How to build resilience and strengthen the cyber security procurement process

NB: This article was originally published on 1 March 2023. All information was correct at the time of writing, but may not be fully applicable following the introduction of the Procurement Act 2023.

Public sector data is a tempting target for cybercriminals. The following article includes our 5 top tips for building resilience and strengthening cyber security within your organisation.

An ever increasing threat

Britain has recently been named the ‘cyber attack capital of Europe’. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is the UK’s technical authority for cyber security incidents. According to its 2022 annual review, over the last year the cyber security threat has evolved significantly and businesses and organisations in the UK reported hundreds of cyber incidents to the NCSC, 63 of which were significant enough to require a national level response. 

These attacks are predominantly ransomware attacks where cyber criminals use malicious software to block access to computer systems and threaten to release the organisation’s sensitive data unless the ransom is paid. The impact of a ransomware attack on public sector organisations can be devastating. Any data breach is not only a reputational issue but can cause real issues in the ability of organisations to deliver crucial frontline services. 

For example, Wannacry – one of the most well-known examples of a ransomware attack – cost the NHS £92 million in 2017 and brought the NHS to a standstill for several days, affecting more than 600 healthcare organisations. Not only were thousands of appointments and operations cancelled, but staff were also left unable to access the key systems that they depended on.

Cyber attacks are calculated. Criminals that target the public sector’s data, networks and systems are often politically motivated and looking to steal specific information. 

How to strengthen your cyber defences through the procurement process

With cyber criminals targeting supply chains and recent attacks such as Solar Winds, procurement can be an increasing concern for the public sector. 

For example, the NHS has an extremely complex supply chain and relies on a large range of suppliers. These companies are critical to maintaining our health service, however, with criminals often targeting the weakest link within supply chains, they also pose significant risk. 

How can the procurement process help reduce these risks?

One of the biggest supply chain challenges can be a supplier’s understanding or competence when it comes to cyber security. Accreditation is increasingly important in strengthening cyber defences within the procurement process. Buying through a framework ensures that your suppliers have had vetting checks for accreditation such as Cyber Essentials. 

Cyber Essentials is a government-backed scheme that allows organisations to carry out a cyber self-assessment and provides an understanding of the organisation’s security levels. This will mean that your supplier has taken steps to safeguard their business against cyber threats and will assist in strengthening cyber defences within your supply chain. 

A further step would be to request Cyber Essential Plus, which offers additional protections as it includes a technical audit of supplier’s systems as opposed to the self assessment in Cyber Essentials.

NCSC Assured Suppliers

When buying cyber security services, there are additional certifications you can look for from a supplier. The NCSC offers assurance for a range of services including consultancy, incident response and penetration testing.

The advantages of using NCSC assured suppliers to manage supply chain risk are that they will have:

  • met the NCSC’s standards and have a proven track record in delivering high quality consultancy services 
  • a defined process for working with customers to understand their needs
  • demonstrated a clear understanding of current and potential cyber threats and techniques and potential effective mitigations
  • been independently and rigorously assessed
  • shown that they act with integrity objectivity and proportionality
  • protect the customer’s confidentiality and integrity and comply with relevant laws and regulations
  • a commitment to continuously improve the services offered 

5 steps to building resilience to cyber attacks:

Building cyber resilience is about strengthening cyber security to increase confidence and ensure that in the event of an attack, not only can your organisation continue to operate, but you can also recover quickly. Resilience means continuous, uninterrupted access to data whilst remaining secure and protected.

As threats continue to increase in frequency and sophistication, so must your preventative measures, which should include:

  1. Understanding critical assets

The first step to building resilience is having a strong understanding of your organisation’s critical assets. These are resources that are fundamental to maintaining operations. Ask yourself: what impact would an attack have and what are your critical assets? 

For example, for local authorities, critical assets include essential data, which citizens rely on including housing benefit, voter registration, electoral management, school grants and the provision of social care. It is imperative that it is protected in the event of an attack. Managing back-ups is an essential part of this process – rapid recovery is dependent on how regularly these back-ups are carried out. 

