Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2016-01-07
Buyer: Invest NI
Country: UK
Region: Northern Ireland
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 03000000 | 15000000 | 33190000 | 34700000: Aircraft and spacecraft | 35121000: Security equipment
Estimated value: 517600 GBP
Submission deadline: 2016-02-08
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: TAS provides NI based companies with access to strategic market research as well as practical advice and guidance from experienced trade advisers based in the markets. It compliments assistance provided to Invest NI by UK Trade and Investment and other in-market stakeholders. The success of the TAS service is measured by post project evaluations and the increase in value of sales achieved in a geographic region or country over the duration of a contract. Currently Invest NI measures manufacturing exports through data obtained from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Under the scope of this framework agreement, Contractor(s) shall provide the following services:
— Identification of partners; i.e. agent/distributor agreements, licensing, value added resellers, technology transfer and joint ventures.
— Support for high quality visit programmes for companies and ministers either individually or as part of a group.
— Arranging visit programmes in the geographic region for Invest NI personnel with potential investors to Northern Ireland. These may either delivered directly by the contractor or sub-contracted to suitable partners. Typically individual company projects undertaken through TAS take between 5-10 days, depending on company needs. The duration of TAS projects undertaken for groups of companies or for Invest NI are determined by project specifications. In some cases Contractor(s) may be appointed to work with selected high growth potential companies and specific sales growth objectives may be agreed prior to any appointment. Given the nature of the TAS service, it is a requirement of the Framework Agreement that the Contractor(s) In-Market Advisor(s) can communicate in English — both written and orally and are based and located in the lot(s) tendered for.
Payments will be made in accordance with the terms and conditions to be set out in the contract documentation.
No special form is required but one member of a consortium may be required to accept prime contractor responsibility for the other member(s), and a consortium will be required to form a legal entity with appropriate parent company guarantees.
The successful Contractor's performance on this Contract will be managed as per specification and regularly monitored see Procurement Guidance Note 01/12 — Contract Management — Procedures and Principles. Contractors not delivering on contract requirements is a serious matter. It means the public purse is not getting what it is paying for. If a contractor fails to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance they will be given a specified time to improve. If, after the specified time, they still fail to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance, the matter will be escalated to senior management in CPD for further action.
If this occurs and their performance still does not improve to satisfactory levels within the specified period, it may be regarded as an act of grave professional misconduct and they may be issued with a Certificate of Unsatisfactory Performance and this Contract may be terminated. The issue of a Certificate of Unsatisfactory Performance will result in the contractor being excluded from all procurement competitions being undertaken by Centres of Procurement Expertise on behalf of bodies covered by the Northern Ireland Procurement Policy for a period of twelve months from the date of issue of the certificate.
Tenderers must demonstrate by way of examples experience of delivering trade advisory services in relation to the export development of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the lot(s) applied for on behalf of Trade Development Agencies. For each of the lot(s) applied for, Tenderers must submit 3 examples from the listed trade advisory services listed below. The services must have been provided to SMEs targeting a country within the lot(s) being tendered for as an export market within the last 3 years. Please note: Tenderers must not provide the same example for any trade advisory service or market sector more than once. As such, evidence of experience should cover at least 3 trade advisory services (at least one different service per example) and at least 3 market sectors (at least one different market sector per example). Trade Advisory Service — Focused market research.
— Identification of partners; i.e. agent/distributor agreements, licensing, value added resellers, technology transfer and joint ventures.
— Organising inward buyer visits (i.e. from the lot(s) being tendered for to a country/location where other trade advisory services have been commissioned).
— Assistance with setting up a business/trading entity in the lot(s) being tendered for. Market Sector — Food and Drink.
— Export-focused outputs / outcomes of the project (e.g. number of new orders/sales achieved, agents/distributors appointed); and — Start and finish dates of the project.
CPD will comply with the Public Contracts Regulation 2015 and, where appropriate, will incorporate a standstill period (i.e. a minimum of 10 calendar days) at the point information on the award of the contract is communicated to tenderers. That notification will provide full information on the award decision. This provides time for unsuccessful tenderers to challenge the award decision before the contract is entered into.

Eligibility requirements: Tenderers must demonstrate by way of examples experience of delivering trade advisory services in relation to the export development of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the lot(s) applied for on behalf of Trade Development Agencies. For each of the lot(s) applied for, Tenderers must submit 3 examples from the listed trade advisory services listed below. The services must have been provided to SMEs targeting a country within the lot(s) being tendered for as an export market within the last 3 years. Please note: Tenderers must not provide the same example for any trade advisory service or market sector more than once. As such, evidence of experience should cover at least 3 trade advisory services (at least one different service per example) and at least 3 market sectors (at least one different market sector per example). Trade Advisory Service — Focused market research. — Assessing market readiness. — Market entry strategies. — Identification of partners; i.e. agent/distributor agreements, licensing, value added resellers, technology transfer and joint ventures. — One to one clinics providing market advice and guidance. — Support for high quality visit programmes for companies either individually or as part of a group. — Managing networking events. — Market and sector briefings/webinars — both 1:1 and to groups. — Organising inward buyer visits (i.e. from the lot(s) being tendered for to a country/location where other trade advisory services have been commissioned). — Assistance with exhibitions. — Assistance with setting up a business/trading entity in the lot(s) being tendered for. Market Sector — Food and Drink. — Materials Handling. — Engineering. — Education. — Transport. — Life Sciences. — ICT. — AgriTech. — Security. — Energy/Environment. — Consumer Products. Each example must include the following: — Project title; — Country from which the company / entity for which the service was provided was based; — Trade Development Agency commissioning the work — Market sector associated with the service; — Project objectives and detail of the export project undertaken; — Tenderers role and duties within the project; — Export-focused outputs / outcomes of the project (e.g. number of new orders/sales achieved, agents/distributors appointed); and — Start and finish dates of the project.