PEPPOL Access Point Services

Tender description

Crown Commercial Service as the Authority has put in place a Pan Government Collaborative Framework Agreement for use by UK public sector bodies identified at VI.3 of the Contract Notice (and any future successors to these organisations), which include Central Government Departments and their Arm's Length Bodies and Agencies, Non Departmental Public Bodies, NHS bodies and Local Authorities. The above mentioned public sector bodies have a need for PEPPOL Access Point Services for the electronic exchange of business documentation including invoices and purchase orders. "PEPPOL (Pan-European Public Procurement Online)" was initiated in 2008 with the aim of simplifying electronic procurement across borders by developing technology standards that could be implemented across all governments within Europe. The overall objective was to enable businesses to communicate electronically with any government institution in the procurement process, increasing efficiencies and reducing costs. This procurement will give access to PEPPOL Standards-based IT Transport Infrastructure through Access Points, and the services provided for eProcurement with standardised electronic document formats. Department of Health has publicly committed to the adoption of PEPPOL across all NHS Trusts. The implementation of PEPPOL is intended to remove unnecessary process inefficiencies which arise during the transfer of business documents. It is estimated that the current process requires significant manual intervention. It is also means that a single supplier wishing to trade with the NHS may have to accept 150 different formats of purchase orders. The adoption of a single standard allows customers to exchange these business documents through a single 'Access Point'. The process reduces complexity and costs for the Contracting Body and for the Provider using what is commonly known as a 4 corner model. This allows the Contracting Body and the Provider to select their own Access Point Provide with PEPPOL mandating that information passes between the two. A key feature of the PEPPOL network is the freedom for suppliers to engage with an Access Point provider of their choice, to send and receive electronic documents with any organisation in the PEPPOL network through one single source, eliminating complex relationships with buyers, their service providers and related obligations. The network is governed by the PEPPOL Transport Infrastructure Agreements, establishing a many-to-many legal framework instead of the traditional bilateral agreements entered into between service providers. The documents are routed through Access Points and the receiver's capabilities can be discovered by using the PEPPOL Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) services. The content and validation rules ensure consistency for all parties. A detailed description of the Services is set out in Schedule 2 within the Redacted Framework Agreemen