  1. Developing an incident response plan

A thorough incident response plan is crucial to resilience as this will ensure that you can recover quickly from an attack. 

An incident response plan collects together the coordinating functions which guide, inform and support the whole response process. It encompasses a number of aspects, including triaging and categorising an incident through to your core response.

  1. Educating employees and building cyber resilience

Phishing emails, which dupe staff into opening them and exposing the organisation to phishing attacks, have become more frequent and sophisticated during the pandemic. This shows the importance of creating a strong cyber security culture. 

It is essential that your employees understand cyber threats, the potential risk, and their role in mitigating incidents. Educating your employees, increasing awareness and providing strong governance and training can all assist in building cyber resilience.

  1. Keeping up to date with emerging cyber threats

New advanced threats are being discovered daily. Resilience is also the detection of threats and increasing both your understanding of the threat landscape and threat intelligence. Taking a proactive approach to cyber security is essential in ensuring that organisations are aware of threats to allow for methods to be adjusted.  

  1. Developing a Business Continuity Disaster Recovery plan

All organisations should have sufficient business continuity disaster recovery (BCDR) methods in place to make sure they can resume normal operations in the event of an attack. It should include a complete approach to keeping your team productive during planned or unplanned disruptions such as a cyber attack.

The BCDR plan builds resilience by reducing the risk of data loss and enhancing operations, detailing emergency contacts and key staff. 

Learn more

The Cyber Security Services 3 dynamic purchasing system (DPS) is the official route to market for NCSC-assured services, covering a wide range of cyber services. All suppliers have Cyber Essentials as a minimum and other accreditations can be selected using the filtering options. Visit our Cyber Security Services 3 page or contact the team. 

Manage your resources effectively with asset tracking

Make sure you don’t lose track of important and valuable assets with asset tracking.

What is an asset?

An asset is anything that would be costly to replace, such as tools, IT kit, machinery, hospital beds, medical equipment or vehicles. You can also track people, for example, babies on maternity wards can be tracked as part of safeguarding procedures.

How do you currently manage your assets?

Are you using asset management systems or do you still physically check where your assets are?

If you rely on manual checks, then you are probably facing some of these common challenges:

  • time wasted searching for assets
  • struggling to locate items due for servicing which poses a safety risk if the necessary compliance checks are not completed
  • keeping back ‘spare’ items that could be better used elsewhere
  • wasting budget re-buying items

How asset management and tracking can help

An efficient asset management strategy will help you keep track of valuable assets and reduce the time and effort in trying to do it manually.

Tracking is an important part of asset management and there are different ways to do this, ranging from traditional barcodes or QR codes through to evolving smart technologies. Asset tracking can be implemented using Radio Frequency Identification (RFiD) tags (passive or active), GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technology. Tracking devices are connected to tracking software or an IT platform to ensure you can locate your assets in real time.

For example, a hospital trust was struggling to keep track of T34 syringe drivers. By adding RFiD tags to them the trust has avoided having to spend £50,000 on buying replacements.

RFiD tags can track reusable uniforms too. For example, fire rescue services have a duty of care to  ensure that uniform is fit for purpose. By applying RFiD tags that can withstand high temperatures, you can:

  • track inventory to ensure that you have enough uniforms at any given time
  • remove the need to manually check that uniforms are where they should be
  • carry out wear and tear checks

Recently, the NHS has piloted reusable gowns and face masks to save money on disposal personal protective equipment (PPE). This is a great initiative and RFiD tags could be used to track the number of times an item has been worn and washed, as well as ensuring availability when it is needed the most.

How we can help

You can access a wide range of suppliers that will help you find the right asset management solution to meet your specific needs through lots 3a and 3b of our Storage, Kitting, Fulfilment and Associated Services agreement.

We’re planning a webinar in April to showcase the ways we can support your asset management and tracking needs. If you would like to join us register your interest by completing this short online form referencing ‘asset tracking webinar’ in the comments box.

