PAS91:2010 Is it going to work?
16/02/2011 12:00 PM
In October 2010 the British Standards Institution (BSI) published a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) to address the requirements for construction related procurement pre-qualification questionnaires. PAS 91:2010 was a joint effort by a number of key construction organisations that have agreed on a common set of questions for pre-qualification documentation in construction tendering. It will enable a consistent approach to the assessment of responses which should ensure a fair evaluation of the capabilities of a supplier.
So what can we expect?
So what can we expect?
Most of the questions are Yes/No with a requirement to provide supporting documentation so there will be a qualitative assessment of the answers. Assessment providers will continue to provide consistent evaluation, and scoring of those answers, which will mean that buyers should be able to evaluate scores from different assessment providers more easily. From a suppliers perspective answering the same questions in different assessment schemes will make the process of completing the forms more efficient through familiarity. However the PAS does not address the situation of having to subscribe to several assessment provider schemes and having, for example, to re-enter the same information and upload the same documents, to each provider’s web site. That would still have to happen.
In the introduction to PAS 91 it is stated that its adoption ‘will help to streamline tendering processes by: … increasing consistency between various pre-qualification databases;’ but that then goes on to say that the PAS specifies the ‘what’ and not the ‘how’. Although we shouldn’t underestimate the benefits of answering the same questions, and the opportunity for more consistent evaluations, taking a closer look at the ‘how’ could actually mean greater benefits can be achieved from standardisation at the data level, and further help in streamlining the tendering process.
There has already been work in this area in UN/CEFACT, the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business, with the publication of an eTendering Standard in 2007, an ‘open’ standard for worldwide use. One of the ‘messages’ defined in that standard is called ‘Pre-qualification Application’. It describes the standardised format for a lot of the information that is requested in a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire but at the moment it does not deal with the requirements of the’ question and answer’ approach in PAS 91:2010. The approach to defining data exchange standards in UN/CEFACT is to define data ‘building blocks’ called Core Components that can be reused in different situations. The addition of some new Core Components to the existing Pre-qualification Application message will allow support for PAS 91 in the UK but will also allow the same information to be used in cross-border business, potentially making it easier for suppliers to submit applications for projects outside the UK. UN/CEFACT is currently updating the eTendering Standard (to version 2) for publication later this year and is receiving change requests to this standard. If the new version of the UN/CEFACT eTendering Standard supports PAS 91, and assessment providers/software applications implement the standard, then it would be possible for suppliers to submit the same information electronically and automatically without the need to re-enter the information in different web sites.
So is PAS 91 going to work?
Yes it will. The first step in data exchange standards development is to clearly define the business requirements and this is exactly what PAS 91 does, at least for the UK construction industry. That in itself will bring benefits to the industry and is a significant step forward.
The next step is to take those business requirements and map them to a technical solution like UN/CEFACT Core Components and UN/CEFACT XML Schema. This will create more opportunities to streamline the construction tendering process for the benefit of all.
The eTendering Standard from UN/CEFACT deals with a lot more in the tendering process so if you are interested in this area you might want to look at this work. Please contact me for more information.
This article was originally published in Kevin Smith’s blog, “The Cloud Data Technologist” in February 2011.
In the introduction to PAS 91 it is stated that its adoption ‘will help to streamline tendering processes by: … increasing consistency between various pre-qualification databases;’ but that then goes on to say that the PAS specifies the ‘what’ and not the ‘how’. Although we shouldn’t underestimate the benefits of answering the same questions, and the opportunity for more consistent evaluations, taking a closer look at the ‘how’ could actually mean greater benefits can be achieved from standardisation at the data level, and further help in streamlining the tendering process.
There has already been work in this area in UN/CEFACT, the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business, with the publication of an eTendering Standard in 2007, an ‘open’ standard for worldwide use. One of the ‘messages’ defined in that standard is called ‘Pre-qualification Application’. It describes the standardised format for a lot of the information that is requested in a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire but at the moment it does not deal with the requirements of the’ question and answer’ approach in PAS 91:2010. The approach to defining data exchange standards in UN/CEFACT is to define data ‘building blocks’ called Core Components that can be reused in different situations. The addition of some new Core Components to the existing Pre-qualification Application message will allow support for PAS 91 in the UK but will also allow the same information to be used in cross-border business, potentially making it easier for suppliers to submit applications for projects outside the UK. UN/CEFACT is currently updating the eTendering Standard (to version 2) for publication later this year and is receiving change requests to this standard. If the new version of the UN/CEFACT eTendering Standard supports PAS 91, and assessment providers/software applications implement the standard, then it would be possible for suppliers to submit the same information electronically and automatically without the need to re-enter the information in different web sites.
So is PAS 91 going to work?
Yes it will. The first step in data exchange standards development is to clearly define the business requirements and this is exactly what PAS 91 does, at least for the UK construction industry. That in itself will bring benefits to the industry and is a significant step forward.
The next step is to take those business requirements and map them to a technical solution like UN/CEFACT Core Components and UN/CEFACT XML Schema. This will create more opportunities to streamline the construction tendering process for the benefit of all.
The eTendering Standard from UN/CEFACT deals with a lot more in the tendering process so if you are interested in this area you might want to look at this work. Please contact me for more information.
This article was originally published in Kevin Smith’s blog, “The Cloud Data Technologist” in February 2011.