1. Scotland Excel - Meet the Buyer event
PCS-Tender
Scotland Excel - Meet the Buyer event
Thursday 11th June 2015
Stuart Brown Scottish Government
Thomas Paiva-Pennick Bravo Solutions
November 18

2. What is PCS-Tender? Public Contract Scotland
Single sign-on from the Public Contracts Scotland site to PCS-Tender
Public Contract Scotland
Public Contract Scotland - Tender
The assumption out there is that PCS-T is part of PCS.
They are completely different systems although a single sign on does exists between PCS/PCS-T
PCS is used to advertise Public Sector Contract opportunities – Where suppliers can find new opportunities
PCS-T is an eSourcing module used by buyers to run high value high risk procurement exercises – Suppliers can respond to PQQ’s ITTs’ eAuctions through the system
Contract Award notices placed in PCS – some low value (-50k) procurement using the Quick Quote functionality also carried out in PCS
November 18

3. Benefits to Suppliers
PCS-Tender hosts the electronic version of the standard pre-qualification questionnaire (sPQQ)
PCS-Tender will reduce duplication of effort with the ability to store, edit and reuse answers to standard PPQ/ITT questions multiple times
Previous submissions and documentation will be saved in supplier profiles for future reference
Improved communication with a standardised message service with buyers
The ability to edit responses as many times as necessary up to the tender submission deadline
The electronic version of the sPQQ has been created in the system
Suppliers can answer sPQQ questions, store them in the system and re-use them multiple times
The system holds all past tender submissions for future reference
Suppliers can communicate with buyers in PCS-Tender through the messaging service stores all conversation history
Suppliers can edit responses up until the tender deadline submission expires S
November 18

4. When to use PCS-Tender
A contracting authority will state whether they are using PCS-Tender to carry out their tender exercise in the PCS contract notice
Not all contracting authorities use PCS-Tender the system is targeted towards those that have a high volume of PQQ’s/ITTs (50 in scope organisations)
Once you have identified a notice on PCS and clicked into it for further information, it will be clear from the text at the top of the notice that the contracting authority is using pcs-tender for to carry out their tender exercise. There is also further information in the full notice text.
Suppliers should note the pcs-tender project code as highlighted in the slides as this will help them identify the correct project in pcs-tender.
If the buyer is using PCS-Tender suppliers should register on the PCS-Tender portal.

5. Registering on the system1
Registering on PCS-Tender in 3 simple steps 2 3
You can access PCS-Tender online. You only need to register on PCS-Tender if the buyer is using the system to carry out the tender exercise. All opportunities advertised on PCS not PCS-Tender.
The system is completely free to register on.
Hit the register as a supplier button
Agree to the terms and conditions of the web site
Start to build your supplier profile by entering your details in to the system as per the bottom screenshot.

6. Managing Your Profile May 15
You can access your profile from the Landing Page.
Search for opportunities using a range of search criteria
Remember: Once you have expressed interest, the PQQ will move to the “My PQQs area”
Once you have completed the registration stage you will be taken in to your “Dashboard” area.
In here you will find the Manage Profile section
This is you will find the PQQ/ITTs advertised in PCS. The screen shot demonstrates the searching functionality you can search by the Project code the buyer has entered in the PCS notice. When you find the correct PQQ/ITT all you have to do is to Express interest and the project will move to your PQQ area.
May 15

7. Responding to a PQQ Attachments Printable view Export/Import Response
Profile questions
Validate response
Submit response
Suppliers should read the question details and provide an answer appropriate to the question.
All sections contain questions that either prompt the supplier to upload an attachment select from a dropdown menu or free text box to provide the answers.
Complete the sections in the PQQ validate your response then submit.
If you have completed a PQQ in the system PCS-Tender will store your answers. You can then reuse your answers for any further PQQs that you may be interested in. The system will pre-populate the answers it is up to the supplier to ensure that the stored answers meet the contract specific criteria. Suppliers should always ensure that the response matches the question asked within the PQQ & ITT.
November 18

