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Tendering is basically the process where a buying institution publishes
its intention to purchase some goods from or engage the services of
a suitable vendor, passes on the details of what it needs in terms of
goods or services and invites sealed bids / offers in order to select
the most competent and competitive bids.
There are several variations of this process used in practice depending on
the size of procurement, the nature of goods or services being procured,
etc.
Major Process
Variations
The major variations
are as follows:
Tender documents that
contain details of goods or services being procured may be sold or offered
free to potential bidders.
Single Envelope Single
Round Tendering involves in its manual avatar a single set of bid documents
being submitted by all the bidders in a sealed envelope before a cut-off
date and time. The bids are then opened by authorized personnel from
the buyer institution in the presence of bidders. This method is usually
adopted for entering into rate contracts for standard low value off
the shelf goods or commodities.
Multi Envelope Single
Round Tendering involves submission of separate sealed bid documents
for technical and financial bids. The technical bids are opened first
and the bids that satisfy the technical criteria are shortlisted. Financial
bids of only those vendors that qualify technically are opened and compared.
This method is usually adopted for goods or services where technical
criteria are significantly more stringent than required for off-the-shelf
goods.
Multi Round Tendering
may be carried out in more than two rounds of bidding. For large projects
or complex engineered goods initially only an “Expression of Interest”
may be invited. This may constitute the pre-qualification round for
further technical and financial bidding rounds. Only the shortlisted
vendors from the prequalification round will go through to further technical
and financial rounds. There may be one more shortlisting step after
the technical round.
In many cases, the buyer
institution does not have enough detailed knowledge of the goods or
services being procured or may not be aware of the latest technological
developments pertaining to these goods or services. In such and other
cases when requirements are not defined in exact terms, the technical
and financial bids may not be comparable on the same basis. In such
cases additional bidding rounds with “uniform conditions”
are called for.
The NexTenders solution supports all such variations and is extendible
to include further variations. NT comes with pre-defined “schedule
templates”. Depending on the type of tendering required, appropriate
“schedule templates” can be attached to a tender. With some
training buyer institutions can also create their own “schedule
templates”.
Fundamental
Security Requirements for Tendering
It is of paramount importance that all bidders get a fair and equitable
opportunity in their bids. In order to ensure this it is necessary that
till such time as all the bids can be opened no-one but the bidder should
be privy to the contents of the individual bid.
The other important requirement is that after the cut off time for bidding
and after even one bid is opened, no bidder should be able to change
his bid.
The bid data must remain “locked” for all purposes from
the time of individual bid submission to simultaneous opening of all
bids and no one including the buyer or a system administrator should
be allowed to tamper with the bid data or even view the bid data.
The system must detect any such attempt to view or tamper with the data
and generate alerts and provide adequate remedial measures including
cancellation of the tender and all bids without opening any of the bids.
Apart from security of the bid data it is also necessary that electronic
bids be non-repudiable.
The bid opening process must have rigorous access control and must be
restricted. The opening of bids may require multiple rounds.
NexTenders’ patented Security Architecture supports these unique
security requirements perfectly. The NexTenders Security Architecture
has the following elements.
The patent pending secure bid process that uses 1024 bit public key
/ private key pairs for all users of the system
Self issued or third party based digital certificates. Class 1 or 2
or 3 certificates as per the choice of the buyer
Optional use of smartcards for authentication and certificate storage
Tamper proof bid box with automated security alerts
Task based access group and user access built into user interface
Task based access group and user access built into workflow engine
Optional use of secure socket layer operation
Types of
Tenders
Tenders can be fixed amount tenders, item rate tenders or percentage
rate tenders. There are open tenders and limited tenders. Tenders can
be for works, service, one-time supply of goods or rate contracts. Each
type of tender will have rules relating to approval, number of bidding
rounds it, number of envelopes etc.
The NexTenders solution supports configuration of rules based on type
of tender. The rules may be based on pricing mode, such as fixed amount
/ percentage rate, or type of items being procured.
Information
for Bidders
Each department needs to convey a lot of information as guidelines for
bidders. This includes general rules governing the tendering process,
the terms governing
the contract for supply of goods or services, bidder eligibility and
so on. Information for bidders is of two types: general information
applicable to all tenders, information pertaining to all tenders of
a specific type, and information specific to a tender.
For information not specific to a tender, NexTenders features a bidder
information module that can be edited online to keep this information
up to date. Bidders can read this info online or download it in the
form of documents.
Schedule
of Rates
For some of the works contracts, government departments adopt a common
rate structure for items used in work contracts for costing purposes.
This schedule of rates needs to be updated online.
The NexTenders schedule of rates module allows online updation of schedule
of rates.
Contents
of a Tender Document
A tender document contains all the information necessary for bidders
to submit their bids. This includes detailed specifications and quantities
of goods and services, general conditions of a contract, special conditions
of the contract. A buyer typically tenders for similar goods or services
several times a year. Hence the information in the tender document needs
to be repeatedly used. Templates can be used for this purpose. Specifications
of items being tendered can be stored as master data and used readily
while preparing the tender documents. Such specifications may include
drawings, maps, pictures, tabular data, free form text or structured
information. Pre-defined templates can be used for general and special
conditions of contracts etc.
The NexTenders solution contains a rich array of template support for
organizing tender contents systematically and allows systematic re-use
of this information. Buyers can create and maintain their own set of
templates.