If you would like further guidance or have a complex requirement, we’re here to help:

Business travel with CO2 Reporting

Our Travel Booking Solutions agreements can assist your organisation in not only managing your spend and adherence to policy but also in reducing your carbon footprint from business travel.

All booking suppliers provide online booking tools that not only enable speed and efficiency of use but can also assist travellers in making sustainable booking decisions.  Tools can be programmed to restrict travellers to a customer’s policy, for example not allowing air travel on UK domestic routes.

Booking tools are developing in the sustainability information they can provide to travellers.   Some can show a comparison in CO2 emissions between flight and rail on a given journey.  Many will show the CO2 value of flights and technology will develop so that in time travellers will be able to compare CO2 values by aircraft type.

All booking suppliers are required to provide customers with reporting, including the CO2 generated.  Suppliers can aid customers in identifying areas for improvement, perhaps even down to individual Cost Centre areas.

It is highly recommended to review the agreements and engage with the relevant suppliers to discuss how they can help you achieve your CNZ goals

Take a look at our agreements to find the full range of possibilities: 

Let us bring power to your procurement

To learn more about how we can help you reach net zero across your organisation, visit our Carbon net zero web page. If you have any questions, we are here to help – contact the team.  

The role of automation in kitting and fulfilment

In recent years, we have witnessed the collaborative efforts of suppliers who have come together to support organisations with the kitting and fulfilment of various home testing kits. Examples include Covid testing, bowel screening, diabetes testing and many more which are all available through our Storage, Kitting, Fulfilment and Associated Services (RM6282) agreement.

With the growing pressure on the health sector, these types of kits free up valuable time and resources. To help meet the increased demands for these services, we’re recognising a shift towards the use of automated processes.

What is kitting and fulfilment?

Kitting is a process that consists of compiling individual items to create a new single product or kit, which  is then packaged ready for shipment. Typically, the process involves an assembly line and, more recently, automation has played a part in the process.

Fulfilment in the logistics industry relates to the  provision of storage space for items, picking orders and sending them out for delivery.

What role does automation play?

Automation is used extensively in many industries, like the automotive industry which is delivering benefits such as increased productivity and expanding capabilities. Automation is now being introduced in other industries, including warehousing and logistics, to meet rising levels of demand and help suppliers to reshape their services. Some suppliers are in early stages of implementing automation or are fulfilling a semi-automated system. 

Automation can be incorporated during the kitting and fulfilment process to support the picking of component parts that have been barcoded and grouping them together to produce the final product, or kit, ready to be sent to the end user. 

This type of automation has many benefits, including: 

  • ensuring the completed kit can be uniquely matched and paired to the contents within it, allowing for full end to end tracking
  • the use of barcode technology enables the customer to trace information regarding the kits source and production dates. Barcodes also aid laboratories with expected returns, allowing them to scan returned kits and match them to the sender
  • automation also allows organisations to scale their resource to meet demands 

How can we help?

Under Lot 3b of our Storage, Kitting, Fulfilment and Associated Services agreement, you can access a range of suppliers that can provide kitting and fulfilment solutions and services. 

As some test kits are classed as a medical device, all suppliers under Lot 3b are required to hold ISO 13485 accreditation. This provides independent assurance of their quality management system.  

Services under Lot 3b include:

  • picking, packing and labelling of products and orders
  • unpacking received products into individual cases
  • preparing items for dispatch according to your needs
  • storage of the completed items
  • asset management, including audits and tracking stock

Let us add power to your procurement

Whether you’re new to CCS and require guidance or you want to discuss a complex requirement, we’re here to help. Please get in touch to discuss your requirements:

Discover how the Household Support Fund is helping tackle cost of living challenges

What support is available?

The Household Support Fund is for local councils to support vulnerable households in England with global inflationary challenges and the significantly rising cost of living. The funding covers the period 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. 

What can the funding be used for?