8. Answering the Questions
Example on the screen is from the Economic & Financial section of the sPQQ that may be used by a buyer when creating a PQQ.
Suppliers should read the question detail and provide an answer (in this case an attachment) appropriate to the question.
All sections contain questions that either prompt the supplier to upload an attachment (in this case a copy of your financial accounts), select from a dropdown menu or free text box to provide the answers.
November 18

9. Building Your Profile Basic Profile Questions
Extended Profile Questions
A couple of examples on the screen of the sections that a supplier may wish to complete.
First section is “Basic” Profile where the supplier is asked whether they are an SME
The next section is the extended profile this is where a supplier begins to answer the questions contained within the sPQQ. Note the system informs you how complete the section is and whether the questions are mandatory or optional.
You can amend the basic profile questions, but the initial response to these is given at the registration stage.
November 18

10. Help & Guidance Help files area Supplier Response Guide
Managing Additional Users
Supplier Videos
PCS – PCS-Tender Single Sign On
Helpdesk
Forgotten username
Site Navigation
Where to go for help:
Help in relation to the PQQ/ITT first point of contact should be the buyer
Help in relation to aspects of the system funstionality contact the PCS-Tender helpdesk
Help in relation to bidding for public contracts – supplier development programme.
November 18

11. Benefits of completing the extended profile
How to re-use your profile questions – system demonstration.
November 18

12. e-Invoicing Made Easy Good Morning
I am Andrew Cairney and along with my colleague Nicola Fobister we are going to provide you with an overview of our eInvoicing solution

13. Agenda What is eInvoicing EU Directives & eInvoicing solution
eInvoicing facts & volumes
Benefits of eInvoicing
Scotland Excel – Leading the Way
Buyer & Supplier savings
Supplier considerations
Three Easy Steps
Supplier Adoption
Lessons Learned
FAQs
Contact information
Over the next 15 minutes we are going to provide you with a whirlwind tour of all things eInvoicing ranging from the new EU Directive, the benefits that can be achieved from moving to eInvoicing, through to how easy is for suppliers to start sending eInvoices via our solution
If your business deals with paper invoices, you could be losing thousands of pounds each year due to the labour intensive manual processes that relate to the invoice process. If you're looking to improve your invoice processes by reducing costs, saving paper and increasing visibility of payments, then eInvoicing automation could help you bring your invoicing procedures to the next level.

14. What is eInvoicing? Efficient? Easy? Effective? Exciting? Electronic?
I am sure you are all very aware of the term eInvoicing, but what does the e in eInvoicing really stand for?
Is it efficient? Is it easy? Is it effective? Is it exciting? Is it electronic?
Well I think we all know it is electronic, however all these apply to the Scottish Government eInvoicing solution, I do recognise that I might be pushing it a bit to say that eInvoicing is exciting but the other 4 e’s can definitely be achieved.

15. EU eInvoicing Directive
Directive 2014/55/EU on Electronic Invoicing
Published in OJEU 16 April 2014
Came into force 26 May 2014
Must be adopted into national law by 27 November 2018
Central Government & NHS must comply by 27 November Other public bodies (local authorities & central government) may have a further 12 months to comply
Moving onto the EU Directive which was one of the key drivers for the Scottish Government to introduce a new eInvoicing solution across the Scottish Public Sector.
This Directive mandates that public bodies must be able to accept eInvoices and that these eInvoices must be received and processed without any manual intervention. Public bodies can continue to receive paper invoices but there must be formal agreement between the public body and the supplier. The Directive does not mandate that suppliers issue eInvoices. The Directive also only mandates eInvoicing for contracts that are covered by the EU Public Procurement Directives.
The Directive must be brought into force by 27 November 2018 for all central government bodies and NHS boards. Other public bodies, such as local authorities, can postpone this deadline, if they wish, by a further 12 months.

