E-Commercial Systems

Please note that in addition to the below, we have a separate RFI document available to suppliers. This can be requested by contacting the following email address: dgc.E-Commercial.Systems.Project.Team@defra.gov.uk

Please also note that the deadline for responses to the RFI is 24 May 2021, and we therefore advise interested suppliers to make contact as soon as possible in order to access this.

The Authority is potentially seeking a supplier to provide an e-commercial system to Defra, the Environment Agency (EA), Natural England (NE), Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and Rural Payments Agency (RPA) (“the Core Defra Group”) and Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CFAS), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (KEW), Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB). The remaining organisations within the wider Defra group (“Defra Group”) will be potential service recipients and may be added to the contract at a later date via change control.

The potential E-Commercial systems should cover the following scope of services:

• Plan, prepare, run and manage procurements and grants in full compliance with PCR 2015 and all other relevant public procurement legislation;

• Sourcing project repository, project planning, pipeline management and reporting, route to market specific workflows;

• Sourcing, tender creation and management, tender issue, tender evaluation;

• Creation and publication of relevant notices;

• Contract award, e-auctions, dynamic purchasing;

• Contract management repository, contract management workflows and notifications;

• Contract and supplier management and document and data management and reporting; and

• Spend Analytics (e.g. reporting spend on contracts).

Additional related non-core components include:

• Procurement Workflows, Process Guidance and Document Template Management

• Category Management

• Category Management Workflows, Process Guidance and Document Template

• Demand Management

• Resource Planning

• Contract Management

• Contract Management Workflows, Process Guidance and Document Template

• Contract and Supplier KPI Measurement and Reporting

• Strategic Supplier Relationship Management

Additional optional components:

• Business Case Management

The challenges we face that we are looking to improve include:

• User Experience (including field entry, transaction time and document uploading, saving and searching functionality)

• Process workflows and templates

• Multiple document storage repositories

• Supplier data mastering

• Supplier information capture and management

• Interfaces to P2P and other systems

• Visibility of spend on contracts

• Ever-changing data and reporting requirements

• Automation technology

Indicative User Volumetrics:

• There are circa 10 super users who have self-serve access to manage day to day user admin, reports development and configuration options.

• There are some 250 professional users who run strategic procurements within the Defra group

• There are a significant number (1000’s circa 5000) of business users who run self-serve procurements (low value/low risk)

• There are a significant number (100’s circa 800) of business evaluator users that are involved in technical evaluation

• There is a significant number (1000’s circa 3000) of business contract managers that are involved in contract management activities

• There are a number (10’s circa 50) of business users that are involved in supplier management

The above is neither an exhaustive nor a final set of requirements. It is subject to development prior to any potential subsequent contract opportunity notice utilising the outputs from the RFI responses.