The aim of the fund is to support any costs that directly affect a household’s ability to afford or access energy, food and water. The support will cover both immediate and long-lasting savings for the household. This includes, but is not limited to, insulation of hot water tanks, fitting draft excluders to a door, replacing inefficient light bulbs or providing white goods.

What is the deadline?

Funds should be spent or committed before 31 March 2023. You will need to have submitted a request and paid for the products by this date, but it is important to note that you can receive the products after 31 March 2023.

How our Tail Spend Solution can help 

Our Tail Spend Solution is designed to support you with your ad-hoc, or one off, purchasing requirements. Choose from 2 user-friendly dynamic marketplace platforms to access over 8 million products. You can quickly compare products, vendors, lead times and pricing, helping you make purchases efficiently and cost effectively.

You can also get bulk purchase discounts, which make it an ideal solution to buy suitable goods to support your community through the Household Support Fund.

The platform also provides consolidation and transparency of data, enabling you to get the relevant management information for your reporting needs. For example, information required by DWP for the Household Support Fund. This data can also help you  make future strategic contract management decisions about your low value/tail spend needs.

How did Staffordshire County Council use our Tail Spend Solution to support vulnerable households?

Staffordshire County Council used our agreement, awarding to Mercateo UK Limited, as part of their ‘here to help’ campaign that provides information, advice and support on managing rising bills. Through it they bought 1,400 slow cookers to give to vulnerable households around Newcastle-under-Lyme. This has now been expanded throughout the county, as a result of the successful pilot.

The Tail Spend Solution meant that Staffordshire County Council was able to get a volume based discount, ensuring they procured the goods they needed to support their residents whilst achieving value for money.

Staffordshire County Council says:

“With the cost of living rising, we know that many people are struggling especially during the winter months. Our ‘here to help’ project is targeted at vulnerable families who we feel will benefit from advice, guidance and the supply of suitable goods to help them through these cost of living pressures.

“The CCS Tail Spend Solution was identified as an ideal route to market to buy suitable products, such as slow cookers, in a quick and cost-effective manner.”

Bringing power to your procurement

To find out more about the funding opportunity and how we can help:

contact our category team by emailing info@crowncommercial.gov.uk

Changes to our agreements in January

Welcome to our monthly framework update to help you with your procurement planning. We will publish it online each month and also share it in our newsletters and on our social media channels.

The update provides a brief summary of what has been awarded, extended or expired during the previous month. It also outlines what is due to expire in the next 3 months.

You can also get an overview of all of our live frameworks in our interactive digital brochure.

Agreements awarded in January  

Agreements extended in January

Agreements that expired in January

Agreements due to expire in the next 3 months

Further information

If you need further details about any of these agreements please get in touch.

You can also find out what new procurements we are working on by exploring our upcoming deals page.

If you don’t currently receive our monthly customer newsletter why not also subscribe to receive these updates and more directly to your inbox? Just fill in this short form.

How to implement innovative virtual wards and remote patient monitoring technology

Increasingly, people across England are benefitting from being treated at home on a virtual ward. This innovative approach is delivering high quality care, safely and conveniently for patients at home – where they would rather be. Virtual wards provide hospital level care and remote monitoring for patients who would otherwise be in hospital, either by preventing admissions or allowing them to return home sooner to continue their treatment at home. 

The pandemic highlighted the importance of being able to provide digital solutions to patients and staff quickly. As integrated care systems (ICSs) continue to focus on staff wellbeing and recovery of health services to pre-pandemic levels, they have learnt to rapidly and consistently adopt new models of care that exploit the full transformation potential of digital technologies and cloud computing, including private, public, hybrid and multi-clouds.

What does the Spark DPS offer?

The Spark DPS is an innovation marketplace where suppliers can join and offer cutting edge technology solutions at any time, rather than having to wait until new agreements are available.