16. eInvoicing Solution
Delivered through the Scottish Government’s national eCommerce Shared Service
No technical changes required for suppliers
No costs to suppliers
Removes the barrier to eInvoicing (change)
Standardised approach across the Scottish public sector
Simple to use for all involved
Across Scotland, payment performance is typically high, with most public bodies paying on contract terms. The Scottish Government pays 97% of its invoices within 10 working days, and whilst this is not the norm across the whole public sector, there is recognition that this is something that should be aspired to. It is recognised that the matching and payment of invoices is a very manual intensive process.
eInvoicing isn’t widely deployed across Scotland. There are pockets of good practice and some public bodies have enabled the capability for a selection of suppliers and commodities. However, most public bodies have yet to dip their toes in the water and this can be due to a number of reasons - time, money, resources, capability, supplier buy-in, and complexity of the eInvoicing market to name but a few.
To address this the Scottish Government has delivered eInvoicing capability through it national eCommerce Shared Service which will help to standardise eInvoicing procedures and processes and decrease the fragmented approach to eInvoicing. We are now in the throes of implementing eInvoicing across local authorities, central government bodies, universities and colleges.
Our solution does not require suppliers to make any technical changes to their invoice/billing process most importantly there are no costs to suppliers to transact with our solution.
Yes, you heard me right that this is free of charge to use for suppliers

17. eInvoicing Facts
Industry standards says it takes an average of 5 minutes to issue an invoice
Average worker in a small to medium size business spends 16 hours and 53 minutes per month on financial processes
Annually Scottish Public Sector receive 4,811,624 invoices
Rough and ready calculation = It would take 45 years to process this number of invoices.
So this got us thinking, how much time do suppliers actually spend on issuing invoices? To try and demonstrate this, I’ve done a bit of research on the average time it takes to issue an invoice and how much time is dedicated to supporting this process. This is a very rough and ready calculation, however the point that I am trying to demonstrate is that a lot of suppliers time is spent managing the end to end invoice processes.
The industry standard is in the region of 5 minutes, I personally think this is a bit on the conservative side, however we will go with this as our baseline, I will caveat this though, as this of course will change depending on your own internal processes. According to survey that was carried out by a well know service provider the average worker from a small to medium business spends 16 hours and 53 minutes per month on financial processes, equal to two full working days on activity potentially unrelated to their role.
In that two-day period, the most time-consuming exercises include responding to customer enquiries (2 hours 19 minutes), creating and sending invoices (1 hour 55 minutes) and reviewing invoices to be paid (1 hour 45 minutes).
So if you were the lucky person that was to issue the 4.8 million invoices that are received by local authorities, central government bodies, universities and colleges then this would take you in the region of 45 years.
To think you can get off with murder for less.

18. Invoice Volumes
Some of the key areas where suppliers incur costs are :-
Dispute/Query resolution
Accounting/reconciliation
IT development and operation
Customer requests for copies of lost invoices
Archiving
Thankfully not all of us will need to spend the next 45 years supporting the invoice process.
As we know the current status quo for suppliers and invoices is that it tends to be slow manual paper based process, sometimes as a result supplier credit control departments can often struggle to mange both the volumes and the end to end invoice process, with some of the key time wasting areas being, managing disputes, chasing payments and reconciling accounts to take into consideration unpaid invoices

19. Benefits of eInvoicing
Improvement Area
Performance Impact
Invoice processing cost
Reduced by 30% – 90%
Processing cycle time
Reduced by 65%
Credit control labour
Reduced by 25% – 40%
Payment on time
Improved by 15% – 59%
Invoices received in electronic format
Improved by 55% – 90%
However there is good news, we have the answer, by introducing eInvoicing into your organisation there are some great efficiencies to be made,
For example a few of these benefits are – reducing your invoice processing costs by taking away any manual intervention and making the end to end process electronic
You can reduce credit control labour – by automating your invoice process, this helps to drive good practice which in turn helps to reduce the amount of time that is spent on dealing with lost invoices or handling queries.
Your payment on time percentage will increase as the overall process is more efficient and with no manual intervention required reduces the risk of any human errors.
You could also say that by automating the invoice process, it reduces the likelihood of invoices going missing or sitting in someone’s in-tray. eInvoicing increases the visibility of where invoices are in the payment process.
Ultimately, saving time during the overall invoicing process will save money.

