You should review all activities undertaken for the contract.  This will help you understand which areas performed well and areas for development.  The areas identified should be acted upon to make improvements for the future.

Lessons learned can be undertaken at any time during the procurement process, for example:

All staff and suppliers involved with the bid can be asked for feedback. These people may be in your organisation or external to your organisation e.g. bidders.

Feedback can be provided in a number of ways e.g. face to face meetings, online feedback, etc. and given by a variety of roles e.g. bidder contract managers, procurement officers, logistics, estate managers, etc.  However you should ensure that these people understand the process and are trained/experienced in providing this kind of feedback.

Changes identified may not be in procurement areas e.g. you may suggest improving communications and/or processes between internal departments.

It must be recognised that any lessons learned data could be subject to a freedom of information request. As a result any information held should be objective.

You have now completed Route 1.

Please remember that procurement is a continual process: continue to use lessons learned in all procurement exercises.

Your supplier's performance should be managed throughout the lifetime of the contract to make sure that they perform to the quality, service, cost and delivery identified in your original quotation. Some benefits of contract management may include:

• no contract surprises or escalating costs;
• more efficient processes;
• easier change management; and
• prompt payment of the full supply chain.

There are three main stages of Contract Management:

Organisations should build into their contract management activities sufficient checks to ensure suppliers are meeting their obligations under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

If obligations are not being met, organisations should take urgent remedial action with the supplier to address issues and risks. 

Once the successful supplier has been identified and approval has been received to award the contract, you can notify suppliers of the outcome.

The successful supplier should be notified of the outcome in writing, using the Contract Award Letter. This must be signed by a person with the delegated authority to procure and commit your Organisation to the contract. The letter may be adapted as required.

At the same time as the above, unsuccessful suppliers should be notified using the Unsuccessful Quotation Letter.

A supplier is entitled to ask for the reasons why their quotation was unsuccessful. It is essential that all feedback is documented for audit purposes and based on the objective criteria used to evaluate the quotation. This is called de-briefing and provides suppliers with positive constructive feedback to help improve their performance in future quotations. It can also provide an opportunity for suppliers to suggest improvements to your procurement processes.

Once these letters have been issued to the successful supplier, the quotation becomes live and can now be referred to as a contract.

Receipt of Responses

Quotation responses should be received through the Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) Quick Quote system. Quick Quote is a secure way to receive responses and can act as an audit trail if required.  This is considered best practice.

Where organisations do not use Quick Quote, quotation responses may be received in writing or by email. Remember to check your junk mail folder before and after the quotation deadline in case bids have been filterered by your email system.

Opening the Responses

Quotation responses should be opened in line with your organisation's governance arrangements. If your organisation does not use Quick Quote, you should formally record the quotation responses received using the Record of Quotations Received form.

If less than three quotation responses are returned, reasons should be sought from the suppliers who did not submit a bid.  This feedback should be retained on file and can be used as lessons learned for future quotations.

If only one response is received, please contact your local procurement team/Centre of Expertise (CoE) on how to proceed.

Evaluation of Responses

You should use the evaluation process and guidance template to score the responses.  This evaluation will determine which bid best meets your requirements.

Your evaluation should score the evaluation criteria you published in the Invitation to Quote documents.

If you need to seek clarification on any or all quotation responses, this should be sent in writing to the supplier(s).  You should set a specific deadline for supplier(s) to respond with their answer(s) and treat all suppliers on an equal basis.

Recommendations Report

Once the evaluation has finished you should complete a recommendations report.  This report is used to present your findings and proposal to your manager/senior management team (in line with your organisation’s governance arrangements) for approval to proceed.

To tell potential suppliers what your requirements are, you will need to distribute quotation documents.  These quotation documents need to include information that will help suppliers decide whether they wish to bid or not.

Invitation to Quote Documents

Your Invitation to Quote documents must, as a minimum, include the following:

The content of the above templates can be changed to suit your individual requirements.

Organisations should ensure that all relevant procurement documents make reference to the Data Protection Regulations (DPR) and update their terms and conditions accordingly.

You should ask for legal advice to determine how DPR fits with your current quotation requirement and any other documentation used.

If you have identified that your organisation has a new procurement requirement (that cannot be met by reusing or recycling existing goods or services, or by using an existing contract), you should seek quotations from a minimum of three suppliers.  These suppliers should have the experience and expertise to meet your requirements.

Hints and Tips

To receive three quotes back from suppliers, you may wish to approach four or five suppliers in case not all respond.

A brief is the written document that includes your requirements for your procurement exercise.

The Prepare a Brief document provides a template that you can populate to issue to tenderers alongside the Invitation to Quote (ITQ) letter.  It includes guidance on how to do this that can be deleted when the ITQ is ready for issue.

To prepare a brief, you should gather information to help you make decisions on what your requirements are.  This will include research on:

Any decisions on what your brief will include should consider the risk and value involved.