Spark is the approved route to market from NHS England and we have been working closely with them to make sure we have the right supplier, technology and services mix to meet the specific needs of the NHS. Together, we have updated Spark to include 4 new areas:

  1. virtual wards
  2. long term condition (remote monitoring)
  3. continuous monitoring
  4. spot monitoring

This provides digitally enabled clinical care pathways for buyers such as commissioners within NHS England, social care organisations, clinical commissioning groups, primary care networks, NHS trusts and NHS special health authorities.

Get in touch

To learn more about how we can support you with virtual wards, you can:

Improve air quality with moving traffic enforcement solutions

Efforts to tackle poor air quality, reduce congestion and encourage sustainable and active travel choices are high on the agenda for local council leaders. Responding to demand, our Transport Technology and Associated Services (TTAS) agreement offers a quick, simple and compliant route to procure a range of transport solutions.

Improving air quality through transport technology

The impact of poor air quality on public health is well known. In recent years, the focus on air quality has shifted from black smoke and sulphur emissions to vehicle tailpipe emissions, including nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter. 

In 2015 the Government published plans to improve air quality across the UK through the implementation of ‘Clean Air Zones’ (CAZ) in some of the country’s most polluted cities. We responded to this initiative by providing local councils with commercial agreements offering hardware and services that support CAZ, alongside transport data providers to benchmark and measure the impact of new schemes through real time monitoring.

Many councils are also actively exploring how effective enforcement of existing traffic rules offers a route to improve air quality by tackling behaviour that contributes to congestion. This can deliver wider benefits, including improved journey times for public transport. The approach is also aimed at encouraging a shift towards sustainable travel choices by educating citizens and making roads safer for cyclists and other vulnerable road users. 

The recent consolidation of traffic enforcement legislation in 2022 means that local authorities in England, outside London, can now apply to the Secretary of State for Transport to designate all or part of their network as a civil enforcement area for moving traffic contraventions. The contraventions that can now be enforced include stopping in a box junction, exceeding a maximum indicated weight limit, ignoring a no right, left or U turn, entering a pedestrian zone or route reserved for buses, cycles and taxis, or proceeding past a no entry sign.  

How can we help?

Taking on responsibility for local enforcement of moving traffic offences may seem like a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be. The TTAS agreement offers a range of solutions tailored to your needs. Authorities can access specialist consultancy, project management support, the latest ANPR camera technology and back office services. The agreement can also provide you with a complete turn-key solution, including the ability to issue penalty charge notices, through a single procurement contract.   

Our agreement provides access to a range of transport solutions at market leading rates. Suppliers are signed up to public sector contract terms, maximum day rate pricing and are subject to a regular assessment of their financial standing. 

Next steps

For advice or support with the procurement of moving traffic enforcement solutions or solutions that are available on TTAS:

 

The reference to consolidation of traffic enforcement legislation in 2022 refers to The Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Approved Devices, Charging Guidelines and General Provisions) (England) Regulations 2022. 

1 https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/networks/brief-history

Digital Outcomes 6: Frequently asked questions for suppliers

Top 10 frequently asked questions

1. How do I create or merge my eSourcing account with Public Procurement Gateway (PPG)?

To create or merge your eSourcing account with PPG you will need to:

  1. sign in to your PPG account
  2. go to the ‘manage organisation’ tile on your PPG dashboard and select ‘add new registry’
  3. select the Dun and Bradstreet option from the drop down menu and then add your company Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) as it is shown in your Digital Marketplace profile
  4. select the ‘eSourcing’ tile (this should open up a separate browser window)

If you can not see an eSourcing tile on your PPG dashboard, this means that your roles have not been set up correctly.

If you are the admin: you can fix this by ensuring that you have allocated the eSourcing tile to your profile.

If you are not the admin: you will need to make sure your organisation’s admin allocates the tile to your profile.

Read question 8 for more information on how to do this.

Once the eSourcing tile is visible in your PPG dashboard you will need to:

  1. click on the eSouring tile (the next screen should prompt you to create your eSourcing account)
  2. select the appropriate option

This is a one time process. After this, you can access the platform by clicking the eSourcing tile on your PPG dashboard.

