Clarifications
There are 127 clarifications for this DPS
34. Further to `our clarification question submitted on 27th October regarding the Performance Indicator in DPS Schedule 4 (DPS Management) set at ≥ 95% in respect to Suppers 'Responsiveness to Invitation to Tenders', we note the response you provided by email on 4th November and we are seeking further clarity.
Clause 10.4.1 of the Core Terms provide that where there's a consistent repeated failure to meet the Performance Indicators in DPS Schedule 4 (DPS Management) that CCS or the buyer may terminate the contract.
For those Suppliers who already provide services under multiple CCS Frameworks and have to consider more globally the availability of their resources in order to be able to bid, then the consequences of this obligation, should it not be met, are significant. Additionally, Suppliers may prefer not to answer to the bid because they consider they have concerns about the technical or legal feasibility or commercial viability of the services (e.g. outside their normal line of business, not aligned with their code of business ethics, not financially reasonable).
Therefore please can you advise that Suppliers are able on a case by case basis to solely determine if they wish to participate in a procurement and that, should they decide not to that they will provide CCS with a justified reason for not bidding, but they would not be at risk of the framework being terminated (only Suppliers who would not have provided the Authority with a legitimate concern to avoid bidding, would incur such a termination risk).
Suppliers should participate in further competitions when identified by appropriate filters using the Platform. A repeated failure to bid on further competitions without an acceptable reason may result in the Supplier being suspended from the DPS, in accordance with Clause 10.8 (Partially ending and suspending the contract), for a period as decided by CCS.
Please refer to the DPS Schedules held within the CCS Website in particular Schedule 4
Answered
16/12/2020 10:56
33. Appreciate if we can get a response to the CQ below so we can proceed with Accepting the terms and conditions please -
The Performance Indicator (PI) # 9 of the document - DPS Schedule 4 (DPS Management) states that, the supplier's Responsiveness to Invitation to Tenders should be ≥ 95% per Quarter. Please can the CCS kindly clarify if this implies that Suppliers are obliged to bid for deals ≥ 95% of the times on the call offs coming out of the framework per quarter or the expectation is to just the supplier acknowledges back to the authority with a YES / NO citing the intention to respond to the individual call off tender. Please clarify.
Suppliers should participate in further competitions when identified by appropriate filters using the Platform. A repeated failure to bid on further competitions without an acceptable reason may result in the Supplier being suspended from the DPS, in accordance with Clause 10.8 (Partially ending and suspending the contract), for a period as decided by CCS.
Please refer to the DPS Schedules held within the CCS Website in particular Schedule 4.
Answered
16/12/2020 10:57
32. Could you clarify the situation regarding subcontractors please?
We do not subcontract directly, but elements of connectivity would be installed by the underlying fibre provider - would these be classed as subcontractors for the purposes of answering SQ21
We do not require all Subcontractors to be disclosed. You need only disclose those Subcontractors who directly contribute to your ability to meet your obligations under the DPS Appointment Form (including under any Contract Agreement following a Competition Procedure). There is no need to specify Subcontractors providing general services to the Supplier (such as window cleaners etc.) that indirectly enable the Supplier to perform the DPS Appointment Form. Please read the definition of Subcontractor in the DPS Appointment Form.
If you are successfully appointed to the DPS and are awarded a RM6200 Artificial Intelligence DPS Appointment, any changes to arrangements in relation to Subcontracting and Group of Economic Operators arrangements which are made following the award will be dealt with in accordance with DPS Schedule 6 (Key Subcontractors) of the DPS Appointment Form.
After being appointed to the DPS any additional Subcontractors can be disclosed at that time.
Answered
16/12/2020 10:58
31. The Performance Indicator (PI) # 9 of the document - DPS Schedule 4 (DPS Management) states that, the supplier's Responsiveness to Invitation to Tenders should be ≥ 95% per Quarter. Please can the CCS kindly clarify if this implies that Suppliers are obliged to bid for deals ≥ 95% of the times on the call offs coming out of the framework per quarter or the expectation is to just the supplier acknowledges back to the authority with a YES / NO citing the intention to respond to the individual call off tender. Please clarify.
DPS Schedule 4 (DPS Management) Para 3.5 states ""Suppliers should participate in further competitions when identified by appropriate filters using the Platform. A repeated failure to bid on further competitions without an acceptable reason may result in the Supplier being suspended from the DPS, in accordance with Clause 10.8 (Partially ending and suspending the contract), for a period as decided by CCS.""
