General strategy / Terms
and conditions / Construction and civil
engineering / Information and
telecommunications systems / Procurement
strategy / Paying suppliers /
Who to contact
General strategy
The City of London's procurement strategy has been reviewed and
is currently passing through the approval process. An important
thread is the priority that is to be given to developing
procurement arrangements that support fair opportunities for local
suppliers and SMEs. Specific activities where the City of London
would be pleased to hear from SMEs are
- printing and design
- laundry and dry cleaning
- recruitment - agencies can apply to work with the City of
London's appointed contractor for a wide range of temporary
appointments.
If you wish to be considered for work in these areas, please
email your
details.
Terms and conditions
Where appropriate, all purchasing in the City of London is
subject to public sector purchasing legislation such as the EC
Purchasing Directives. An initiative is currently underway to make
it easier for SMEs to supply the City of London, making it less
costly to participate. This exercise aims to reduce the bureaucracy
wherever possible and to promote the use of clearer language in
contract documents. Further details will be published here as soon
as they are available.
Construction and
civil engineering
Whilst a great deal of responsibility for minor works and
building maintenance has now been devolved to departments the City
of London's Department of Technical Services retains overall
responsibility for many of the City of London's
major construction and civil engineering projects.
The City of London works with many SMEs that offer specialist
services in support of the larger and more regular engineering and
maintenance work. If you feel that you offer such a service and
would like to be considered for work, please
email
with your details.
Information and
telecommunications systems
A significant proportion of the supplies and services purchased
by the City of London's Information Systems Division is on behalf
of other City of London departments.
The IS Division has current corporate contracts and strategic
partnerships for the procurement of personal computers, laptops,
servers, PC and server maintenance, software licences and
telecommunications. Consideration is currently being given to
advertising our requirements here, with a view to doing this later
during the year.
Procurement strategy
The City of London is presently reviewing its procurement
strategy to make it easier to bid for work. The procurement
strategy together with a guide to prospective suppliers and an
annual procurement plan will be published here once it has received
the formal approval of the elected members.
Paying suppliers
Since 1999, the City of London has supported the
Better
Payment Practice Code and endeavours to deal promptly with
invoices from all its suppliers. The City of London is also
committed to complying in full with the provisions of the
Late Payment of Commercial Debts(Interest) Act
1998 .
Who to contact at the City
of London's Strategic Procurement Unit
The City of London's services are provided across a wide
geographical area covering London and parts of the South East.
If you wish to be involved in supplying goods or services to the
City of London then please
email or write to us
providing details of the type of activity you are involved in, what
volume of work you could undertake, any specialist aspect of the
City of London's broad range of service areas that you are
particularly focused on serving and any geographical limitations on
your supply area.
Further information on supplying the City of London. Although
all enquiries will be acknowledged, no guarantee can be given that
you will be engaged to supply the City of London.
Strategic Procurement Unit
City of London Corporation
Chamberlains Department
PO Box 270, Guildhall, London, EC2P 2EJ
eProcurement
Electronic procurement is the use of information and
communications technology (ICT) to acquire goods and services from
third parties. It embraces the automation of a wide range of supply
chain applications, including, supplier and product sourcing,
requisitioning, ordering, bill payment, competitive tendering,
inventory management, contract management, online auctioning,
tender analysis, approved list and disposal systems.
The City of London has an eCommerce Strategy which aims to
increase the levels of electronic business which over time will
include electronic tendering, ordering and invoicing. The aim is to
reduce the City of London’s and suppliers’ costs associated with
the procurement process and the costs of normal commercial trading.
It is recognised that eCommerce can help suppliers by opening up a
supplier’s products and services to a wider market. The City of
London will seek to work with suppliers which can help deliver its
eCommerce Strategy.
On 1 December 2003 the City of London implemented a new
Corporate Business Information System (CBIS). As part of the CBIS
project the City of London implemented Oracle products. Although in
its early stages the City of London is currently looking to trade
with suppliers electronically through this system. Those suppliers
who are awarded contracts with the City of London may be asked to
supply an electronic catalogue for loading into the Oracle system.