20. Invoice Processing Environment
How Does It Work?
Buyer (Receiver)
Supplier (Sender)
Invoice Processing Environment
FMS / ERP
Extract
Interpret
*80 – 90%
Extrapolate
Validate
EDI
*5-10%
FTPS, HTTPS, etc
Moving onto the technology
So how does it work? Very simply is the answer.
The first step is that the supplier sends the invoice to an unique address for each public body it deals with – a variety of formats are supported, the most popular being PDF which must be machine generated.
The eInvoicing solution receives the and reads the data embedded within the PDF and turns the data into an eInvoice.
The eInvoicing solution then performs a number of validation checks before issuing it to the public body for matching and payment.
It does not matter what accounting package you use, it doesn’t even matter if you do not have an accounting package as we can work with both word and excel documents, these simplicity of our solution is that you as a supplier do not need to make any changes to your current invoice processes.
Hopefully this demonstrates just how simple the move to eInvoicing is.
Export
FTPS, HTTPS, etc

21. Scotland Excel – Leading the Way
Live Organisations
West Lothian
Stirling
Dumfries and Galloway
Argyll and Bute
East Lothian
West Dunbartonshire
Currently working with a number of organisations regarding eInvoicing implementation
Moray
Aberdeenshire
Renfrewshire
We started our eInvoicing service in April 2013 and during the last 18 months
We have been actively engaging with all public bodies but local authorities are by far leading adoption and driving standardisation. As you can see, 6 local authorities are live, 3 are progressing implementations and we are in discussions with a large number of other local authorities, central government bodies, universities and colleges.

22. Supplier Adoption Centrally managed by the SG
Focus on national and sector contracts initially
Public bodies will also identify high volume invoice suppliers
We are taking a centrally managed approach to supplier adoption & onboarding so that we can ensure that suppliers servicing national and sector contracts are brought on board quickly and only once. Therefore, at this stage only suppliers that we have contacted and onboarded are issuing invoices to the solution. We have taken this approach to drive standardisation throughout the processes and reduce the duplication of effort across the scottish public sector supply base.
To date we have not faced any resistance from suppliers but some have been particularly challenging in terms of progressing, this can be due to number of factors for example, limited resource, difficult to find out who the correct contact should be and internal processes.
We are not just looking at national an sector contracts, individual user organisations can identify local suppliers which they would like onboarded and undertake this activity themselves – all we ask is that they notify us of the suppliers so that we can add them to our master list.

23. Savings That Can Be Achieved From eInvoicing
Supplier
Total No of Invoices processed to date
Saving to date
Arco
416
£2,440
Pertemps
331
£1,948
Campbells
356
£2,088
Yorkshire Purchasing
1392
£8,196
To date we currently have 75 suppliers who have been onboarded to issue eInvoices and since eInvoicing went live with West Lothian Council in April 2013, the solution has captured over 18,700 invoices.
This is where I am looking for some audience participation, do we have anyone in the room from Arco, Campbells, Pertemps and Yorkshire Purchasing? Well, you have already started to reap the benefits of eInvoicing and to date you have sent in over 2,495 eInvoices with an overall saving off £14,672.
You can see from the table what each of your individual savings are to date. These savings are based on the Billentis 2013 report figures where they state that there is a saving of £5.89 per invoice if you move to eInvoicing. This figure is just a bench mark and will fluctuate depending on your own internal processes.

24. Supplier Considerations
The ability to send system generated invoices
Submit valid invoices e.g PO number, VAT Number, Invoice values
Generate 250 or more invoices per year
Commitment & Resource
Appetite to change
Now that we have shown you how easy the solution is and what the potential savings are, hopefully your next question will be how do I join and what do I need to do?
To ensure that you achieve the benefits of eInvoicing from the word go, there are a few pre-requisites that need to be in place
First one is, that you must have the ability to send a system generated invoice, what do I mean, by this? I mean invoices that are generated from any accounting package.
You need to send in valid invoice, your invoices must include purchase order number, VAT number & invoice values to name but a few. If you are not sure of what should be included in an invoice either speak to your local accounts payable team, check the HRMC website or you can our eInvoicing mailbox and we can provide you with an sample
Either collectively across the whole Scottish public sector on singularly with one public body you must send in a minimum of 250 invoices a year, this is our cut-off point to ensure that there a cost benefit to adopting suppliers to use the solution
We also need commitment and dedicated resource – the key lesson that we have learnt to date is that the majority of issues are related to invalid invoices being received and to quickly resolve this we need to both the supplier and the public body to work together.