If there is a justified reason as to why a Supplier were unable to bid; for example, if a Supplier felt they did not meet the customer requirements or if a supplier had concerns about the technical or legal feasibility, or commercial viability of the services, CCS will on a case by case basis determine if this is a justified reason for not bidding.
Answered
07/12/2020 07:44
30. Hi, it says in the bid pack that questions 157-161 you are not required to answer. However, it won't let me progress without answering them. Can you please clarify? Thank you
There are questions in the Selection Questionnaire that are not applicable for this RM6200 Artificial Intelligence procurement, therefore please note, a response is NOT required to the questions as detailed below:
Part 1: (Contract Example 1) - Q133
Part 1: (Contract Example 2) - Q134
Part 1: (Contract Example 3) - Q135
Part 3: (Steel) Q147 - Q149
Part 3: (Supply Chain) Q150 - Q154
Part 3: (NHS Questions) Q157 - Q161
Please check your previous responses as you may have responded to a question which has opened up a response to these questions. If you have any persisting issue my colleagues at NQC will be happy to assist you. Please use the 'contact us' tab at the foot of the Supplier Registration Service (SRS) homepage or call them on 0161 413 7982.
Answered
16/12/2020 10:59
29. How can you edit the SQ Supplier Response follow submission please? We accidently progressed a step too far in the questionnaire and would like to go back to update our details. Please advise?
CCS can confirm that the SQ section is non amenable once submitted. In this instance we advise contacting NQC directly in order to submit a new SQ. They can be reached +44 (0) 161 413 7982.
Answered
30/09/2020 14:32
28. We have been appointed to this DPS- How we will be notified of opportunities/invitations to tender etc? Will we be alerted via the CCS e sourcing suite?
Dear Bidder,
CCS can confirm that notification of further competition will be issued directly by the buying organisation via email. The buying organisation may choose to use the CCS esourcing suite, however can use their own e-tender system
Answered
30/09/2020 14:32
27. What equivalent certifications are there to Cyber Essentials / Plus? Is ISO:27001 certification a suitable alternative to Cyber Essentials?
Cyber Essentials has five requirements:
- Configure and deploy a firewall
- Make use of secure configurations for devices and software
- Make use of access control to prevent unauthorized access to data and services
- Protect yourself against malware such as viruses
- Keep devices and software updated
A certification is equivalent if it demonstrates explicitly that you have met the five requirements to the same or higher standard as would be required by the Cyber Essentials scheme.
ISO:27001 consists of 14 controls, but these are not as specific as the Cyber Essentials requirements. For example, one of the controls is ""Make use of secure configurations for network infrastructure"". This does not necessarily require you to configure and deploy a firewall, although most of the time you would expect that's part of what an organisation would do for that control, it's not explicitly required.
So the question is whether your ISO:27001 certification from a trusted third-party explicitly demonstrates that you meet all five of the requirements under the Cyber Essentials scheme. It's not enough that you probably meet the requirements, or that typically your IT support team would meet the control by doing a specific thing, the certification would need to show that you do in fact meet the requirements.
Answered
07/12/2020 07:45
26. Good afternoon,
On both the AI DPS Questionnaires there are questions about the use of subcontractors and supply chains. For any opportunity that we may bid for on the Framework, we may use subcontractors to work with us in delivering the work, but at this stage we do not know which companies they would be, as it would depend on the requirements of the opportunity. Therefore, we are unsure whether to answer yes or no to these questions. If we answer 'yes' to question 21, we would be required for names and details of subcontractors.
Please could you advise the best way for us to proceed?
Thank you,
Rachel Welby, Bid Manager, Fujitsu
We do not require all Subcontractors to be disclosed. You need only disclose those Subcontractors who directly contribute to your ability to meet your obligations under the DPS Appointment Form (including under any Contract Agreement following a Competition Procedure). There is no need to specify Subcontractors providing general services to the Supplier (such as window cleaners etc.) that indirectly enable the Supplier to perform the DPS Appointment Form. Please read the definition of Subcontractor in the DPS Appointment Form.
If you are successfully appointed to the DPS and are awarded a RM6200 Artificial Intelligence DPS Appointment, any changes to arrangements in relation to Subcontracting and Group of Economic Operators arrangements which are made following the award will be dealt with in accordance with DPS Schedule 6 (Key Subcontractors) of the DPS Appointment Form.
After being appointed to the DPS any additional Subcontractors can be disclosed at that time.
