Quick Buyer Guide The RFT Process - eTenders

1 1 Quick Buyer Guide The RFT Process May 2016 2 Contents Introduction .. 4 To Begin .. 4 Create a Workspace .. 5 Create a Tender .. 7 RFT Checklist .. 9 Manage Lots .. 9 Set Message Recipients .. 9 Select CPV Codes .. 10 RFT Dates / Planned activities in this Process .. 11 Publication Sites .. 12 Pricing Required (if any) .. 13 Manage 13 Documents .. 18 Prepare zip file .. 18 Internal 18 Invitation Letter .. 19 Set weights .. 20 Define opening committee .. 20 Prepare and manage publications .. 21 Contract Notice .. 23 Publish .. 39 Suppliers .. 40 Pre-register supplier .. 42 Send invitations .. 43 Opening Procedure .. 44 Assign Evaluator .. 44 Evaluation .. 44 Set Award Values .. 45 Intention to Award .. 45 Create Contract .. 46 Prepare and manage award publications .. 49 Publish Award Notice .. 57 CloseRFT .. 57 3 Version Control Version Date By Description 18-08-2014 Vivien Pierce First Draft 29-10-2014 Vivien Pierce Revised 30-01-2015 Vivien Pierce Revised 09-05-2016 Aoife Donovan Updated new Standard OJEU Forms and Tender Checklist changes went live in eTenders 2nd May 2016 4 Introduction This document is designed as a Quick Buyer Guide on the Tender Process from creating an RFT (Request for Tender) through to Awarding a Contract.

2 For a more detailed tender Process , please read the EUS CTM Buyer User Guide which can be found on the eTenders website. To Begin Go to and click on LOGIN to enter the system; Enter your user credentials and click Log In; 5 Welcome to your eTenders Homepage. To see all Tenders, click on one of the links in the panel on the left of the page; My ongoing, Ongoing, Closed as below; Create a Workspace In this section you can create a new workspace which will act like a project folder/category folder for related tenders All tenders in the ICT and Office Equipment category. A team can be assigned to a workspace for access to all tenders within. You can decide to create / not create a workspace before setting up a tender. A tender can be created outside of a workspace for example if your tender is not related to any other tenders or if you don t want workspace members to view this particular tender.

3 To create a workspace, click on the button at the bottom of the page Create new Workspace. 6 You are now presented with the Workspace form to fill in. Enter a reference, name and address for the new Workspace and click Save. Note: All fields with a * are mandatory fields. 7 You can Add/Remove members to the Workspace now and assign appropriate permissions as follows; Note: Members can have one or more permissions. Editor - Has permissions to update and view information. Limited editor - Same as Editor but cannot create objects. Viewer - Can only view information. Will not receive any system or email alerts. Limited viewer Same as Viewer but cannot view quotation information. Evaluator - User can be selected as evaluator in a RFT if not "strict evaluation" is enabled. Create a Tender Create a Tender by clicking Create RFT within a Workspace or by clicking Create RFT outside of the Workspace at the bottom of the page.

4 Choose Works, Supplies or Services as appropriate. Enter the estimated value of the contract and click Next. Select a Procedure and click Next. For this example, Open Procedure (OJEU) is selected which is for Open Procedures above threshold that will be published to TED. NOTE: OJEU Official Journal European Union, TED Tenders Electronic Daily. 8 If you check the box for Allow use of template based on a lower threshold value , you'll have to select one of the exceptions in the list provided. Next you enter a tender Reference, Short description and Detailed description. In the example below, the procedure selected is Open Procedure (OJEU) . Indicate your Response deadline and check the Use a tender box if you plan to open the Tender responses online. If you decide to open the tender responses offline receiving the responses on paper, uncheck Use a tender box and check the Disable submission of online proposals.

