppliers
- Cons
- Buyers have to check supplier credentials
- Links
-
eAuctions
- What you can buy
-
- Items which benefit from bulk buying
- Time to supply
- Depends on the complexity of requirements, evaluation process and number of customers aggregated
- Pros
- Maximises commercial advantages
- Cons
- Requires upfront commitment from customers
- Links
You might also be interested in:
Aggregation
Bulk buying, also known as aggregation, offers highly competitive prices and a simple tender process.
You might also be interested in:
Can't find what you're looking for?
If none of your requirements can be met by a CCS catalogue or agreement, you can run an EU tender.