A quick recap:
Mercell Bidding is designed to facilitate supplier engagement with tendering organisations and their tenders. It serves as a central hub where suppliers can submit clarification questions and ultimately upload their bids in response to tenders. It also provides support to streamline the processes and requirements involved in ESPD requests, Framework agreements and Digital Purchasing systems.
Step 1: Accessing the Notice
Open the business opportunity page from Explore or your Monitoring inbox. From there you can click to progress through to submitting a bid. The name of this button will change depending on where the tender is published:
Act on this opportunity tenders published in Mercell Tendering
Accept/decline tenders published in Sourcing Core
Go to source external publications
Important to remember that not all tenders are submitted in a Mercell platform. This guidance describes how to submit a bid if the tender is in a Mercell platform, for other external portals you should follow the guidance they provide.
The initial view is the Summary tab, which displays essential information, including:
The type of contract notice.
The publication date.
The deadline for questions and bid submissions.
A general description of the notice.
Step 2: Reviewing Documents
Switch to the Publication documents tab to view the official notice documents and any related links. If necessary, you can download the documents to your computer for review.
Step 3: Submitting Questions and Answers
Use the Questions and answers tab to engage with the contracting authority.
Here, you can send questions related to the tender.
This is also where you address questions posed by the contracting body to you.
Note the deadline date for submitting questions displayed on this tab. Once this deadline has passed, the option to ask a question will be removed.
After writing your questions or responding with answers, you must click Send.
Step 4: Providing Additional Information
The next tab is Other terms and conditions. The contracting authority may have requested additional information that the supplier must respond to here. Once you have entered your response, click Save.
Step 5: Addressing Award Criteria
The Award criteria tab presents the core criterion for awarding the contract.
The tab only appears if the tender requires award criterion.
Your responses in this section are mandatory.
After reading through the award criterion, respond accurately and click Save.
Step 6: Finalising and Submitting the Bid
Finally, move to the Send tab to finalise your bid submission.
Final Checks
Missing Information: First, check the centre of your window for any missing information. These items must be completed before you can progress.
Validity Period: It is mandatory to enter a validity period stating how long the bid is valid for.
Contact Email: It is also mandatory to enter a contact email address. The contract award decision can only be sent to one email address.
Attachments: It is optional to upload further attachments by clicking Add a new attachment.
All other fields are recommended but not mandatory.
Once the fields are complete, the Send bid button will appear.
Review and Submission
Tip: You can make a final review of the bid as a PDF. This link is located at the very end of the window.
Once you are ready and have clicked the Send bid button, the submission confirmation page will open, confirming that the tender has been successfully submitted.
Article Ref: 151020251446