Bid Forms
Bid forms impose a uniform structure for various bids received. This
helps in preparation of bid comparison and evaluations. Bid forms may
have multiple formats.
NexTenders solution allows creation of bid form templates in a variety
of formats. Context sensitive help for bidders can also be embedded
in the bid form.
Tender
Amendments
There are likely to be several amendments to a tender after the tender
is floated. These may pertain to change of scheduled dates associated
with the tender, addition and/or deletion of items, changes in bid forms,
etc. The NexTenders solution handles all the required types of amendments.
However, depending on the state of the tender, certain types of amendments
can not be allowed as they are likely to lead to logical inconsistencies.
Amendments are handled intelligently in the system.
Workflow
Every department has its own rules regarding how an indent is processed,
who can open a tender, etc. The NexTenders solution has a sophisticated
workflow manager that allows such rules to be configured and enforced
for each department separately.
The NexTenders workflow engine is a powerful and flexible and allows
very complex parallel, serial and combined workflows to be handled.
The workflow engine also ensures that the basic process flow and user
interface is consistent and wizard-like so the user is guided through
the entire process.
Sale of
Tender Documents
Usually tender documents are sold to the potential bidders for a fee.
The NexTenders solution supports sale of tender documents online. The
document can be “purchased” for online viewing or downloaded
in any of the popular file formats such Microsoft Word DOC or PDF or
as data for offline bid preparation (see below).
Online
and traditional mode payment
Online payment facility needs to be provided for purchase of tender
documents or payment of various fees etc to be paid to the buyer. In
countries where the use of credit cards or Internet banking is not widespread,
traditional payment modes may have to be supported in conjunction with
offline operation. NexTenders solution supports such operation.
The NexTenders system allows definition of payment formulas based on
tender type, class of vendor, type and mode of payment to automatically
compute document sale fee, earnest money or bid security payment etc.
Preparation
and submission of bids
Bid preparation can be a fairly long and tedious process with some complex
tenders. In places where Internet connectivity is poor or unavailable,
an offline bid preparation mode is supported where the bidder needs
to remain connected only for a short download and upload period while
the major part of bid preparation is done on a desktop computer using
the bid preparation software provided by NexTenders. NexTenders supports
online bid preparation and submission, offline bid preparation and online
submission, and offline bid preparation and submission in data form
on a Compact Disc.
Parallel
operation
In the initial stages of implementation and till such time as electronic,
Internet-based transactions become widely acceptable, it may be necessary
to support th use of paper based bids in sealed envelopes. The NexTenders
system is designed to allow buyers to configure the system to operate
in parallel mode for any one or all tenders without compromising the
benefits and security of the system. The features of offline preparation
and parallel manual CD or paper bid submission make implementing the
system easier from the point of view of vendor compliance.
Bid Scrutiny
and Comparison
This is a major time-consuming process for buyers apart from tender
document preparation. By incorporating a database and process based
approach to tendering, NexTenders makes this task easy. Fields in bid
forms can be flagged as comparison or qualifying fields. When the bids
are opened, comparison matrices and qualifying lists are automatically
prepared by the system. This aids in quick scrutiny and comparison.
Vendor
Registration
The NexTenders System allows buyers to maintain a database of registered
vendors based on the buyer’s own scheme of vendor classification.
Some buyers restrict all bidding to registered vendors while some may
want completely open tendering. NexTenders supports both methods and
allows temporary registration of vendors for a single tender.
Award and
Contract Management
Award is the issuing of a contract or purchase order (with delivery
specifications) to one or more bidders. NexTenders supports this process.
Post award processes such as contract management are not covered currently
in the NexTenders solution but will be included in future releases.
Award information is also made public through award notices.
Tender
Notices and Amendment Notices
NexTenders supports dual listing of tender notices for all tenders processed
through the system. Tenders for a specific buyer institution are listed
on the main tendering web site of the buyer as well as a common tender
notice site maintained at nextenders.com. Tender notices and amendment
notices can be published currently in two languages. Future version
will support complete operation in one more language parallel with English.
Alert Services
NexTenders includes an alert engine that allows vendors to define their
alert preferences so that they can be alerted when a particular item
or service is being tendered. Alerts can also be defined for due date
reminders etc by vendors.
Buyers can define security and other alerts based on exceptions.
Alerts can be delivered in the form email messages or text messages
on GSM phones.
Flexibility
and Compliance with Guidelines
NexTenders system architecture is data driven and relies on highly enginised
workflow, tracking and alert components. Put together these components
have resulted in a more or less generic NexTenders system that is comparable
to generic ERP solutions in other domains.
This allows for very high configurability at the level of each department
and each type of tender. A single installation of the system supports
tendering web sites of multiple buyer institutions each with their own
rules, vendor databases, form and schedule templates, etc. Processing
rules, workflow schedule templates and forms can be configured separately
depending on tender type. For example a single buyer institution may
have one tender complying with local procurement rules and guidelines
and another tender where international funding agencies are involved,
complying with, say, World Bank guidelines.
Compliance with World Bank guidelines relating to procurement can be
enforced in relation to the tendering process, vendor eligibility, bid
documents and contents, price schedule formats, general and special
conditions of contract, etc. The architecture has been meticulously
designed to handle any and all World Bank guidelines as published on
www.worldbank.org, in “Procurement of Goods or Works" (ISBN: 0-8213-3588-X)
and other related publications.
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