request for quotation - Specification

Project Title / Sales Growth Planning and Leadership Development
Company Name / Axon-IT.com Limited
Issue of Specification / 12/8/16
GH Ref Code / 2533

Email for Return of Completed Responses

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Deadline for Responses

/ 19/8/16 @ 5.00pm

background to the cheshire & Warrington grant service & growth hub

The Cheshire & Warrington Growth Hub, provides small grants to eligible small to medium sized businesses to help them receive external support and advice to help them grow their business. The Growth Hub is considering supporting this proposal. This work is part funded though the European Regional Development Fund. Further details can be found at

Background to organisation and project

Company Background / Established in 2001, Axon-IT Ltd based in Macclesfield is a single-source solutions company offering IT services, telephony, consultancy, training and support. Our services include cloud solutions, connectivity, telecoms, protection, hardware/software and IT support. We work with Microsoft technologies and hold the status of Microsoft Gold Partner and Microsoft Cloud Accelerate Partner.
We typically win work through referrals and have circa 2,500 clients ranging from micro businesses to large corporates. The turnover is £2.2 million. Client retention is very good and there are huge opportunities to grow the business from an in bound strategy as well as new clients.
Project Background / Historically the company has had a casual approach to a defined sales process and has relied on a reactionary culture for generating new business. We see huge opportunities for significant growth going forward for the IT sector but also increasing competition. We need to develop a sales process and a committed team that can understand the challenges we face and work on and identify the right channel for sales opportunities. Following discussions at board level regarding the strategy for the sales and marketing, we can now outline our requirements for the sales and marketing department including the positioning of the individuals involved. The requirement is to develop the leadership and management skills of the senior sales team by a series of one to one and group sessions. There is also a need to up skill in sales acumen so as to be strong in identifying opportunities for new customers but to also grow the existing customer base.
We expect an outcome of increased turnover of around £600,000 in this current financial year, a sharper senior sales management framework and substantial job creation along the way.

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PART a: Project specification

Timescales

The table below outlines the timescales for this tender and delivery of the project.

Issue of Specification (Published) / 12/8/16
Deadline for Responses / 19/8/16 @ 5.00pm
Evaluation and Feedback / 24/8/16
Consideration of Award / 24/8/16
Commencement of Work / 29/8/16
Completion of [element/stage 1] / 30/11/16
Completion of [element/stage 2] / N/A
Final completion Date / 30/11/16

Requirements of the Brief

Element 1: / Sales Growth Planning and Leadership Development Coaching
Requirements / A specialist leadership & management coach is required to support the development of the sales & marketing team. Preferably someone who focuses on strategy, with experience of a sales environment.
It is envisaged that this will focus on two levels:
  1. the development of the Commercial Director
  2. the development of the wider senior sales management team (four people).
It is hoped that this development will allow our business to accelerate its growth throughdeveloping new practical skills of the team and take an innovative approach to our sales process.
As our business has been operating since 2001 we feel this project will provide an opportunity to challenge our current approach and stimulate fresh thinking that will enable us to scale the business and break down barriers as we seek to become more focused on what specific growth sectors can move us closer to our goal.
We envisage that the support will be delivered through a blend of tailored one-to one sessionsin addition to group workshops.

Indicative Budget

/ The indicative budget for the service is up to £15,000.

Key Deliverables

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  1. Design a robust sales process delivering high performance sales results
  2. Review the current sales function and dismantle inappropriate functions
  3. Develop a disciplined sales team delivering high customer expectations.
  4. Keep and grow the core customer.
  5. Identify the channel to grow new sales.
  6. Leadership& Management development for the senior sales & marketing team leaders.

Timescale for Delivery

/ Up to 3 Months.

PART B: SUpplier REsponse Section

ORGANISATION IDENTITY

All respondents should answer these questions. If your company is not currently registered in the UK, you should still try to answer each question, substituting any appropriate professional, commercial or other registration within your domestic jurisdiction. Single sole trader business advisors are most welcome to apply and where an answer is not applicable please indicate as such.

