Accelerated Tender
If you are in a rush because you need to spend the money in a specific financial year or must have part of the solution in place by a specific time then you can make a case for an accelerated tender.
We would not recommend using the accelerated tender route for an EDRM procurement as no supplier will be able to prepare a detailed and considered proposal for a corporate EDRM implementation in 10 days.
G-CAT/S-CAT
The other option is to take advantage of the G-CAT/S-CAT service provided by the Office of Government Commerce.
G-CAT is a catalogue based procurement vehicle that has been established and managed by OGCbuying solutions. It provides public sector bodies with a simple means of procuring IT goods and services related to those goods. There are 26 prime contractors for G-Cat spread across seven separate categories.
Hardware and systems integration
Telecommunications and related services
Software
3rd party maintenance
Managed IT services
Value added reseller
Total solution provider.
If you just wanted to purchase EDRM software you could go through category 3 or 6. Category 7 is better suited to those education organisations who need a system and services.
S-CAT is a catalogue based procurement scheme set up and managed by OGC which provides public sector bodies with a simplified means of procuring and contracting for a range of IT and Business Services. The S-CAT categories are:
IS strategy development
Programme and project management
IT architecture design
Requirements specification, procurement, evaluation modelling, system acceptance and implementation
Body shop supply of IT specialist and general administration personnel
Consultancy and support services in respect of e commerce, EDI, multimedia and internet/intranet services
Consultancy and support services in respect of computer and communications security, contingency planning and disaster recovery
Advice on public-private partnerships including market testing/outsourcing and PFI
Telecommunications consultancy
IT and management training
Application development, support and maintenance including testing
Business and management consultancy
Advice and support services for record, data and knowledge management.
If you had opted to purchase the EDRM system via G-CAT category 3 or 6 then you could use an S-CAT consultant to tailor the product to fit your requirements under S-CAT category 11.
Alternatively if you decide that it is primarily a service procurement then you could simply contract under S-CAT category 11 for a service provider to meet this requirement.
OGC warn that where an S-CAT service provider is contracted to design and specify an EDRM system it is imperative that the S-CAT service provider assumes any liability associated with the correct technical specification of any hardware and software or technical platform that it recommends. In other words is the platform specified able to scale to deliver the software solution envisaged or proposed? It may be necessary to set out the hardware and software acceptance criteria required within a special term (schedule) to any S-CAT service order.
To use G-Cat or S-Cat customers need to sign a customer access agreement with OGCbuying solutions.
If using G-CAT or S-CAT you still need to enter into a competitive procurement which means you need to seek advice before selecting the G-CAT or S-CAT suppliers you want to shortlist. You then need to send them a full SOR and you need to evaluate their responses and negotiate with and contract with the preferred supplier.
