Published date: 6 July 2017

Closed opportunity - This means that the contract is currently closed. The buying department may be considering suppliers that have already applied, or no suitable offers were made.


Closing: 20 July 2017

Contract summary

Industry

  • Postal and telecommunications services - 64000000

  • Research and development services and related consultancy services - 73000000

  • Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security - 79000000

Location of contract

Any region

Value of contract

£0 to £40,000

Procurement reference

UK SBS PS17147

Published date

6 July 2017

Closing date

20 July 2017

Contract start date

1 August 2017

Contract end date

31 July 2018

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Open procedure

Any interested supplier may submit a tender in response to an opportunity notice.

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

Yes

Description

Note : The Tender Deadline for Responses is 20/07/2017

NERC are conducting a scientific study that involves taking physical samples of soil and plants from the countryside on a regular basis - this involves a person (or team of 2 or 3 people) travelling to a specific location and collecting samples of soil, insects and plants. This is a regular and normal activity but permission is needed each time from the owner of the land. The permission covers allowing NERC on the land, getting to the specific location (perhaps across several farm fields for example), and permission to take the samples and collect and use the information that is gathered. NERC are currently planning a series of these sampling surveys starting in September 2017. The intention is to visit 80 locations per 12-month period. Previously NERC have completed the 'landowner permission' process in-house, but are now looking to outsource this in order to realise efficiencies. It is also sometimes the case that in order to access a particular plot, surveyors will have to cross some other landowner's land (just transit over, not taking samples) - in this case the permission of the landowner whose land we are traversing is still needed. This is not very common. The high-level process is to; identify the landowner, identify any other landowners from which transit access will be required, this is done through the use of letters, phone calls and answer phone messages. NERC acknowledges that the situation and timing may not allow this entire sequence - the detail of exception handling must be agreed as part of the setup process. The process must be somewhat flexible and react to the situation of each landowner. The letters maybe contain several pages and enclosures. Letters to landowners in Wales must be bilingual. The letters and phone calls will offer the landowner a variety of ways to respond including; A reply-slip, by return post, to phone in and talk to a person if questions or to provide permission, an email response and accessing a website to provide a response online (NERC will provide this website). The supplier must provide a dedicated phone number and human call-handling to handle coming phone responses. Volume is very low but properly handling each one is critical (because it might be granting permission). Extended phone answering hours are required; ideally 6am to 9pm, 7 days a week but lesser hours will be considered (evening hours are more important than early morning hours, Saturday is more important than Sunday). At times contact might happen with a tenant of the land (e.g. a tenant farmer), this is useful but not sufficient. Permissions must be granted from the landowner. Tenants often will supply landowner details and may provide practical advice about access. All information should be captured.

More information

Attachments

Additional text

Note : Please disregard any content in this notice that requests your organisation "to apply directly to the buyer" as this unfortunately a system generated error, that is outside of the Contracting Authorities control.

UK Shared Business Services eSourcing

As part of the strategic alliance between UK Shared Business Services Ltd (UK SBS) and Crown Commercial Service (CCS), UK SBS can use the CCS eSourcing Suite for future procurements.

If you have not yet registered on the eSourcing Suite, this can be done online at https://gpsesourcing.cabinetoffice.gov.uk by following the link 'Register for CCS eSourcing'. Please note that, to register, you must have a valid DUNS number (as provided by Dun and Bradstreet) for the organisation which you are registering, who will be entering into a contract if invited to do so.

Once you have registered on the eSourcing Suite, a registered user can express an interest for a specific procurement. This is done by emailing expressionofinterest@crowncommercial.gov.uk.

Your email must clearly state: the name and reference for the procurement you wish to register for; the name of the registered Bidder; and the name and contact details for the registered individual sending the email.

Crown Commercial Service will process the email and then enable the Bidder to access the procurement online via the e-Sourcing Suite. The registered user will receive a notification email to alert them once this has been done.

The Sourcing documents can then be accessed on the eSourcing Suite at: https://gpsesourcing.cabinetoffice.gov.uk using the instructions detailed in the Specification documents within Contracts Finder.

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Training documents to support Bidders utilise Emptoris CCS eSourcing are available in the Contracts Finder Tender documents section.

About the buyer

Address

Polaris House
North Star Avenue
Swindon
SN2 1FF
England

Email

professionalservices@uksbs.co.uk