Answered
16/12/2020 11:00
23. We have asked a CQ a month ago, and haven't received the response yet.
We have a team waiting to hear if we qualify to tender or not, so could you please respond.
The question was:
We are an NHS Foundation Trust and do not have the Cyber Essentials certificate, however, we ae compliant with the ICO's Data Security & Protection Toolkit, which includes the same requirements as Cyber Essentials. Would this be acceptable, or would we be excluded from the process as we do not have a Cyber Essentials certificate.
You are required to confirm as part of your DPS submission, that you have Cyber Essentials basic certification in place, as a minimum, at Question 155 of the SQ. If you have Cyber Essentials Plus you can select this option at Question 156 of the SQ. A 'Yes' response to either of these questions is acceptable. If you select 'No' to Question 155 of the SQ and confirm this response at Question 5 of the DPSQ by selecting 'Yes' that you do not hold a valid Cyber Essentials basic certificate this will be classed as a 'Fail' and your application will be rejected until you have a valid Cyber Essentials basic certificate.
Please note that Cyber Essentials was developed because neither ISO27001 nor other considered standards were sufficiently prescriptive to defeat common internet based threats as per the PPN.
Answered
16/12/2020 11:04
22. What equivalent certifications are there to Cyber Essentials / Plus? Is ISO:27001 certification an suitable alternative?
Cyber Essentials has five requirements:
- Configure and deploy a firewall
- Make use of secure configurations for devices and software
- Make use of access control to prevent unauthorized access to data and services
- Protect yourself against malware such as viruses
- Keep devices and software updated
A certification is equivalent if it demonstrates explicitly that you have met the five requirements to the same or higher standard as would be required by the Cyber Essentials scheme.
ISO:27001 consists of 14 controls, but these are not as specific as the Cyber Essentials requirements. For example, one of the controls is """"""""Make use of secure configurations for network infrastructure"""""""". This does not necessarily require you to configure and deploy a firewall, although most of the time you would expect that's part of what an organisation would do for that control, it's not explicitly required.
So the question is whether your ISO:27001 certification from a trusted third-party explicitly demonstrates that you meet all five of the requirements under the Cyber Essentials scheme. It's not enough that you probably meet the requirements, or that typically your IT support team would meet the control by doing a specific thing, the certification would need to show that you do in fact meet the requirements.
Answered
15/03/2021 13:33
21. Is it mandatory for suppliers to provide, as part of our application, the evidence requested in Questions 179 and 180, relating to contracts for goods/services in the last three years, if we have already provided case studies for Questions 133, 134 and 135? We notice that answers to Questions 179 and 180 have not been required for other recent CCS DPS questionnaires (for example, the Robotic Automation Process DPS).
Please refer to the Bid Pack, there are questions in the selection Questionnaire that are not applicable for this RM6200 Artificial Intelligence procurement, therefore please note, a
response is NOT required to the questions as detailed below:
Part 1: (Contract Example 1) - Q133
Part 1: (Contract Example 2) - Q134
Part 1: (Contract Example 3) - Q135
Part 3: (Steel) Q147 - Q149
Part 3: (Supply Chain) Q150 - Q154
Part 3: (NHS Questions) Q157 - Q161
If you have any further issues my colleagues at NQC will be able to assist you. Please use the 'contact us' tab at the foot of the Supplier Registration Service (SRS) home page or call them on 0161 413 7982.
Answered
16/12/2020 11:05
20. We are an EU startup not based in the UK.
- Question 5 in SQ DPS - Can we provide a Cyber Essentials Certification issued from the EU country where we are based?
- Question 51 in SQ DPS Please provide your Companies House registered company number.
As a non-UK company, shall we provide the company registration number in the EU country?
You are required to confirm as part of your DPS submission, that you have Cyber Essentials basic certification in place, as a minimum. If you select 'No' to Question 155 of the SQ and confirm this response at Question 5 of the DPSQ by selecting 'Yes' that you do not hold a valid Cyber Essentials basic certificate this will be classed as a 'Fail' and your application will be rejected until you have a valid Cyber Essentials basic certificate. Any other certification you provide will be classed as in addition to Cyber Certification and not instead of.
With regards to your company registration please provide the same details you used to register as a supplier on the Supplier Registration website.
Answered
22/12/2020 14:06
19. Question 129. Do you meet the minimum level of economic and financial standing and/or minimum financial threshold specified within the evaluation criteria for this procurement?
