Consideration should be given to preparing a guide to help small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to understand how your institution works and how they can go about winning some of your business. The Guide should contain:
- An introduction indicating the institution's non-pay expenditure and that business is sourced through competition and awarded on the basis of best value for money. The purpose of the Guide is to help suppliers understand how to find out about business opportunities.
- Types of contracts - your thresholds for tenders and quotations.
- How to find out about current quotations and tenders - where are they advertised etc
- What about quotations that are not publicly advertised - what should they do?
- The type of information the supplier will be expected to provide to the institution e.g. technical and financial data.
- Explain your institution's competitive process and how contracts are awarded. Also explain your contract management processes.
- Invoice and payment instructions e.g. should invoices be sent to a central Accounts Section or to the ordering department; do you prefer automated payments by BACS etc; outline your payment cycles.
- Do you prefer to deal with suppliers electronically – what do they need to do to be able to do this.
- Legislative considerations e.g. EU public procurement legislation, equality legislation etc that the institution complies with.
- Use of Consortia arrangements - perhaps including something on how the supplier could become a supplier to the consortium.Contact details for the institution including not only the central Procurement Office but also the functional heads of other major departments.