Information for suppliers

Welcome to Coventry University’s web area for suppliers. This area is intended to provide information to current and potential suppliers about purchasing at Coventry University tenders that are currently planned and other information that we believe may be useful to suppliers.

Coventry University is a publicly-funded Higher Education institution with an annual expenditure on goods and services in excess of £50 million.

The aim of the Procurement team is to achieve best value for money contracts for the Institution's purchasers to use, thereby helping to maximise benefit from the use of University resources, and developing and maintaining effective and up to date purchasing policies and procedures whilst ensuring compliance with relevant legislation.

The Procurement team are part of the Finance function of the University and comprises of the Head of Procurement and two Contracts Officers.

The University, like most universities, operates in a devolved manner. Departments have responsibility for their own budgets and a fair degree of autonomy in spending that money. However, departments also have to follow the Institution’s procurement policies and procedures, including the use of "approved" suppliers wherever possible. At Coventry University an approved supplier is defined as:

A supplier that has been successful in a University or a consortia-lead competitive tendering exercise, or have, for some other substantial reason, earned the right to the title of ‘approved’ and to whom all ongoing University business for contracted items should be directed.

Therefore, in most cases, the University will only approve suppliers who have successfully completed an appropriate competitive process.

The University already has in place contracts and agreements for various commodities within the University. Please see the supplier agreements in place before contacting the Purchasing Department regarding becoming an approved supplier. You can also register your interest in becoming a University-approved supplier by visiting our internal tendering website. Coventry University is also part of the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (SUPC).

Please note that Coventry University is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Becoming a supplier

Coventry University is a forward-looking, modern University with a proud tradition as a provider of high quality education, service to industry and a focus on applied research. The University has invested heavily in our city centre campus and this will continue to evolve and develop in the coming year.

To assist the University’s development, Procurement needs to ensure that it is able to offer value for money. To do this Procurement requires suppliers that can offer:

• Competitive pricing
• High levels of quality in products and services.
• Strong communication and reporting.
• Exchanges of innovation and ideas.
• Compliance with the University’s procurement rules and procedures.

To become an approved supplier to the Coventry University you must have been through a competitive award process. This may be through:

• A tender process conducted by Coventry University. Please visit the Coventry University tenders tab for more information.
• A further competition conducted by Coventry University on a framework agreement established by the Southern Universities Procurement Service (SUPC). Please visit the Southern Universities Procurement Service tab for more information.
• A further competition conducted by Coventry University on a framework agreement established by an alternative public sector body such as the Government Procurement Service (GPS).

Tenders

Coventry University’s procurement policy is to tender any purchasing requirements with a value in excess of £50,000.  This could be for a one off purchase or for a contract that exceeds £50,000 over the term of the agreement.

Coventry University conducts its tenders electronically using a system common to UK Universities called ‘In-tend’. All procurement spends over £50,000 shall be advertised on the In-tend site, allowing suppliers to register expressions of interest and participate in the tender process. Where the value of the tender exceeds £173,934 the University will also publish a contract notice on Tenders Electronic Daily (TED).

The In-tend website site allows suppliers to return tenders and documents through the site providing an electronic receipt of submission.  There is also a correspondence feature that allows the University and supplier to communicate during the tender process if required.

To view all of Coventry University’s current tenders and recent contract awards please go to the In-tend website.  

Tenders Electronic Daily - TED

Where the value of a purchase exceeds the EU Procurement Directives threshold of £173,934 and Coventry University is looking to conducting its own tender process, the University will publish a contract notice on Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) for our requirement. TED is the online version of the ‘Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union’.

This contract notice could be for a tender of a one off spend over £173,934 or a multiple year contract where the University’s spend over the contract term will exceed the EU threshold.

Each contract notice Coventry University publishes is coded using a CPV code that helps classify its requirement. This allows suppliers registered on TED for certain CPV codes to be notified of our tender.

If your company is not registered on TED, you can register here.

Registration and usage of TED is completely free allowing access to new business opportunities and markets for your company.

Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium

Coventry University is a member of the SUPC, which is the largest of the six regional higher education purchasing consortia that operate throughout the UK.

The SUPC has a membership of over one hundred higher and further education institutions. By aggregating the spend of its members the SUPC offer us a wide range of collaborative framework agreements covering most commodity areas.

SUPC awards and manages these framework agreements on behalf of its member Universities. Some of the agreements are tendered exclusively for SUPC members but we also collaborate with other regional purchasing consortia to share the tendering workload and this means that sometimes an agreement will be awarded by one consortium but will be available for other consortia to use.

The vast majority of agreements are awarded following a competitive tendering exercise undertaken in accordance with EU Procurement Directives. At the start of the tender process a contract notice is placed in the OJEU (Official Journal of the European Union), a daily electronic publication.

The SUPC website lists the agreements they currently have in place and when they are due to expire. Further detail on these and recommendations on how to become an SUPC supplier.