How to become a Crown Commercial Service supplier About the Crown Commercial Service The Crown Commercial Service has brought together Government’s central commercial capability into a single organisation, amalgamating Government Procurement Service with other commercial teams from the and central government departments.

We are an of the Cabinet Office and operate as a trading fund under the Government Trading Funds Act 1973. Our remit is to work with both departments and organisations across the whole of the public sector to ensure maximum value is extracted from every commercial relationship and improve the quality of service delivery.

Our goal is to become the “go-to” place for expert commercial and procurement services. We have brought together policy, advice and direct buying to ensure that policy development is closely linked to implementation, with more emphasis on pre- and post-contract activity to extract more value for the taxpayer.

With both service delivery and advisory capability, our services include contract management and supplier performance management to ensure that the Government acts as a true, single customer; freeing up individual organisations to focus their procurement expertise on what is unique to them.

We also work closely with arm’s length bodies, non-departmental public bodies, executive agencies and organisations across the whole of the UK public sector including health, local government, education, devolved administrations, emergency services and not for profit organisations.

There are a number of ways customers can access our services: self service via the website; assisted delivery, such as aggregated eAuctions and national further competitions which we run on behalf of multiple customers; and a fully managed service for departments.

Our value for money, commercial solutions are fully EU compliant to save customers time and money. We provide solutions for the core commodity areas covering energy, travel, fleet, office solutions, communications services, print, professional services, ICT, eCommerce, construction, research, facilities management and property.

What we do We develop value for money procurement solutions to help public sector organisations buy more efficiently and effectively.

By standardising specifications, where possible, and aggregating spend we deliver significant, sustainable cost reductions for our customers in the following areas of common spend:

• Communications services • IT & telecommunications (ICT) • Property & facilities management • Construction • Office solutions • Research • eCommerce • Print (including science & technology) • Energy • Professional services • Travel & fleet

Our high quality, commercial agreements are aligned with government policy and fully compliant with EU and national procurement legislation. We play a key role in helping deliver the Government’s agenda to support SMEs by making it quicker and less costly to compete for government business. More than 2,600 suppliers are currently on our procurement solutions, and more than 60% are SMEs. How to find tender opportunities When new product or service needs are identified, Timing or when an existing arrangement needs renewing, Once a procurement has awarded additional suppliers we are obliged under EU legislation to follow a formal cannot be added. You will need to wait until the next procurement process. relevant tender opportunity arises. The length of an arrangement varies but is usually two to four years. The EU Procurement Directives are designed to promote New procurements typically start several months in competition and transparency in the award of contracts advance of the current arrangement’s expiry date and for the supply of products and services to public sector the procurement process can take several months to organisations throughout Europe. Within the UK the EU complete depending on the complexity of the goods/ Procurement Directives are embedded within the Public services being procured. Contract Regulations 2006.

Tender opportunities are advertised in the Official Journal Sub-contracting of the European Union (OJEU). It is only by responding If there are no relevant tender opportunities currently to a contract notice in the OJEU that you can tender available for your area of business, it may be possible to become a supplier on one of our arrangements. for you to sub-contract your services to suppliers on existing arrangements. If you are interested in potential Any company within the EU member states can express sub-contracting opportunities please contact the relevant their interest, provided they meet the stated criteria for the supplier directly. A list of current suppliers can be found procurement. Full details of how to register your interest in on our website (see useful links overleaf). a tender will be contained in the contract notice published in the OJEU. You will need to be successful in the tender Government eMarketplace to be awarded a position on the ensuing arrangement. You may also wish to consider registering on the Expressing an interest in the tender does not mean Government eMarketplace. This online marketplace you have been successful. provides customers with a request for quote (RFQ) There are a number of ways to find opportunities to service for low value, less complex purchases. tender for government and public sector business: The marketplace enables you to advertise your capability • Register with Contracts Finder and Tenders to supply products or services on a national or regional Electronic Daily (TED) for alerts relevant to your basis without the need to go through a tender process. business area: o TED is the online version of the supplement to Any supplier can register for the marketplace; however, the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). registering on the Government eMarketplace does not mean you are a Crown Commercial Service supplier o Contracts Finder shows the longer term and and you will not be listed on our website. wider government pipeline. All public sector tenders over £10,000 can be viewed on Contracts Finder. It is automatically updated every weekday night with new notices published on TED. o Both sites will give you information about both CCS and wider government and public sector tender opportunities. • Monitor our procurement pipeline which is regularly updated to tell you about CCS specific tender opportunities. • Follow us on Twitter @gov_procurement How to respond to tender opportunities Our procurements are conducted using our eSourcing Further details about responding to specific tender tool. You will need to be registered on our eSourcing tool opportunities can be found by clicking on the link to the to participate in any of our tender opportunities procurement you are interested in from our procurement (see useful links below). To register you will need to pipeline. provide information including: If you wish to respond to non-CCS led tender • The full legal name of your organisation opportunities on Contracts Finder or TED please • Your DUNS number (a unique nine-digit number follow the advice provided in the OJEU contract provided to organisations free of charge by Dun notice as the process may vary. & Bradstreet) • Profile information describing your organisation and the size of your business

How can I find out more? These useful links will help you learn more about finding and responding to suitable tender opportunities: • Procurement pipeline: http://ccs-agreements.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/procurement-pipeline • Contracts Finder: http://www.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/ • Tenders Electronic Daily (TED): http://ted.europa.eu/TED/main/HomePage.do • List of current arrangements and their expiry dates: http://ccs-agreements.cabinetoffice.gov.uk • Current supplier search: http://ccs-agreements.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/suppliers • Register for Government eMarketplace: https://buyers.procserveonline.com/otis/preregistration/splash_page.html • Register for our eSourcing tool: https://gpsesourcing.cabinetoffice.gov.uk • Find your DUNS number: http://www.dnb.co.uk/dandb-duns-number • Public Contract Regulations 2006: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/5/contents/made

Contact us If you require further advice please get in touch: W: www.gov.uk/ccs T: 0345 010 3503 Follow us on Twitter @gov_procurement E: [email protected] Connect with us on LinkedIn

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