Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
eEvaluation
Conduct Complex
Evaluation
Tender
submission
Evaluation
report
eSourcing
Advertise
Opportunity
PQQ
ITT
Evaluation Clarification
Award
Express
Interest
Respond to
PQQ
Respond to
ITT
Clarification
Process
PAQ
Figure 7.1
The formal procurement process: eEvaluation and eSourcing.
eSourcing
An eSourcing system needs to be accessible to all potential vendors;
therefore all commercially available eSourcing tools utilise the internet,
and almost all are web-based. Typically, eSourcing systems need to
cover the interactions between the buyer and the suppliers at different
stages of the process, beginning with the initial publication or advertise-
ment of the opportunity through to the bidding process. Generally,
eSourcing works by allocating responding firms a log-in to an advertised
opportunity. This grants them access to the online pre-qualification
questionnaires (PQQ). If a respondent's PQQ is accepted, or forms one
of the highest-scoring returns, they are then sent an invitation to tender
(ITT). In the public sector the advertisement of a contract tender oppor-
tunity is called a contract notice, and that is published via the internet
in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).
The eSourcing tool is used by responding organisations to enter data
about their firm and their offer and to submit the PQQ and ITT informa-
tion. A fully functioning eSourcing system also needs to be able to deal
with two-way communication and allow for exchanges of information
and a wide variety of issues that flow as part of the buyer-supplier inter-
action. These interactions range from queries related to the issued docu-
ments and issues requiring clarification to the final agreement of the
contractual documents.
