Procurement and supplier engagement processes

Version: 2020-04-01 [updated 2024-01-26]

We operate a procurement process. Where relevant and appropriate we publish invitations to tender openly and invite a range of organisations and individuals to bid for that work. Specific individual roles are published at https://ib1.org/jobs and via social media.

  1. Our Procurement Threshold is set at £60,000.
  2. Contracts of lower than the Procurement Threshold may also be subject to competitive tender based on the nature of the work.
  3. In certain circumstances, including but not limited to, specific grant applications where dedicated partners are required for co-bidding, the need to issue a competitive tender may be waived.
  4. We will solicit bids from at least two (2) companies for all supplier contracts over the Procurement Threshold. Suppliers will be approached, or an open tender published, depending on the needs of the business or specific nature of the work. For open tenders, these will be published on our website. Suppliers can be UK or internationally-based.
  5. Potential suppliers will be assessed by more than one team member, based on a scoring metric of 1 to 5 (5 being excellent):
    1. Quality of service;
    2. Background and experience;
    3. Price competitiveness;
    4. Environmental policies and commitments to net zero;
    5. Social policies;
    6. Commitments to open licensing (including but not limited to content, data, software);
    7. Commitment to our mission; and
    8. Communications expertise.
  6. We will use expertise from relevant team members when assessing suppliers.
  7. Authority and sign-off:
    1. Sign-off on all spending requires the sign-off of the CEO.
    2. Amounts over the Procurement Threshold require additional sign-off from our Financial Manager or a member of the Senior Management Team.

Should you be successful in the bidding process, we reserve the right to publish information such as your company name, the cost of services we have purchased, and related service-provision metrics.

We encourage organisations to publish their corporate ESG and related policies publicly (e.g. for large organisations, publishing their anti-modern slavery policies via services such as https://tiscreport.org)