Accounts Payable Automation (Early Engagement)

This is an early engagement notice to enable West Northamptonshire Council (hereafter referred to as the "Council") to best understand the current options available in the market for Accounts Payable Automation, including e-invoicing and statement matching.

It is intended that the outcome of this Notice, will be used to further inform the Council's procurement and contract model, which could take the form of two (2) lots, but the Council is under no obligation to any potential Supplier and/or makes no guarantees to any party, resulting from feedback received to this Notice.

If your organisation is interested in this opportunity and believe they could provide the requirement to the Council, please confirm your interest to [email protected] by no later than 12:00 noon on the closing date of this Notice.

Any Supplier that responds to this notice within the period specified may be asked to complete a questionnaire in the first instance and, at the Council's discretion, up to six (6) suppliers may be asked to attend the Council offices in Northampton, in person, to demonstrate their solution to inform a solution that best meets the Council's requirements now and into the future.

To satisfy the requirements of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR2015), for procurement at this value, the Council will utilise an electronic tendering tool to manage this procurement process, where full details of this opportunity will be published. The procurement route has not been determined but could be undertaken using a compliant tender process as defined in the PCR2015, or a compliant framework agreement, ensuring all requirements of such are satisfied.

Any potential Supplier interested in this opportunity may register on the Council's e-Procurement portal in advance of the opportunity being published, by visiting https://in-tendhost.co.uk/wnc.

Potential Suppliers must note that completion of the procurement documents may require access to the internet, word processing software (e.g., Microsoft Word); and/or spreadsheet software (e.g., Microsoft Excel).

Additional information: This Early Engagement must not be considered as confirmation by West Northamptonshire Council that any future procurement opportunity will be forthcoming resulting from any activity undertaken as part of the Council's Early Engagement activities. The Council does not bind itself to running a procurement or awarding any resultant contract, following the conclusion of this Early Engagement activity.

In accordance with the requirements of the Council's Contract Procedure Rules, it is committed to conducting this Early Engagement activity in such a way that it does not prejudice any future potential bidder.

However, should the Council proceed with a procurement it may be on behalf of itself, three (3) other Councils, and several other organisations.

The Council will not adopt any technical advice in the preparation of any procurement activity from anyone where this may prejudice the equal treatment of all future potential bidders or distort competition. Pre-procurement consultation with service users on what is being procured is encouraged and is considered good practice to ensure the Specification correctly addresses what is required by the Council.