As we do not know our score provided by the credit reference agency, how can we confirm if we meet the minimum financial threshold, which we understand is the score 35 or more?
Also, is the level of economic and financial standing different from the financial threshold?
CCS can confirm that suppliers are not obliged to provide a response to this question. In the event your financial failure score, provided by Dunn and Bradstreet, falls below the indicated threshold, you will be contacted directly by CCS in order to gather the relevent financial evidencees for further assessment.
Dun and
Bradstreet (D&B) will be able to confirm your current financial score at https://www.dnb.co.uk/
Answered
16/12/2020 11:06
18. With regard to question 127 of the Selection Questionnaire- We had exemption from audit and hence only have unaudited accounts, will that impact our position?
We will undertake an assessment of your economic and financial standing using the DUNS number (as provided by Dun and Bradstreet) for your organisation which you input when registering on the SRS registration system. The report provided by the credit reference agency (Dun and Bradstreet) will
be used to determine the level of financial risk you represent. If the score provided by the credit reference agency is 35 or more, then your Request to participate will continue to proceed in the DPS Selection process. If the score is less than 35 our Commercial Finance Team will request sight of you last 2 years accounts to carry out a further assessment.
Answered
16/12/2020 11:09
16. We have completed the SQ Supplier Response and submission is highlighted as complete. I am now at the Evidence Submission stage.
Can you advise how I can amend the SQ Supplier Response please?
The Selection Questionnaire is split into two (2) distinct sections. The first is a standard Selection Questionnaire (SQ) and this must be completed and submitted via the Supplier Registration Service to progress to the next section of the SQ process, referred to as the DPSQ (these are DPS specific questions, and also contain the Service filters that buyers will also select when running Competition procedures). When you have completed the SQ you need to select either 'Save and Continue' at the end of the questionnaire, or, you can select 'Save and view answers' to review your responses, allowing you to make any changes prior to submitting the SQ, once done this will direct you to the DPSQ.
Please note - you cannot amend your responses to any of the standard Selection Questionnaire responses once you have progressed on to the DPSQ. If you require further guidance please contact NQC using the 'contact us' tab at the foot of the Supplier Registration Service (SRS) home page or call them on 0161 413 7982.
Answered
16/12/2020 11:15
15. We are an NHS Foundation Trust and do not have the Cyber Essentials certificate, however, we are compliant with the ICO's Data Security & Protection Toolkit, which includes the same requirements as Cyber Essentials. Would this be acceptable, or would we be excluded from the process as we do not have a Cyber Essentials certificate"?
PPN 09/14, Annex C, FAQ states:
According to EU Law a supplier is not obliged to use Cyber Essentials. A supplier need only demonstrate to the satisfaction of the contracting authority that they meet Cyber Essentials requirements. Normally this should be verified by a technically competent and independent 3rd party. To demonstrate that Cyber Essentials Plus requirements have been met it is required in all cases that verification is provided by a technically competent and independent 3rd party.
Gaining the Cyber Essentials certificate is the easiest way to demonstrate that the requirements have been met; however other forms of evidence are acceptable. Aside from a supplier falling under one or more of the stated exemptions Cyber Essentials certification is likely to be the cheapest way to achieve this.
Answered
24/09/2020 10:13
14. Could you please clarify whether it is mandatory to report on a monthly basis if you are not under contract with any buyers.
In accordance with clause 2.1 of DPS Schedule 5 Management Information, 'MI Reports must be completed and returned to CCS by the fifth Working Day of every month during the DPS Contract Period and thereafter; if at any point there is a period of a month where no reportable transactions occur, then a declaration must be made confirming no business has been conducted, in place of data submission'.
You can do this electronically by submitting a 'no business' in Report MI, if no contract has been awarded.
Answered
24/09/2020 10:13
13. Could you please confirm a timeline for applying to be a supplier to RM6200? e.g., what is the deadline for applications to join as a supplier?
A Dynamic Purchasing System is open for suppliers to apply at any point during its lifespan, for Artificial Intelligence this is initially until 04/03/2022. There are no deadlines for a supplier to join, however a supplier must be appointed to the DPS to be included in any calls for further competition by the buying organisation which may take place at any point in time.
Answered
27/08/2020 13:13
12. Please confirm if the Supplier's liability under Joint Schedule 11 (Processing Data) is captured by either clause 11.4 or 11.6 of the Core Terms.
Supplier is advised to seek their own legal advice if necessary.
Answered
24/02/2021 14:33
