Would you be able to spare half an hour of your time to help reduce the costs you incur in bidding for public sector work?

The Welsh Assembly Government’s Value Wales is working in partnership with public sector organisations throughout Wales to reduce the barriers that limit access to public sector procurement opportunities, especially for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

At the moment the focus is on developing a new Supplier Qualification Information Database (SQuID), to be hosted on the re-launched Sell2Wales website in 2011. The aim is that all of the common core questions sought at the early stages (selection stage) of procurement processes will be stored on the system, and that you will be able to store your answers there too.

The questions on the SQuID database have been agreed via a wide-ranging consultation with buyers from right across the public sector and with suppliers. The plan is that buyers will use the database and accompanying guidance to construct appropriate and proportionate pre-qualification questionnaires – and you will be able to respond on the system and store your answers for re-use. This will save your time and costs.

If this work is to be a success Value Wales need to be able to measure the benefits, and for that they need a baseline of the costs that you currently face. The Excel spreadsheet below is designed to capture the costs to your organisation of pre-qualifying to bid for public sector work. The first tab has instructions on how to complete the following two tabs with information about your staff and the processes involved. The final tab has a small number of qualitative further questions.

The spreadsheet is available to download here: PQQ Response Cost Calculator

Your answers will be used only by Value Wales for calculation purposes and not passed on to any third party. Please send your responses to Gerrard O’Neill on 01685 729043 / gerrard.oneill@wales.gsi.gov.uk. Please contact Gerrard if you would like more information on completing the form, or on the SQuID project generally.