Acquisition of equipment through a tender procedure

According to the law, procurement of state-owned enterprises must be carried out through tenders. This also applies to the purchase of interactive equipment, so we have dealt with this many times. Today we will tell you the types and features of tender procurement that we have encountered.

Pre-threshold Bidding or Procurement Contract Report

This is a non-competitive procurement procedure that takes place outside the Prozorro system with the mandatory publication in the system of basic information about the procurement in the form of a report. Such a procedure is possible provided that the cost of the equipment does not exceed 50,000 UAH .

Simplified procurement

This is a procedure for purchasing equipment, the cost of which is more than 50 thousand hryvnias, but less than 200 thousand hryvnias. Bidding can take place even if only one supplier takes part in the procurement. In case of submission of only 1 proposal, the procedure immediately proceeds to the stage of consideration of the supplier’s proposal. This is a convenient way to buy our equipment and get it to your institution as soon as possible. You can get the technical task of the interactive floor, sandbox and panels of the Briolight brand for Prozorro by calling (050/063/067) 258 15 15, or by leaving a request on our website on the product pages. 

Open bidding

This is a procedure that involves the purchase of equipment in the amount of 200 000 UAH up to 133 000 € (as of February 10, 2021 – UAH 4,476,767.56). Open bidding is considered successful if it is attended by two or more participants, in contrast to the simplified procedure. Also, open bidding is a longer procedure compared to the previous ones: the period of submission of bids is at least 15 days, making changes to the tender documentation increases the submission period by at least 7 days, confirmation of compliance with the bidder for another 5 days. In addition, often defeated bidders file a complaint, during which the procurement procedure is suspended for the duration of the complaint. 

Features

But this is not all the features of the tender for the purchase of interactive equipment. 

During 2020, we observed a trend where other suppliers copied our specifications to their bids and even to their websites. 

Won the tender for the price, they installed their equipment to the institutions, and we received feedback on the non-compliance of the equipment with the tender offer and customer requirements. In this case, some wrote outraged posts on social networks, some forced to remove the equipment and started a new procurement procedure, and some were left with equipment that does not perform its functions or even immediately failed.  

You can check the supplier by paying attention to his previous tenders. Often in tenders the supplier indicates different characteristics and modifications for the same product model. In addition, if the site has many versions of the same product with an almost identical description, but at a different price, it is also a sign that you are being misled.

For example, Briolight has only 2 versions of the interactive floor: Briolight S (2019 version) and Briolight E (2021 version with software update, enlarged projection, updated functionality). That is, there are obvious differences in the models, which causes different prices. 

We would like to draw customers’ attention to the fact that sometimes, an interactive floor with our characteristics from other suppliers has won at a price that is even lower than the cost of an interactive floor Briolight. Too low a price is the main marker of poor quality equipment. What was found in the following cases: budget not bright projector, used computer, lack of scanning sensors, Chinese software.

In addition to what is stated in the technical characteristics of our products, the price also includes:

• development of effects from scratch with experienced programmers;
• payment for scientific work of psychologists and defectologists; 
• constant development of the technical component to optimize the operation of equipment (testing of new components, spare parts and accessories);
• payment of a manager who can help and advise you during the preparation and planning of the tender;
• a year of ongoing technical support on any issues that arise during use;
• delivery to the door of your institution;
• adjustment and installation by certified technicians, who will also conduct initial training of personnel on working with equipment (interactive floor and sandbox). 

We emphasize that Briolight specialists will provide free advice on the technical characteristics of our interactive equipment by phone (050/063/067) 258 15 15.