Procurement Policy

Purchasing Policy - As a public sector organisation, JANET(UK) is subject to a series of EU directives, implemented in the UK by the Public Procurement Regulations. These regulations promote non-discriminatory and transparent competition between suppliers of goods, services, works and utilities. If the value of a contract proposal is expected to exceed the threshold (currently £156,442), then JANET(UK) must publish a Contract notice in the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) or purchase via an existing framework agreement that JANET(UK) is eligible to use.

JANET - JANET provides services to all Higher Education Institutions, Further Education and Specialist Colleges and Research Council establishments in the UK. JANET also provides services to many Local Authority education networks, in support of ICT provision in schools and in adult and community learning. JANET is an IP based network with more than 1,000 direct connections available to a community of 18 million users.

JANET Connection Policy - the JANET Connection Policy defines the conditions under which any organisation may be connected to JANET. The present connection policy is available here.

e-Procurement - JANET(UK) uses an e-tendering solution called ProContract which is now the gateway to dealing with JANET(UK). The portal can be accessed directly by going to https://tenders.ja.net. It is totally free for suppliers to register their details on the system which will then allow the supplier to deal with JANET(UK), receive email alerts when a contract of interest arises, or to take part in a tender process. The system handles all aspects of the tender process including PQQs, ITTs and RFQs. All procurement correspondence will now be sent/received via the JANET(UK) portal. Documentation will not be available to a potential tenderer until they have registered on the system. Please click here for a detailed Supplier User Guide.

Responding to procurements - JANET(UK) always ask suppliers to register their intention to submit a response to a procurement. Suppliers are required to register their intention to submit a proposal and must register on the JANET(UK) e-tendering opportunities portal at https://tenders.ja.net. Suppliers that have not registered will not be able to respond to an OJEU procurement. This is so that potential suppliers may be kept informed of any issues of clarification to the procurement documentation that may need to be made subsequent to the issue of such documentation Suppliers must register as a system user if they are a first time user of the JANET(UK) opportunities portal, which is a one-off activity. Once accepted by JANET(UK) suppliers will receive a username and password that they should use for all future accesses to the system. The only time that JANET(UK) will reject a supplier is if there is an attempt to have a duplicate registration for a supplier. Also, please note that this first time registration is not a registration for a particular contract, it is only the registration of the user on the JANET(UK) portal. When username and password are received, then a supplier must log in and then register their interest in a specific contract. It is recommended that a generic mailbox (such as sales@supplier) is set up, so that information from the system can be sent to more than one representative at the company. Suppliers must download the procurement documents to their local system, fill in the documents, and then upload back to the system (it is not possible to fill in the documents online). Please do not try to upload documents very close to the closing time of the procurement because the tender boxes will be locked at 12:00 and any documents that are part way through being uploaded will be rejected.

Evaluation of tenders - JANET(UK) will select the response that offers the Most Economically Advantageous Tender. This means buying the solution that best matches JANET(UK)’s needs, having considered a number of factors which will include, but may not necessarily be limited to, the ability to meet mandatory requirements, quality, service, delivery and whole life issues, including maintenance costs.

Evaluation criteria - JANET(UK) publishes the evaluation criteria during the invitation process. All responses are evaluated against the published criteria. A contract is negotiated and awarded as soon as possible after the evaluation process has been completed. A formal acceptance letter and contract document are sent to the successful tenderer and letters of decline are sent to the unsuccessful tenderers.

Procurement debriefs - It is normal practice for JANET(UK) to offer a debrief to suppliers whose proposals were not selected for purchase. Details of how to request a debrief will be included in letters to unsuccessful tenderers.

Frequently asked questions - /itt/FAQ.html

Procurement Unit contact - All correspondence about procurement matters should be addressed to the procurement mailbox procurement@ja.net.

Forthcoming procurements - Procurements that JANET(UK) might launch over the coming year will be listed below. Suppliers are asked not to contact JANET(UK) about these procurements until they are officially issued.