Contrax Online
Contrax is the UK and Ireland´s leading source of public sector contract information and provides a gateway to new UK business opportunities for companies large and small who wish to compete for public sector contracts. Contrax has now launched a fantastic new Contrax Alert service delivering vital public sector contract information straight to your desktop by email every working day. This is made possible by the completion of an online profile; using keywords and product codes, you can identify those public sector contracts relevant to your organisation, enabling you to bid for and win lucrative government contracts.
Contrax is available in a number of different formats, and its uniqueness lies in its flexibility and the range of services on offer. This means you can decide when you wish to receive important public sector contract information and how you wish to receive it.
Contrax can help you identify business opportunities in the UK and Ireland. With Contrax, you have the flexibility to choose the option that suits you. You may prefer the weekly magazine to read at your own convenience or you may prefer to receive daily updates to your PC every working day, with the option of carrying out additional contract information searches 24 hours a day.
Contrax is the most comprehensive source of public sector contract information of its kind. It conducts daily searches through the largest database of open UK and Irish business opportunities. Contrax is hosted by BiP Solutions Ltd, Europe´s leading provider of public sector contract information.
Registering for Contrax couldn't be easier. Simply choose the register now for free button and complete the short registration form. Once you register your contact details you will be sent a daily email alert with matching contract opportunities based on the industry sector chosen at registration. These alerts will give you a brief description of the contracts; should you wish to receive full details of the contract opportunities you can subscribe to Contrax Online.
Yes, we offer you the opportunity to receive Contrax free for one month so that you may evaluate the benefits this unique service provides. You can receive Contrax by magazine or you can have access to Contrax Online with the opportunity to receive a daily email alert.
All subscription information and costs can be found by choosing the rate card pricing from the help section.
Contrax Online offers suppliers a range of facilities. Once logged in you can visit the Activity Centre to access the following primary functions of Contrax Online:
Contrax Online offers you the ability to run a Quick Search or an Advanced Search to search for contract opportunities posted on the service. By entering a time period, industry sector and keywords you can search the Contrax Online site for matching contract opportunities.
Once you have registered your contact details you will be sent a daily email alert with matching contract opportunities based on the industry sector chosen at registration. These alerts will give you a brief description of the contracts; should you wish to receive full details of the contract opportunities you can subscribe to Contrax Online. This will allow you to complete your contract alert profile, selecting keywords and CPV codes. An alert will then be dispatched on a daily basis to your email account containing relevant contract opportunities.
Your Contrax Online daily email alert profiles are driven by keywords or phrases (e.g. 'computer' or 'window cleaning') and CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) codes.
CPV codes have been specially developed by the EU for public sector procurement. Buyers use CPV codes to classify their contracts by applying a code and description for the items they wish to procure. Suppliers can add CPV codes to their supplier profile to assist in the matching of contract opportunities. To assist you we have provided an easy online search where you can type in a word or word stem (e.g. 'computers' or 'comp') which will return matching CPV codes. By clicking the boxes next to the CPV codes you can include them in your profile or use them for online searching.
On 16 September 2008, the Publications Office of the European Union (Publications Office) will be implementing a modified version of the CPV codes (CPV Code Version 2007) to replace Version 2003.
We will ensure that the CPV code transition process is as simple as possible. BiP has automatically updated your contract alert profile from week commencing 4 August with the new CPV-2007 codes (we advise you not to delete or amend any CPV codes in your contract profile at this point).
We recommend that you review your contract alert profile to ensure that you not only have CPV codes, but also keywords to ensure that relevant matching contracts are returned to you in the transition period from week commencing 4 August until 15 September.
BiP have upgraded the Contrax system to CPV-2007 from week commencing 4 August. During the period week commencing 4 August to 15 September, other service providers may continue to use CPV-2003 and BiP may therefore continue to source notices that still contain the old CPV codes for this period only.
BiP will automatically convert old CPV codes into the new vocabulary and the corresponding 2007 codes will be appended at the bottom of each notice online. Post 15 September it is anticipated that all notices will display only the new CPV-2007 codes.
The CPV code hierarchy is based on a tree structure. By selecting a higher-level code, you will automatically receive contract opportunities containing CPV codes that sit below the higher-level code. This means that you may be returned an opportunity that does not contain an exact match CPV code, but one that sits in the hierarchy. In this instance the corresponding 2007 code will be listed at the bottom of the opportunity.
Higher-level CPV codes can be easily recognised by having more zeros than the lower-level ones. You can discern if one code is contained within the hierarchy of another code by examining the structure.
New 2007 CPV code example;
+72000000: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
-72500000: Computer-related services
-72510000: Computer-related management services
BiP has mapped every CPV-2003 code to its corresponding CPV-2007 code. Therefore, when searching using new CPV-2007 codes for contracts that were created prior to 16 September 2008, you will still find your matching legacy contracts. When you view a legacy contract, you will see both the original CPV-2003 code(s) and the corresponding CPV-2007 code(s). Your ability to search by CPV codes is therefore unaffected. From 16 September it is anticipated that all notices will display only the new CPV-2007 codes.