2. What if we didn’t use a DUNs number as our registry when signing up to PPG?

You will need to add a new registry in PPG which includes a DUNs number. To do this you should:

  1. sign in to your PPG account
  2. go to the ‘manage organisation’ tile on your PPG dashboard and select ‘add new registry’
  3. select the Dun and Bradstreet option from the drop down menu and then add your company DUNS as it is shown in your Digital Marketplace profile

 

3. Where do I view the opportunities for DOS6 that I have been invited to?

There are two ways you can view your DOS6 opportunities. You can:

  1. click on the eSourcing link in your email notification to sign in to your eSourcing account
    1. you will receive an email notification every time you are invited to an opportunity 
  2. view and download the tender documents and respond to or decline the invitation

Or you can:

  1. sign in to your eSourcing account using the tile in your PPG dashboard
  2. select the ‘My ITT’s’ option and view the opportunity
  3. view and download the tender documents and respond to or decline the invitation

 

4. Why are there no DOS 6 opportunities in the eSourcing portal?

You will only be able to see these once a buyer has invited you to take part in a further competition.

When a buyer invites you to join an opportunity, you will receive an email notification to let you know. You will then be able to view the opportunity in your eSourcing platform under the ‘My ITT’s’ section.

 

5. How do suppliers respond to a published procurement?

Suppliers will respond to published procurements using the eSourcing portal and through the ‘My ITT’s” section.

If you want to find out more information on how to register and respond to tenders and further competitions using the eSourcing tool. Access the eSourcing tool: guidance for suppliers.

 

6. How do I know if I am set up to receive email notifications of opportunities for DOS 6 procurements I am invited to?

If you have followed the steps in question 1, you will receive all emails to notify you of opportunities that you have been invited to.

You can also make sure that the emails are not going to your spam or filter folders by:

  1. instructing your IT team to accept all emails from:
    1. auto-alert@bravosolution.co.uk
    2. help@bravosolution.co.uk
    3. Bravosolution.com
    4. Bravosolution.co.uk
    5. jaggaer.com

 

7. I am receiving an error message that says “Roles are conflicting between PPG and CAS?

You will need to check you have the correct roles assigned to you in ‘Manage my account’.

If you are not your organisation’s admin, you will need to check with them to make sure they have assigned the correct roles to you.

The following roles need to be assigned to your profile in PPG.

Role Name  Required for access to eSourcing
eSourcing Service as a supplier Yes
eSourcing Service – add service  Yes
eSourcing Service – add to dashboard    Yes

8. I am receiving an error message that says “The username or password entered is not valid, please check and try again….. Authentication failed” What do I need to do?

This message appears when you are being asked to merge an existing eSourcing account.

To fix the issue you should check that all the information you have entered is correct.

If you are unsure of your username or password click on the ‘main page’ link at the top of the error message. This will take you to the eSourcing homepage where you can:

  • reset your account
  • ask for a reminder of your username

You can also access the reset account option here if you need to confirm your username or reset your password.

 

9. How do I update my eSourcing supplier profile to change things like the company details and DUNS?

Only the Superuser in your organisation has the access rights needed to make these changes. They will need to:

  1. go to PPG dashboard and click the eSourcing tile
  2. select the ‘manage your profile’ from their user profile section (at the top right of the page)
  3. click on the pen icon (top right) to edit
  4. make the necessary changes and then click ‘save’

 

10. What am I meant to do when I see the screen that says “Your SSO ID isn’t associated with one Username. Use your credentials to bind your ID with your user….bind your ID with an existing user”?

This is where you will need to enter your existing eSourcing sign in credentials.

If you do not know them, read question 8.

Supplier webinars: all questions and answers

After running a number of webinars for suppliers on DOS 6, we have collated all the questions you asked during the sessions and have provided answers.

Download the DOS 6 supplier webinar questions and answers.