Information Only

Name of the company (Prime or single contractor) in whose name the tender would be submitted
Contact name
Address
Telephone number
E-mail address:
Web Address
Company Registration number: (if any)
Date of Registration
Registered address if different from the above
VAT Registration number: (if any)
Please attach Curriculum Vitae or Organisational Background for information only

PART C: Scored Response

Section 1: Quality Assessment

Question 1. Meeting the Requirements of the Brief.
How would you meet the needs of the tender as described in the ‘Requirements of the Brief’ Part A?
(Max 1,000 words). Marks Available: 5
This is a minimum threshold question – please see Evaluation Criteria in Appendix I
Question 2. Background and Experience
Please outline previous knowledge or experience of delivering this type of service before, use case studies if available?
(Max 1,000 words) Marks Available: 5
This is a minimum threshold question – please see Evaluation Criteria in Appendix I

Section 2: Pricing

Question 3. Pricing Marks Available: 10
Please provide pricing details for the services outlined in the specification above. Identify clearly the costs of each element for the duration of the contract. Where appropriate clearly state the services and time included within the quotation and the additional costs for services beyond the scope of the contract.
Total Cost (Exc. VAT) / £

Please note:

  • All prices quoted shall be fixed and firm and shall apply for the full duration of the contract.
  • Following that period, any requests for price changes must be accompanied by a written summary and supported by evidence to justify the proposed price change.
  • No quantity or continuity of work is guaranteed to successful suppliers and this should be taken into account when completing the Pricing Schedule.
  • All prices quoted shall be exclusive of Value Added Tax (VAT).
  • Any daily rate indicated in the Schedule of Rates is for an 8 hour working day, during a normal working week (Monday to Friday). A half day is therefore considered as 4hrs.
  • All costs are deemed to include expenses and any other on-cost.

Please note, response to this submission is at the sole cost of the supplier and is not an offer of employment

guidance NOTEs

Instructions for Completion

Completed responses should be submitted in electronic format and emailed to the email address given at the front of this document by the due date as outlined in Deadline for Response in the Timescales section.

Any application received after the Deadline for Response shall not be opened or considered. We may, however, in our own absolute discretion extend the Deadline and in such circumstances we will notify all applicants of any change.

You should answer all questions as accurately and concisely as possible.

Where a question is not relevant to your organisation, please state N/A (not applicable) and include a brief explanation if required. Questions must be answered in English and submitted either in Microsoft Word readable format orAdobe Acrobat PDF.

Responses will be evaluated in accordance with the criteria set out in Appendix 1. In the event that none of the responses are deemed satisfactory, wereserve the right to consider alternative procurement options.

Failure to provide the required information, make a satisfactory response to any question, or supply documentation referred to in responses, within the specified timescale, may mean that you will be excluded from further participation in the procurement.

No Contract

No information contained in this specification or in any communication made between ourselves and any supplier in connection with this specification shall be relied upon as constituting a contract, agreement or representation that any contract shall be offered in accordance with this specification. Wereserve the right, subject to the appropriate procurement regulations, to change without notice the basis of, or the procedures for, the competitive tendering process. Wereserve the right to terminate the process at any time. Under no circumstances shall ourselves incur any liability in respect of this specification or any supporting documentation.

Supplier Selection

The overall evaluation process will be conducted in a fair and equitable manner, so that we are able to consider the value for money of each proposal. This means that we may seek clarification of an application from any and all applicants; different clarification/information may be sought from different applicants.

Once we have reached a decision in respect of an award, we will notify all applicants of our decision. As this is below the OJEU financial threshold for light touch regime procurements, we do not intend to provide for a standstill period before entering into thecontract.

Any attempt by applicants to influence the contract award process in any way may result in the applicant being disqualified. Specifically, applicants shall not directly or indirectly at any time:

  • Devise or amend the content of their application in accordance with any agreement or arrangement with any other person (other than in good faith with a person who is a proposed partner, supplier, consortium member or provider of finance.)
  • Enter into any agreement or arrangement with any other person as to the form or content of any other application, or offer to pay any sum of money or valuable consideration to any person to effect changes to the form or content of any other application.
  • Enter into any agreement or arrangement with any other person that has the effect of prohibiting or excluding that person from submitting an application.
  • Canvass us or any of employees or agents in relation to this tender.
  • Attempt to obtain information from any of our employees, agents or our advisors concerning another application.

Queries about the procurement

Any questions about the procurement should be submitted by to the email address indicated at the front of this document.

If we consider any question or request for clarification to be of such significance that all potential suppliers who have responded should be made aware of it, both the query and the response will be communicated to them, in a suitably anonymous form either by email or on the website/publicationon which the tender was advertised.

