Commercial purchases through tender procedures. Online e-procurement for large and small businesses.
ONLINE ELECTRONIC PROCUREMENT. LEGISLATIVE AND ORGANIZATIONAL BASIS.
Electronic procurement, carried out through electronic trading systems, has significantly accelerated and simplified the management of procurement and supply processes. Any enterprise with access to the Internet can receive a supply contract by winning a tender, or make purchases in 24 hours (sometimes faster) and without travel expenses. That is, if all the suppliers of the required products available in the country simultaneously receive information about the initiation of the procurement procedure, potentially all of them can submit their proposals for tender, which will give the buyer a unique chance to choose the best delivery conditions from all possible ones.
Such end-to-end information and, at the same time, control over the procurement process for state enterprises and institutions is ensured by the presence of a unified electronic information system Prozorro, through which procurement is available and open to everyone, and the obligation to publish them in the system is enshrined in the law on public procurement.
Online shopping for commercial and private enterprises has also become commonplace, although the order in which they are carried out is determined solely by their own commercial interests and internal procedures. Now, there is no single information system that would unite all commercial purchases and tenders of Ukraine on its platform. Buyers place tenders on various commercial electronic platforms, some have even developed their own trading platforms. There is competition between the sites to attract both buyers and suppliers. Keeping track of all possible tenders in your industry is not so easy. In addition, commercial sites need to monetize their services in order to generate income - if the fee for placing procurement tenders for buyers is usually not so significant, then the fee for submitting a proposal for a tender (albeit small) can still cut off a certain number of participants , especially if the customer warns in advance that the purpose of the tender / auction is not the fact of purchase, but only the study of offers / demand.
COMMERCIAL TENDER PURCHASING Salesbook: ONLINE ACCESS TO THE PROCUREMENT BASE OF THE LARGEST COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES IN UKRAINE.
The Salesbook commercial sales and procurement platform provides online access to tenders (any supplier can submit a proposal for competitive selection after going through a simple registration and authorization procedure) and unique opportunities to choose from a large number of verified and well-known buyers. Purchases of commercial organizations on the Salesbook portal will be of interest to large, medium and individual, regional and network, manufacturing and service Ukrainian enterprises - sellers of goods, works and services:
- procurement of agricultural enterprises and grain traders - have a pronounced seasonality, good prospects for regional suppliers, they can purchase both large and small volumes; a wide range of purchases - from agricultural machinery and services for their repair and maintenance, to grain and feed. The Salesbook site presents commercial auctions of such giant agricultural holdings as Kernel, Astarta and others;
- procurement of food producers - they always need regular suppliers who can ensure compliance with delivery deadlines, they purchase industrial equipment, products, and works; commercial tenders for the purchase of meat processing plants, dairies, confectionery manufacturers and others are placed on the site;
- procurement of banks and financial institutions: Alfa-bank and other banks are regular consumers of IT services. In case of winning the tender and fulfilling the contract, they are usually aimed at further cooperation;
- procurement of construction and industrial enterprises - they purchase not only materials, equipment, equipment, engineering services and design work, but often act as customers of advertising services and products, which is quite within the power of regional and small advertising and printing companies;
- procurement of retailers (Novus, Velmart and others), trade and service enterprises - tender purchases of FMCG goods for sale at the police departments of stores, as well as regular purchase of goods and services for the provision of trade, marketing, advertising and services of designers;
- procurement of transport, telecommunications, pharmaceutical and other commercial companies of various sectors.
The functionality of the site is as convenient and easy to use as possible - after registration and authorization on the portal, you can place a tender for the purchase within a few minutes. An electronic application - a form for announcing the start of the procurement procedure - contains the minimum necessary data for opening an auction. Suppliers can immediately submit a quotation or place the tender in the "favorites". A color indicator displays the status of the tender and the time until its end, and there is a countdown timer for visual convenience.
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Procurement procedure
For commercial procurement on a competitive basis, the open tender procedureis most often used. It gives the buyer the opportunity to choose from the largest number of offers - since all interested organizations and persons (including individual entrepreneurs) who have the goods necessary for the buyer in the required quantity can take part in the auction. Only the purchaser himself can limit participation in open tenders - this is done by establishing qualification criteria for the selection of participants. Criteria may include data or information on the availability of equipment, technical base, qualified specialists, experience in providing services or performing work. This is convenient, for example, for the purchase of holdings, when a branch or a regional enterprise needs a product, but the procurement procedure is carried out centrally - a supplier from the same region from its warehouse will deliver the necessary goods faster, therefore restrictions on participation in the auction “only if there is a warehouse in the specified region” will be reasonable and economically justified.
