Depending on the nature of the requirement, it may be necessary to investigate the potential market in terms of the number of suppliers likely to be able to provide what is needed. For example, if seeking to set up a contract for the provision of taxi services, then knowledge of the local taxi companies would be helpful. Likewise, when purchasing a new item of high specification laboratory equipment, it will be necessary to understand the supplier-base in global terms.
Market research can also help to identify alternative products and solutions to the requirement. This information can be useful in finalising the specification.
The Procurement Act does not prevent institutions from having technical discussions with potential suppliers to gain an understanding of how the market works and to help formulate the best means of developing and writing the tender documentation. The discussions must not, however give any supplier an advantage over the others. Care must be taken to ensure that a supplier does not unduly influence the ultimate product specification, which could result in complaints from other suppliers that the specification is unfair. Likewise, the research should not lead a supplier to believe that it can expect to obtain the business without first participating in an open competition (i.e. responding to an invitation to tender or a request for quotation).
The tender specification should be based on outputs and provide sufficient information to enable the suppliers to submit genuine tenders upon which you can judge which offers the best value for money for the users.
Market research should identify:
Whether, within your institution or the sector, there is an existing arrangement that is available for use or if another department/institution(s) is about to undertake a similar exercise. In which case it may be possible to aggregate requirements, share the workload and potential cost benefits
The size of the potential supplier base will have an impact on the decision of what type of procurement process to follow. For example, where there are a large number of suppliers then a two-stage process under a competitive flexible procedure would be more appropriate, as the process of selecting suitable suppliers to submit tenders; or where there is a lower number of potential suppliers (i.e. less than 10) then, the use of an open procedure may be more appropriate
An estimate of the potential cost of the requirement, enabling the appropriate tendering route to be determined
School / MAT members - the information on this page aligns with the following ISBL Professional Standards: 3.17, 3.18, 3.19, 3.20