Soft Market Testing Exercise for a School of Business Accreditation Management System

The University of Southampton's ("University") School of Business is aiming to achieve the accreditation Triple Crown by 2025, accreditations from three of the largest and most influential business school accreditation organisations: • AMBA - The Association of MBAs (United Kingdom) • EQUIS - EFMD Quality Improvement System (European Union) • AACSB - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (United States) To achieve this, they must continually record and report on evidence to be used at time of accreditation (which varies between 1 to 3 years depending on organisation). They are seeking to procure some software to help manage the collection and reporting of said data. The University is keen to explore a currently available COTS with suppliers experienced in providing solutions for the management of accreditation data management and application for the named accreditations.

Please Note: This early engagement notice is issued solely for the purpose of conducting pre-procurement market engagement and does not constitute an commitment to undertake any procurement in the future.

Interested parties will not be prejudiced by any response or failure to respond to the Soft Market Testing Exercise and a response to this notice does not guarantee and invitation yo participate in this exercise of any future procurement.

This notice does not constitute a call for competition to procure any services, supplies or works mentioned in this notice and the University will not accept and proposals offered in response to this notice.

The University of Southampton is not liable for any costs, fees or expenses incurred by any party in relying to this early engagement notice and/or providing a soft Market Testing Exercise response.

Additional information: The University is utilising an electronic tendering tool (In-Tend: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/universityofsouthampton) to manage this procurement and to communicate with participating organisations.

All documentation in relation to this tender can be downloaded from the In-Tend portal.

Participating organisations are advised that there will be no hard copy documents issued to organisations and all communications with the University including the submission of Soft Market Testing Exercise questionnaires will be conducted via the In-Tend portal.

Regular monitoring of the portal is the responsibility of the participating organisation.

If you are not already registered as a supplier with the University of Southampton, you will need to register in In-Tend in order to access the tender documentation.

Once you have logged in as a supplier: click on 'Tenders'; locate the relevant project; and click 'View Details'. Once you are in the project screen, you will be able to register your company against the project and access all documentation by clicking 'Express Interest'.

Further instructions for the submission of the Soft Market Testing Exercise questionnaires are below.

To submit your return, please follow the instructions below: 1. Log In 2. Click 'Tenders' 3. Locate the relevant project 4. View Details 5. Click on the tab relating to the relevant project stage (e.g. 'Soft Market Testing') 6. Click on the 'Attach Documents' button and upload your return. 7. Check ALL your response documents are uploaded and displayed in the "My Tender Return" panel. The system will only permit your organisation to make one return. 8. Click the red "Submit Return" button.

Please note that, to preserve the integrity of the tendering procedure, all queries must made be via the correspondence function within the In-Tend portal.

Please Note: This early engagement notice is issued solely for the purpose of conducting pre-procurement market engagement and does not constitute an commitment to undertake any procurement in the future.

Interested parties will not be prejudiced by any response or failure to respond to the Soft Market Testing Exercise and a response to this notice does not guarantee and invitation yo participate in this exercise of any future procurement.

This notice does not constitute a call for competition to procure any services, supplies or works mentioned in this notice and the University will not accept and proposals offered in response to this notice.

The University of Southampton is not liable for any costs, fees or expenses incurred by any party in relying to this early engagement notice and/or providing a soft Market Testing Exercise response.