If you are a subscriber to Contrax Online, you can search for abbreviations, acronyms and company names as well as exact keywords in the advanced contract search. This section is also case-sensitive. These words cannot be left open-ended and Contrax Online will only search for exact matches. If you were to insert the word 'pen' it would exactly match the word pen and not find contracts which contain words such as 'penicillin', 'pending', 'penetration' and 'pension'. NB: Please ensure your selection is as specific as possible. It is not advisable to use words such as 'service', 'information', 'journal', 'maintenance', etc. These words are too generic and will provide you with irrelevant information. Exact keywords which are contained within your profile will be highlighted in your results.
If you are a subscriber to Contrax Online you can enter your competitors´ names in the Exact Keywords section of the advanced search form. Please remember to include any abbreviations. By inserting a company name you will be notified of contracts that have been awarded to that competitor.
Yes, Contrax Online filters out contracts which are not relevant, and allows you to input keywords, enabling you to spend more time concentrating on the contract opportunities which are going to win you new business. For example, you may work in the construction industry and have the keyword 'construction' contained within your profile, but you may not deal with the construction of roads. By including 'roads' in the Omit Keywords section, you will only receive contracts related to construction that do not contain the keyword 'roads'.
Yes, with Contrax Online you can elect to receive not only notices of specific supplies, services and works but also notices from specific organisations. You can even ask Contrax Online to notify you of contracts that have been awarded to your competitors, thereby providing you with a unique market intelligence service.
At any time during your subscription you can access the Contrax Online website and from the Activity Centre choose to update your daily email alert.
If you lose your password you can choose the ´forgotten password´ box located under the ´Log In´ box on the Contrax home page. Your log on details will be emailed to you.
To ensure that your profile is working for your organisation, use the statistics which are contained at the bottom of every email that is dispatched to you. They will show you how often keywords or CPV codes are included in the contracts delivered to you.
When compiling your personal profile you have the option to search for new contract notices and/or contract awards. By selecting contract awards you will be able to identify subcontracting opportunities and monitor the activities of your competitors. To receive both contract notices and contract awards indicate Search Both on your profile. If you choose to receive both contract notices and contract awards these will be divided into categories in your results.
BiP Select is a national pre-qualification service for suppliers to the public sector. The BiP Select service is hosted within the Delta e-tendering suite (Delta-ets); however, you can register for this service through Contrax Online.
BiP Select lets you, as a supplier or potential supplier to the publicsector, choose the pre-qualification route that suits you, providing access to a nationwide network of public sector buyers.
Whether you decide to Certify or Accredit your company, your details will be made available to all BiP Select and Constructionline registered buyers. If you are a Constructionline supplier you do not need to apply to Select Accredit as your information will automatically be made available to Select Accredit buyers.
Select Accredit: Apply for third-party accreditation
Self Certify: Self-certify by completing an online questionnaire
Suppliers seeking full accreditation should apply for the Select Accredit service. If you intend to tender regularly for contracts, you will save time, effort and money by applying for Select Accredit status. Your accreditation need then only be renewed once, annually.
As a Select Accredit supplier, you will benefit from:
You can choose to self-certify by completing an online questionnaire, completely free of charge. Suppliers wishing to do this should opt for the Select Certify service.
As a Select Certify supplier, you will benefit from:
The Contrax Online site is updated on a daily basis.
As part of your subscription to Contrax Online, you will have full access to the Contrax Archive. Using the contract announcement search service within the Contract Search Area you can search for contracts published in the past three months or you can subscribe to individual archive years for £300 + VAT for your first year and £150 + VAT for every year thereafter.
You may specify that contract announcements matching your profile be emailed to as many email addresses within your organisation as you require at a charge of £125 + VAT for each additional email address to cover the licence extension. Should you wish to set up an additional email please choose the upgrade option.
You may choose to build more than one profile for your organisation. An additional profile allows you to create a different email profile to your existing one. All additional profiles are emailed to the same email address as your master account. Additional profiles can be created at a charge of £280 + VAT. Should you wish to set up an additional profile please choose the upgrade option.
Yes, support is available through a variety of channels. Contract opportunities may raise queries as they contain so much information, so we have provided online user guides as well as interactive demonstration tools and integrated help functions. If, however, you still have any unanswered questions, we provide a complete support service. Please use the contact us form to submit your query.
Contract opportunities that are typically worth under £100,000 will be categorised as Competitive Contract Notices and will be classified by the 'Nature of the Contract' of which there are four categories: Works, Services, Supplies or Research (scientific).
Contract opportunities typically worth above £100,000 (and thus submitted via the European Journal - OJEU, formerly OJEC) will be given an OJEU reference and will again be classified by 'Nature of Contract'.
As a Contrax Online subscriber you will have access to our Resource Centre. Here you will find links to industry bodies, EU Directives, supplier guidances, seminars and events, a glossary and further FAQs.
If you wish to unsubscribe from the daily email alert and only have online access to the portal, or receive the alert only when there are contracts to view, you can do so by selecting the edit preferences link within the Contract Alert profile of the Activity Centre.
From here you can choose to:
To change your email alert preferences, log in using your username and password, select the link Edit Contract Alert within the Activity Centre and then Edit Email Preferences. Select the relevant radio button next to your choice and then choose Save. You can change your preferences as often as you like.
Should you no longer wish to have access to Contrax Online, please send an email with the subject title "cancellation" to cancellations@bipsolutions.com. We would also appreciate if you could include your reasons for wishing to cancel.
Please send an email with the subject title "unsubscribe to marketing literature" to unsubscribe@bipsolutions.com
If you have any unanswered questions, please Contact Us.