This would be done with support and guidance from the City of
London.
The Procurement Process
The following diagram presents an overview of the stages in a
typical procurement process. Click on each of the stages on the
text links for further information.
Identify needs /
Consult / Select
contract / Advertise contract /
Selection of applicants /
Issue of tenders / Tender
evaluation, contract award and debriefing /
Contract management
Identify needs
The starting point for any tendering or contracting process is
the identification of a particular set of needs. This my come about
in a number of ways including the expiry of an existing contract,
the completion of a best value review, a desire to improve service
levels and efficiency, the implementation of new legislation or
government policy.
Consult
Once a need has been identified it is crucial that the needs of
all of those who could be affected by the contract are taken into
account. This process will help to ensure that the contract
achieves its objectives, and does not have an adverse impact on
anybody. The nature and extent of the consultation will depend
largely on the subject matter of the contract.
Select contract
Following consultation, the officer will select an appropriate
contract model. This will again be largely determined by the
subject matter of the contract, but could be a term contract,
framework agreement, partnership proposal, consortia agreement or
turn-key contract.
Advertise contract
The contract notice or advertisement will invite companies to
submit an expression of interest for a contract. The advertisement
will provide information on the scope of the contract, detail the
procedure and what information is required. It is important that
companies supply all of the requested information and respond by
the due date as late responses can not be considered.
Selection of applicants
The purpose of a pre-qualification questionnaire is to assess
the potential bidder’s suitability to supply the City of London and
ability to satisfy the contract before tenders are issued. It saves
time and effort being unnecessarily spent on completing tenders by
a bidder. The information below offers a guide as to what you will
normally be asked for in a PTBQ, and an example of the City of
London’s pre-tender business questionnaire can be downloaded
here.
Sample pre-tender business
questionnaire (496kb)
The general information requested provides basic details about
an organisation, verifies that it can be identified as a legitimate
discrete trading organisation (address of office, registration
number and company group information), that it has acceptable
levels of economic and financial standing and that it promotes good
practices in areas of equal opportunities, environmental protection
and health and safety.
The areas assessed can be summarised as follows
- Company information
- Financial information
- Technical information
- Equal opportunities
- Health and safety
- Trade references
Issue of tenders
Following the selection stage companies will be invited to
tender. The tender package will normally consist of the following
documents
- Invitation to tender
- Instructions to tenderers
- Terms and conditions of contract
- Background information
- Specification of requirements
- Tender schedule
- Form of tender
- Attachment checklist
- Confirmation of receipt
It is important that tenderers follow the instructions provided
in the “Instructions to tenderers” and ensure that their tender is
returned by the specified closing date as late tenders can not be
considered. A formal tender process normally takes between six and
nine months to complete.
Certain timescales are specified for EU tenders, and can be
viewed here.
Tender evaluation,
contract award and debriefing
Returned tenders will be evaluated against the predetermined
criteria as specified in the tender documentation. Evaluation will
focus on examining how the tender proposals will deliver the
service (quality) and the cost of the service (price). Normally the
City of London will award the contract on the basis of the most
economically advantageous tender and the balance between quality
and price will depend on the particular service area. The
successful tenderer will be notified in writing either by letter or
official electronic communication.
Within the limits of commercial confidentiality, the City of
London will always endeavour to offer unsuccessful tenderers
feedback to find out why their bid has failed. This information can
be used to help with any future bids as being unsuccessful in one
contract does not mean that a company will be unsuccessful in
future. You will also be given the opportunity to provide feedback
to the City of London on the tender process.
Contract management
The City of London has to monitor its performance as part of its
duty under Best Value, and suppliers and contractors to the City of
London are monitored to assess their compliance with pre-defined
performance criteria. Contracts have to be performed in accordance
with the requirements set out in the contract documentation.
Contract conditions will be strictly applied. The City of London is
continuously striving to improve its own performance and it expects
its contractors to do the same.