5 You can also check the box provided if you want the awarded supplier to make a discount bid. If you plan to split the tender into lots, enter the number of lots and click Ok, otherwise click Skip for only one lot. 9 RFT Checklist You are now presented with the RFT Checklist, partial example below. Where there is a hyperlink to the right of a section on the check list, click it and follow the instructions in the left panel or as below; Manage Lots If you have broken the RFT into more than one lot, you can manage the lots here by clicking on each of the lot links to the right of the checklist. You can create, delete, copy or edit lots for this RFT. Click Edit to enter more details about a lot and then click Save. Click Delete to remove a lot and then click OK. Click Copy to create a new lot, enter details and click Save. Click Done when finished managing lots.

6 Set Message Recipients Set/change who is going to receive messages from suppliers for this RFT. Each message received is seen on the message tab by all members but selected recipients will receive an email alert/ eTenders notification of a new message. If no recipient is selected only the owner will receive alerts. To set a message recipient, check the box beside the member you wish to add and click Save. 10 Select CPV Codes CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) codes are used like a barcode to reference the particular item(s) you require. They are useful to buyers when searching for Suppliers to add to their RFT. They are also useful to potential suppliers to search for business opportunities and to receive alerts for same. For this reason they are highly recommended otherwise suppliers will not be notified of your tender. Select CPV codes by clicking Add You are then presented with the Category Tree (partial example below) and a list of CPV codes.

7 Search by category name or select the code appropriate for your Tender request and click Add selected categories. Once you have added the appropriate CPV code, click Done. Next step is to set CPV Code as Main CPV. Check the box next to the code which will be your Main CPV code. 11 Click on the button Set Main CPV - this will then pre-fill automatically to your OJEU Form. The star icon identifies the main CPV Code you have set. Set Main CPV Code even if just one CPV Code is listed. RFT Dates / Planned activities in this Process Here you can set/change all dates for the whole RFT. Select dates in chronological order. If you select dates in the wrong order, you will receive a warning. Check the boxes for the dates you wish to set. Set Publication of notice date for RFT here. The date has to be the same for all publication sites, eTenders and TED. Set Deadline of clarification questions.

8 No questions will be answered after this date. Set Response deadline for last date suppliers can respond to RFT. Tender box/envelopes can be opened after this date. Set Validity of tender date to ensure supplier maintains Tender offer until this date. Set Planned award date for when Buyer plans to award the contract. Set Publication of award date for when the RFT Process is finished and awarded supplier will be published to any of the publication sites. The publishing of award can only be done after a completed RFT Process . Click Save when complete. 12 Publication Sites Select the publication site where the notice and award will be published. The selection of publication sites cannot be changed once the notice publication date has passed. Select the Sector, General procurement, Utilities or Defence and security. Click Save when finished.

9 13 Pricing Required (if any) Here, you can decide the types of quotes you wish to receive from suppliers; Check Total quote requested and click Save if you wish to get one full quote If you have more than one package, you will need to do this for each package If you will allow suppliers to provide a quote with add-on s, check Option total quotes and click Save o State the number of add-on s allowed. Manage Questionnaire In this section, you can set questions for the suppliers to answer in relation to the RFT. You will use the answers to these questions in your evaluation. Predefined questions are available right away with every template and if you don t want to use them you should delete them. You can add questions from a template or create sections and then create questions within each section. Note: If you do not want to receive any responses through the system then you should disable the Pricing Required and Manage Questionnaire sections.

10 Click Add from to add a predefined question. 14 Select a template from the dropdown menu, Evaluation criteria (4), check the main box for the full set of related questions or check only the questions required. Please see Click Link to import questions in an un-editable format or Copy for an editable format. You now have a list of predefined questions. If you would like to add more questions, click Create as below. 15 Give the section a name, Criteria. Click Save when complete. Check the Section (Criteria) box and click Create to add a question within that section. Choose the question type and click Next. For the purpose of this manual, I have chosen Single Choice so the answer is only right or wrong. Choose the question type that suits your question. 16 Select section where you want your question to appear (Criteria).