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Meet the Buyer 2020 Round-up: South Ayrshire Council

Meet the Buyer 2020: Live Virtual event

On 2 June, the Supplier Development Programme (SDP) organised virtual activities to mark the occasion of what would have been the 12th annual Meet the Buyer event. While the face-to-face event was postponed, SDP carried out a “Twitter Takeover” of its account with buyers from Fife Council, East Renfrewshire Council, South Ayrshire Council and Scottish Government Procurement. This social media activity was complemented by two free SDP tender training webinars on Dynamic Purchasing Systems and Frameworks with Scotland Excel, and a “how-to” interactive session on using Public Contracts Scotland, the national public sector tender portal for Scotland. This round-up outlines what was said during South Ayrshire Council's Twitter Takeover of the SDP Twitter account as part of Meet the Buyer 2020: Live Virtual Event activities.

South Ayrshire Council used the time on the SDP Twitter account to discuss the topic, “Exploring Quick Quotes with South Ayrshire Council.” Gavin Cockburn, Acting Service Lead for South Ayshire Council Procurement, was joined by Meghan Bryden, Procurement Assistant and David Moore, Procurement Support Assistant.

Opening Tweets

Right away, there was a question about Quick Quotes from a supplier.

Top Tips from South Ayrshire Council

The team from South Ayrshire Council tweeted some tips about optimising the Supplier Finder Profile on Public Contracts Scotland, to maximise the chances of being invited to Quick Quote.
Suppliers were also pointed to join the afternoon webinar with the Supplier Development Programme.

Exploring Quick Quotes

Gavin, Meghan and David then turned to the finer details involved in bidding for Quick Quotes with South Ayrshire Council.

The team received a question from a supplier about how Quick Quotes are evaluated, and whether this was solely on price and quality, or if there was other criteria.A follow up question was on the inclusion of criteria that requires a product demonstration. South Ayshire Council was quick to point out that a demonstration can be included within the evaluation criteria of the Quick Quote document for any public sector buyer.

Upcoming Quick Quotes with South Ayrshire Council

Suppliers were then given useful, time-saving information on where to find out more about upcoming Quick Quote opportunities with South Ayrshire Council.

There was even a question from a potential new supplier about the Supplier Finder Profile!

Examples of Previous Quick Quotes Awards

The South Ayrshire Council Procurement team was eager to include examples of previously awarded Quick Quotes, so suppliers could see some of the reactionary, low value and low risk procurement that had previously been sought. The local authority is always looking for new suppliers to invite to Quick Quote, especially SMEs and supported businesses!

 

 

Final Tweets

South Ayrshire Council asked for any final questions, and promoted the upcoming free SDP webinars on Quick Quotes Made Easy, which are open to Scottish-based SMEs and supported businesses.

 

Analytics

During one hour of the Meet the Buyer 2020: Live Virtual Event, South Ayrshire Council sent 19 tweets from the SDP Scotland Twitter account. The tweets earned 4,643 impressions (the number of times users saw a Tweet on Twitter) and 276 engagements (total number of times a user interacted with a Tweet). South Ayrshire Council's tweets earned five retweets, 33 likes and eight replies.

Further Information

The 2021 Meet the Buyer event is scheduled to take place on 8 June 2021 at the EICC. For more information, contact the Supplier Development Programme by email at info@sdpscotland.co.uk.

 

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