25. What’s A Valid Invoice?
It may be very obvious to the suppliers in the room, however a large amount of the invoices that we have received to date have failed the validation process due to some key information not being included.
We need this information as this is the mandatory information that is required to match our purchase orders. With one or any of this information being missed or is different for the original PO, then the invoice will fail validation which ultimately may result in your payment being delayed. The invoice should be a mirror copy of the key information that is on the purchase order.
Some of the common problems that we have encountered to date, is missing item numbers, the adding of discounts or delivery charges at the invoice stage, these will all cause your invoice to fail. This is why we are encouraging suppliers to work closely with public bodies in ensuring that you have a valid invoice prior to going live with eInvoicing.
Why we need this information & the consequences of it not being included in an invoice

26. Three Easy Steps To Join eInvoicing
Contact the relevant public bodies to see if they are using the solution
Obtain the generic address
Start sending in eInvoices
Once you know that you have all this in place then there are only a few steps that you need to take to start sending eInvoicing
Firstly, you need to contact the public bodies you do business with to check if they are using our eInvoicing solution. Depending on how many public bodies you do business with, you may mean need to contact several organisations individually.
Secondly, obtain the address that has been set up specifically for each of the public bodies.
Thirdly, and finally, start sending your PDF invoices to this address.
It will be as simple as this if you have made sure that the key supplier considerations that we outlined in the earlier slide have been put in place. If not there is every chance that your invoices will fail validation and fall into the exception category, which may delay payment.

27. Lessons Learned
Early and on-going engagement with supplier and buying organisation
Accurate content of catalogues thus reducing the likelihood of failed invoices.
A clear understanding of the end to end invoicing process, to ensure a smooth transition from manual to electronic process.
Valid invoice
Like any new solution that has been implemented there are always teething problems and key lessons to be learnt. This project is no different.
What our aim is when we are working with both suppliers and buying organisations is that from the minute that you go live we want to try and ensure that there are minimal exceptions and that you are reaping the benefits of eInvoicing from the very start.
The more effort that is done up front in ensuring the current process supports eInvoicing then there will be less problems in managing exceptions for all involved.
All these lessons learnt are very easy to resolve, and should you want to discuss how you can manage to these you can either our mailbox which I will give you at the end or come and see Andy and I at the end.

28. FAQs
Q – Do I have to make any technical changes to submit an invoice to either my finance system or accounting package?
A – If you are a supplier, NO! If you are a buying organisation, there may be small technical changes required to support eInvoicing.
We are really hoping that you found this session really useful and can quite clearly see the benefits that can be achieved.
I would like to move on to see if anyone has any questions
As we have done this many times before and have been faced with the same awkward silence, Andy and I have prepared a few questions for you.

29. Q – Are there any costs to suppliers to submit an electronic invoice?
FAQs
Q – Are there any costs to suppliers to submit an electronic invoice?
A – No, the service is completely free to all suppliers.
Nicola

30. Q – Are suppliers required to submit eInvoices in a PDF format?
FAQs
Q – Are suppliers required to submit eInvoices in a PDF format?
A – No, there is no requirement to submit an invoice in PDF format. All types of electronic invoice can be accepted, e.g XML, Word, Excel, HTML.
Nicola

31. Q – Is eInvoicing mandatory for Buying Organisations and Suppliers.
FAQs
Q – Is eInvoicing mandatory for Buying Organisations and Suppliers.
A – To emphasise the earlier slides, eInvoicing will be mandatory for all public sector bodies by 2019 at the latest. For suppliers, there is no mandate to send eInvoices, however with the benefits that we have demonstrated today, we would hope that you would look to adopt this method where applicable.

32. For further information, please contact us at:
Contact Information
For further information, please contact us at:
We would really like to thank you for your time today, if there is anything additional that you would like to know you can either drop us an at the above address or as we’re staying around for the lunch feel free to come and have a chat.
We also have some information and contact sheet here at the front so please feel free to come and get one.
Thanks for your time