Find out how our Assisted Procurement Service could help your organisation

Get the procurement support you need with our assisted procurement service. Tiffany Davies from our Procurement Operations team explains how our Assisted Procurement Service works and whether it’s right for your organisation.

We know that providing high-quality public services requires efficient, well-managed procurement processes. We also understand that many public sector organisations are stretched for time and resources when it comes to buying the goods and services they need.

Your organisation might welcome some extra support with procurement activities. This frees you up to focus on other priorities like contract and supplier management.

GCA can help – the solution

Our end-to-end assisted procurement service (APS) saves public sector customers time and money. 

By choosing Government Commercial Agency (GCA), you’ll be working with the UK’s largest procurement organisation. That means you get access to substantial expertise, extensive knowledge and tailored advice that meets your specific requirements. We’ve already done the hard work behind the scenes with our agreements and services – now you can benefit from that work and make your procurement as smooth and stress-free as possible.

What is the Assisted Procurement Service?

Our APS is free for all public and third sector organisations. We’ve designed it specifically for customers who need support running their procurements, so you can focus your resources on other activities like contract management.

We cover any common goods and services that are available through our GCA agreements. Our experienced professionals have run tenders across all types of procurements and sectors. Whether you’re building a new hospital wing or digitally transforming your organisation, we have the expertise to help.

We’ve already supported customers right across the public sector – from the NHS and police forces to local councils and central government departments. In 2024/25, we helped deliver procurements worth £4 billion in total annual contract value through our Assisted Procurement Service.

When you choose our APS, you’re getting access to all the work we’ve already done behind the scenes. Our agreements and expertise are ready to use, making your procurement process efficient and straightforward. That means less stress for you and more time to focus on delivering great outcomes for the people you serve.

How does APS work?

When you use our APS, we’ll assign you a dedicated procurement lead who becomes your single point of contact throughout the entire process.

Our procurement leads work on a small number of tenders at a time, which means you get a high level of personal service and support. All our procurement leads are experienced professionals, and we match each customer with the right person who has the specific skills to support your needs.

Your procurement lead will:

  • work with you to prepare robust documentation using our proven templates and best practice guidance
  • issue approved documentation to suppliers through our secure eSourcing Platform and handle all supplier questions
  • arrange and lead bid evaluation, including training your evaluators and managing the process with a clear audit trail
  • draft a recommendation report on the successful supplier, with full process details and any risks you need to know about
  • draft and issue all contract documentation, including schedules, letters and supplier feedback

When not to use it

Our procurement support is available through our GCA (formerly CCS) frameworks only. We don’t provide assisted procurement through an open market or Find a Tender Service routes.

We want to make sure our procurement lead and team are genuinely adding value to your project. Sometimes it might be quicker and easier for you to run your own procurement using self-serve across our agreements – particularly when you need goods or services urgently.

Our APS works best when you need commercial advice and guidance for more complex requirements. We’re here to help you decide which route makes most sense for your specific needs.

What do I need to do as a customer?

All customers are responsible for providing a complete Statement of Requirements (SOR), otherwise known as a specification and any supporting materials that suppliers will need to see. If you are a school for example, this could include requirements from central or local government, who will be providing funding for your procurement. 

Additionally, you will need to agree on the timeline at the start of the process and identify and provide evaluations for the bid evaluation process.

How do I access the ASP?

The service can be accessed in 2 ways: either by contacting our team at internal-triage@gca.gov.uk or, if you have one, through your Account Manager. 

Please note: your Account Manager will require high level detail such as timescales, value and a brief description of your procurement. Your procurement lead is allocated when this information has been received. Work will not start on the procurement until the SOR is received on the agreed date. The more notice we have in advance of your requirement, the more likely we will be able to support your procurement.

More information and guidance for public and third sector buyers, as well as full details of all of our commercial agreements, can be found through our assisted procurement webpage.

For further information on using the Assisted Service, please contact your Account Manager or internal-triage@gca.gov.uk