A Typical Procurement Process

The following diagram shows a typical procurement process within the Guinness Partnership - The Procurement Cycle.

It is likely that low value, specific purchases will follow a simplified version of that described below

The Guinness Partnership will define its aims, decide what is needed, prepares the business case and then decides how the procurement exercise will be carried out. It will take account of market conditions, legislation and the relevant policy.

Competitive Procurement

The Guinness Partnership will invite suppliers to put in an offer, or tender - often in response to an advert in the OJEU or trade magazine or on our website. In some cases suppliers have to pre-qualify before being invited to tender. They do this by answering a Pre Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) or supplying information about their financial status, previous experience, references and so on.

Evaluating and refining tenders

The Guinness Partnership will then evaluate the tenders or PQQs against set standards relating to best value for money, and other criteria. This process may include a period of clarifying the tender before it is accepted.

Awarding the contract

The Guinness Partnership will then either award the contract or ask suppliers to tender for the goods or supplies to the supplier(s) whose bid/PQQ offers 'best value for money' and also meets the other criteria. The Guinness Partnership offers the opportunity of feedback to all companies which submitted tenders or PQQs.

Managing how the contract is put in place

Everyone involved works together to put operations in place for the forthcoming contract.

Managing the contract

The supplier and The Guinness Partnership manage the contract and the supplier's performance is checked and monitored by The Guinness Partnership.

Service review

The need for the contract will be reviewed regularly and after a set period of time the contract will be advertised again.

We define 'best value for money' as the optimum combination of whole-life costs and quality to meet the customer's requirements.

This definition gives The Guinness Partnership scope to compile a procurement specification which includes economic, social and environmental objectives.