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Identify Suppliers

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.

How to Identify Potential Suppliers

Potential suppliers may be identified by searching the register of suppliers on Public Contracts Scotland (PCS). This website offers a 'Quick Quote' system to seek quotations from suppliers registered on the website.

If your Organisation does not use PCS, potential suppliers may be identified by other means e.g. using internet searches, trade publications or phone directories.

If you are unable to identify three suppliers, you should then commence a Route 2 Procurement Exercise.  If you need further information or guidance on this you should contact your local procurement team or Centre of  Expertise.

You should try to not restrict your selection to existing suppliers to your Organisation, but include new suppliers for each procurement exercise This will:

  • facilitate competition
  • encourage innovation
  • ensure best value in future service delivery
  • help suppliers, who have not previously bid for Scottish public sector work, to gain access to opportunities and gain experience working for the Scottish Public Sector.

A Non-Competitive Action

If only one supplier can undertake the work required, you should contact your local procurement team, senior management or your Centre of Expertise for advice.  One possible option they may propose is to seek approval for a Non-Competitive Action (NCA)  from your local procurement team or senior management. You should then follow the remainder of this process. For commercial reasons, you should not inform the supplier that they are the only supplier involved in the process.

Note: A Non-Competitive Action is an exceptional procedure and should:

  • be strictly limited to certain situations
  • be approved from your Organisation’s senior management to proceed with this process
  • be documented and retained for audit purposes.

Checklist

Checklist

Do You Have What You Need?

Before carrying on, please check you've got everything you need.

Please ensure that you:

  • are registered on Public Contracts Scotland
  • have received senior management approval
  • documented all activities related to identifying suppliers for your procurement exercise.

Prepare a Brief

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

Quickfire Guide

Quickfire Guide

Your Brief

As a minimum your Brief should include:

Key Requirements
  • What do you want? 
  • Detail the timescales
  • Technical specifications
  • Statement of work
  • Budget.

Outputs

       Examples may be:

  • Temporary staff
  • Site landscaping

How bids will be evaluated

       Include your evaluation criteria and weightings.

       These should be communicated to all potential bidders.

Contract Management
  • How you are going to manage the contract when it goes live (does anything need to be added to the brief to reflect this?)
  • How will quality or service levels be measured, recorded and maintained?
  • What information should the bidder provide?
  • Costs: how do you keep them from rising?
  • How will issues be rectified?
  • Where and how are deliveries made?
  • How will processes be improved? Etc.

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:

Suppliers
  • Do you have a current incumbent supplier?
  • What is working in this contract/what is not?
  • Are there suppliers available to quote for the work e.g. locally, regionally, nationally?

Knowledgeable People/Experts
  • Talk to people in the organisation who deal with the current contract – what do they want from a new contract?
  • Talk with other buyers who have worked on a similar project. 
  • Talk with suppliers as part of early market engagement.

Market information
  • Have there been any changes in the market?
  • Are there any new innovations/technology?

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

Data Protection Regulations (DPR)

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

If you are in any doubt you should seek legal advice/speak to your Procurement department or your Centre of Expertise (CoE) to help finalise your brief and ensure your ITQ as well as any other documentation that you issue is DPR compliant

More information on DPR.

Checklist

Checklist

Do You Have What You Need?

Before carrying on, please check you've got everything you need:

  • Your Organisation's authority to procure before continuing

Any documents you need are listed below

Invitation to Quote Letter

(file type: doc)

Prepare a Brief

(file type: docx)

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