Closed tenders (with limited participation) mean that information about their holding is available only to a narrow circle of suppliers - the buyer can choose such a procedure if there are grounds for this, but it is rarely used for commercial purchases on trading floors. Technically, the functionality of the site provides such an opportunity - for this, the buyer only needs to indicate who needs to be informed about the start of the auction. These can be registered suppliers of certain products or contractors from the individual list of the customer (organizer).
The competitive dialogue procedure in practice is used mainly for the procurement of services or works. Its difference from the bidding procedure is clear from the name: before the start of the auction, the buyer conducts negotiations with each potential supplier who submitted his offer (without specifying a price) in order to indicate the parameters and conditions of the purchase. When the buyer determines the requirements and the scope of work, suppliers enter into a price competition by participating in an auction for a decrease. Since preliminary negotiations between the buyer and suppliers take place without the use of an electronic trading system, such a procedure is not required on commercial procurement sites. More often, the procurer announces an open tender for the purchase of services or works, in which he may indicate that this is a preliminary study of proposals. Based on the results of the tender, he can conclude a contract with the selected participant or refuse to conclude it, because he came to the conclusion that it is necessary to adjust the conditions of the purchase.
In all cases, for the actual purchase or study of proposals, the purchaser fills out an electronic application - an announcement of a tender and publishes it on the portal for the information of potential sellers, which is the beginning of the procurement procedure.
A non-competitive (negotiated) procurement procedure, or procurement from a single supplier, is outside the scope and functions of trading platforms and is carried out by a commercial buyer independently, without using electronic procurement systems.
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Definition of thresholds and differences in the bidding procedure depending on the purchase amount
The so-called thresholds are restrictions on the amount of the purchase, which are provided for by the current legislation (the Law of Ukraine on Public Procurement) for the purchases of enterprises and organizations of state and municipal ownership. Accordingly, sub-threshold purchases are purchases in the amount of up to UAH 200,000. for goods/services and up to UAH 1.5 million for works, and above-threshold - those that are equal to or greater than the specified amount.
In addition, within the framework of the legislation, “Ukrainian” and “European” tenders are distinguished, that is, there is a difference in open tender procedures for above-threshold purchases. The "EU thresholds" are 133 thousand euros for goods (services) and 5150 thousand euros for works.
Thus, above-threshold purchases through ordinary open tenders are carried out in the amount of UAH 200,000 up to 133 thousand euros for goods and from 1.5 million hryvnias up to 5150 thousand euros for works. Above-threshold purchases using the "euro auction" procedure are carried out from the purchase amount of 133 thousand euros and more for goods and from 5150 thousand euros and more for works.
The procedure of the "European" auction differs from the "regular" one in that after the completion of the acceptance of commercial proposals from the participants, the buyer conducts a preliminary qualification of the participants for their admission to the 2nd round - the actual auction.
No legislative restrictions apply to the procurement of companies and enterprises of private ownership - those that are called the term "commercial procurement". Commercial organizations during the procurement process are guided only by their own economic interests, therefore they rarely complicate the well-established and familiar procurement procedures, although this allows the functionality of the sites integrated into public procurement.
The main trading procedures for commercial purchases are tender and reduction (regardless of the purchase amount - if this purchase has already been put up for commercial bidding, then their goal is to obtain this supply at the best price, no matter how large or small the required lot is). Through them, as a rule, both the request for quotations and the study of the conditions for the provision of services are carried out - since the purchaser is not obliged to conclude a purchase contract based on the results of the tender, the tender winner cannot have any claims. However, taking into account the principle of openness and transparency of electronic trading, in cases where the request for proposals from participants is informative, the procurer informs about this in advance in the tender announcement.
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Annual procurement plan for commercial organizations
Commercial enterprises do not have an obligation to publish their annual procurement plan in the public domain, and commercial trading platforms do not provide the functionality of publication and interaction between the plan and the start of the procurement procedure. At the same time, a procurement plan or calendar is compiled in any commercial organization that understands the importance of financial planning. How can a unified enterprise procurement calendar help? The publication of the annual plan in the public domain is an important part and a sign of a well-established supplier relationship management system. If potential suppliers know what, when and how much you plan to buy, they will be able to fine-tune their production and logistics processes in advance to best meet your needs at minimal cost to themselves. Therefore, an annual commercial procurement plan published on your corporate website can significantly increase the efficiency of your procurement processes. Alternatively, you can share it with selected partners of your business circle created within our information platform.