All responses received and any communication from service providers will be treated in confidence.

Appendix 1 – Evaluation Criteria

Prior to evaluating responses, we will carry out an initial review of each Request for Quotation response to confirm completeness and compliance with the minimum requirements and may, at its discretion, reject a response which is incomplete and / or non-compliant. The following pre-evaluation process will be undertaken in the following sequential process:

  1. Compliance Check Stage: to confirm completeness and compliance of the response with the Tender Requirements. We may, at our discretion, reject a Tender which is incomplete or non-compliant. Please note the word count and any text above the word count will not be assessed.
  2. Quality Assessment Score: The quality assessment section will be assessed against the criteria set out below and each tender will be awarded a score based on their ability to demonstrate their ability to meet the tender requirements.
  3. Responses scoring 0 in any of the quality assessment questions will be deemed to have failed to demonstrate the minimum level of quality and will be disqualified.
  4. Tender Price Score: This is calculated using the formula shown below and a score will be awarded which reflects the cost quoted relative to the other tenders received.
  5. Evaluation Stage: We will then determine the preferred provider by comparing the total scores for both the quality assessment and pricing sections.

Part B: Contractor Information as follows:

Part B: Contractor Information
Organisational Background – INFORMATION ONLY

Part C – Scored Response and Compliance

Part C: Award Criteria / Max Potential Score
Section 1: Question 1 – Response to the Tender / 5
Section 1: Question 2 – Knowledge & Experience / 5
Section 1: TotalQuality Score / 10
Section 2: Score: Question 3 – Total Price Score / 10
Total Score (Section 1 Quality Score + Section 2 Price Score) / 20

QUALITY – Section 1

The Quality Assessment section will be scored using the following methodology:

5Points / Proposal exceeds requirement. Demonstrated by clear, detailed information and unequivocal evidence
2½ Points / Mostly meets requirement. Evidence is fairly clear and convincing; minor reservations in one or more key areas
0 Points / Significantly fails to meet requirements. In virtually all areas there is a lack of convincing evidence which casts serious doubt about the ability to meet requirements. Does not meet minimum quality threshold for further consideration.

PRICE – Section 2

In evaluating the price of tenders, the lowest price will be awarded full marks and each other proposal will be awarded a score based on the percentage difference from the lowest price, according the formula below;

See worked example below.

If the price seems abnormally low, further explanation as to the low price may be sought and evaluation of whether the quote is considered economically viable will be made. If the tender is considered not economically viable it can be rejected.

Example Evaluation

Following the appraisal of 3 suitable bids scoring has been assessed as;

Tenders / Section 1
Quality Assessment / Section 2
Pricing Assessment
Score / Price / Score / Total Score
Supplier A / 5.0 + 5.0 / £4,000 / 10.000 / 20.000
Supplier B / 2.5 + 2.5 / £6,000 / 6.667 / 11.667
Supplier C / 0.0 + 2.5
Fail to meet quality threshold / £5,000 / 8.333 / Fail to meet quality threshold

FOR OFFICE USE ONLY

APPENDIX II: EVALUATION AND SCORING

Proposal exceeds requirement. Demonstrated by clear, detailed information and unequivocal evidence / 5 marks
Proposal meets the minimum requirements. Evidence is fairly clear and convincing; minor reservations in one or more key areas / 2½ Marks
Proposal significantly fails to meet the requirements. In virtually all areas there is a lack of convincing evidence about the ability to meet requirements. / 0 Marks

Responses scoring 0 for any question inSection 1(Quality) will be deemed to have failed to demonstrate the minimum level of quality and will be disqualified. Price will be scored automatically for you.

Name of Appraiser / Date
Question 1. Meeting the Requirements of the Brief. How would you meet the needs of the tender as described in the ‘Requirements of the Brief’ Part A?
APPRAISER TO COMPLETE COMMENTARY BELOW Marks Available: 5
Please Tick Score
5 marks
2½ Marks
0 Marks
Question 2. Background and Experience in the Role. Please outline previous knowledge or experience of delivering this type of service before, use case studies if available?
APPRAISER TO COMPLETE COMMENTARY BELOW Marks Available: 5
Please Tick Score
5 marks
2½ Marks
0 Marks

END OF DOCUMENT

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