Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2025-02-17
Buyer: Asker kommune
Country: NO
Region: NO082
Contract type: Supplies
CPV classification: 48000000
Submission deadline: 2025-02-25

Technical requirements: The municipality of Asker would like to invite vendors of Sourcing and Contract Lifecycle Management systems (S2C) to participate in an RFI. The Customer currently has a system in place, but as the  contract expires later this year, the municipality is currently conducting research in the market to understand the different possibilities that exist. As a part of the RFI, the Customer will invite vendors to virtual 1:1 Q&A meetings between the 03.03-07.03.2025.  

The vendors are invited to conduct a system demonstration  that shows how their solutions can support the Customer's Source-to-Contract process. The Customer has also prepared a set a questions that they would like the vendors to respond to (see below). 
 
Each vendor is invited to bring three representatives to the meeting. The Customer will attend the meeting with representatives from their Sourcing and Procurement team. Information that is business sensitive will be handled confidentially. 
 
Registration and questions about the RFI can be sent to elfrid.nygaard.stabellini@asker.kommune.no  
 
Deadline to register: 26.02.2024.  

1) Agenda for the RFI meetings:  
 - Presentation of the participants and a short introduction the Customer and their need for a S2C system
 - System demonstration 
- Q&A (see below)

2) Q&A:  
We ask the vendors to present their answers to the Q&A in the 1:1 meetings and return them to us in written form by the 12.03.2024
1. Please provide a short description of the functionality for different roles and accesses in the different steps of the S2C process? How can we make sure that all employees have easy access to view the contract repository, but at the same time grant contract owners and Procurement managers different accesses and editing rights? 
2. Is there a dynamic way to track the value of contracts, so that the Customer can easily follow the spend on contracts and conduct controls in an easy way?
3. We have a great focus on data quality in our organization, in order to generate good reports and analysis, but also to set a good foundation for benefiting from machine learning and artificial intelligence. Data stored in the S2C system is naturally of great importance, as it helps us to ensure that the agreements we make are in line with the overall goals of the municipality. How can your system support our efforts of achieving better data governance and increased user adoption?   
4. How do you work with technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to improve your system? Do you have any concrete examples?  
5. Can you say something about how flexible your system is to be adapted and customized for a company's specific needs?  
6. We have an ambition to attract more local vendors to respond to our tenders. These are often small businesses with a low number of employees. Heavy and complex Sourcing systems can be alienating them. How is the user experience for the suppliers in your solution, and which efforts do you to do provide the vendors with a simple and user friendly navigation?  
7. Can you describe the price model that you use? 

3) Documentation to be submitted after the Q&A meetings (Deadline: 12.03.2025): 
 1. Presentation from the Q&A meeting, including your answers to the Q&A. 
2. Your highest and lowest annual price estimate for licences, onboarding and support services. The estimates are not binding.