Invitation to Tender

Tools and Templates for this section are available for download and use.

Introduction

Following on from the PQQ process which will have provided a list of qualified potential suppliers the next phase is to invite tenders, receive tender offers and evaluate these.

Much of the information required for this stage will have been created during the earlier category sourcing stage, and there will also be input from the prior phases of the Supplier selection and Award stage i.e. OJEU Notice, Specification and PQQ.

It is recommended that the Invitation to Tender (ITT) process is conducted electronically to aid with the evaluation process in a collaborative environment (which may be virtual) without there being a prerequisite for review of physical documentation during the process. Electronic submissions will also facilitate scoring of the evaluation.

 

Purpose:

The Invitation to Tender (ITT) process is used to select one or more suppliers to meet the participant organisations' requirements. The term ITT is used to cover

• The issue of Invitation to Tender documentation (may be electronic)
• The evaluation of the tender responses
• The evaluation report and recommendation
• Award and unsuccessful notifications
• Supplier debriefing

 

There will also be associated correspondence with suppliers during the process. The entire process will conform to the EU procurement rules (PDF, 180KB). The Invitation to Tender documents (ITT Guidance and Template) will be specific to the procurement they are supporting, but will contain some generic material

• Covering letter 
• Acknowledgement letter
• Background and overview of the tendering process
• Instructions to tenderers
• Evaluation process
• Specification 
• Technical requirements
• Response requirements

 

The ITT documentation will also provide instructions to the bidders around how to deal with clarifications during the process, how to submit their response and the evaluation and award process.   Evaluation criteria and weightings will be provided as part of the documentation.   The ITT will also contain an outline timetable for the process which will need to comply with the timescales in the regulations (PDF, 180KB).          

Outputs

The key output from this stage is a recommendation of supplier(s) to be awarded the contract. However there are also a number of associated products

• ITT covering letter
• ITT evaluation strategy, methodology and process
• ITT evaluation report
• Award letter
• Letter to unsuccessful bidders
• Plan for contracting
• Investment approval report
• Draft implementation plan
• Resource plan for contracting

 

The output from the ITT phase will provide the input to the contracting phase.   This section assumes that users have a good working knowledge of the application of European directives to UK Public Sector procurement. If you are in any doubt at all on OJEU compliance, additional information is available via the links on the right hand side of this page, and you should also contact a local procurement or legal expert or the OGC service desk for further advice.