You can buy from this agreement either through direct award or further competition. There is no minimum spend requirement.
Direct award
This is suitable if there is only one supplier that meets your needs, or you can clearly see which supplier is the most beneficial to you.
To place a direct award you will need to:
- develop a clear specification of your needs
- use the Specification (found in the document section) to show that the mandatory requirements fulfil your needs, and to determine which supplier is the most advantageous
- award the call-off contract by sending a completed and signed framework schedule 6 to the successful supplier (this can be done electronically)
- notify CCS of your award by emailing us (include in your email: contract name, contract length, contract total value and winning supplier name)
Direct awards will be priced based on maximum agreement rates. You should consider whether you can get better value for money through further competition before awarding a direct award. If you choose this option you cannot use any supplementary terms and conditions.
Further competition
Invite suppliers from a specific lot to compete for your business to get the best value. For example, you can specify service levels, the security clearance needed or minimum qualifications unique to your organisation.
You are free to amend the call off agreement to reflect these.
To run a further competition you will need to:
- develop your specification and identify the suppliers who can meet your needs
- use Framework schedule 6 to refine your contract deliverables (what you need).
- develop your further competition award criteria
- invite all identified suppliers to submit a tender in writing – this could be by email or through your preferred e-Sourcing tool (contact details for each supplier representative can be found in the products and supplier section.
- set a time limit for the submission of tenders, (take into account the time needed to create and submit tenders and the complexity of your needs)
- keep each tender confidential until the time limit set out for the return of tenders has expired
- apply your published award criteria to each submitted tender
- award your call-off contract by sending a completed and signed Framework schedule 6 to the successful supplier (this can be done electronically)
- provide unsuccessful suppliers with written feedback on why their tenders were unsuccessful
- notify CCS of your award by emailing us (include in your email: contract name, contract length, contract total value and winning supplier name)
- publish your contract on contracts finder for transparency purposes
Call off agreement
Whatever option you choose, your call off agreement will set out the legal relationship between you and your chosen supplier. It is based on a standard set of terms and conditions which you can find in Framework Schedule 6. There are 2 parts to complete:
- part 1 (the order form)
- part 2 (the terms and conditions or ‘Core Terms’)
You can run and manage further competitions using our CCS eSourcing portal. To use this tool for the first time you will need to register an eSourcing account.
Read full customer guidance on how to use the eSourcing portal.
If you need more information or would like to speak to a member of our team, send us an email.
