The Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) website, provided by the Scottish Government, is where all Scottish public sector buying organisations must advertise regulated procurements. 

What you need to do:

Register on Public Contracts Scotland

When you register as a Supplier on PCS you will be asked for some basic information about yourself and your organisation.

To get the most out of PCS consider what information you will add about your organisation in PCS to make it easy for buyers to find you e.g.

• your organisation’s name – use your legal entity name on your account, this helps buyers when they come to award a contract to you
• your contact email address - use a central mailbox which can be checked by several people to ensure you do not miss alerts or invitations to Quick Quotes e.g. when you are on annual leave. Create an internal process for checking for emails from PCS and how you will action these including cover for leave or sickness
• additional options - under Additional Options you can opt-in to receive email newsletters from the PCS team which will highlight guidance for using the system, upcoming Meet the Buyer Events and where to find further support.

Check you organisation’s information in PCS at regular intervals to ensure it is kept up to date and that there is no duplicate information e.g. several entries with the same company name.

Once you have registered take 5 minutes to complete your Alert and Supplier Finder Profiles:

1. Set up your Alert Profile on PCS

Alert Profiles are a free feature on PCS which you can use to find relevant opportunities being advertised by the public sector.

When setting up your Alert Profile you will select categories, key words and CPV codes relating to the areas you are interested in bidding for.

Once you set up your Alert Profile you will receive emails letting you know about opportunities that buyers have added to PCS when they have used these categories, key words and/or CPV codes.

View the step-by-step guide in PCS on how to set up your alert profile or you can view the video below.

2. Set up your Supplier Finder profile on PCS

Supplier Finder is a free feature you can use to promote your organisation to buyers.

It only takes a few minutes to set up and, once done, your Supplier Finder profile makes your goods and services searchable for buyers. This means that when a buyer is looking for suppliers, for a low value or low risk quote, they will use the Supplier Finder directory to search for suppliers. If you provide the goods or services they are searching for they may select you for a Quick Quote.

View the step-by-step guide in PCS on how to set up your Supplier Finder profile or you can view the video below.

Remember to keep your profiles updated with your current contact details, goods, products and service offerings.

If you find you receive too many or too few emails from PCS you can adjust the CPV codes within your profiles. Use the Search Notices area to check which codes buyers have used in previous Contract and Award Notices, for opportunities that you would have been interested in, and add or adjust these in your Alert and Supplier Finder profiles as appropriate.

Additional PCS user guides can be found on the PCS user guides and videos page.

PCS-Tender

PCS-Tender is the national eTendering system funded by the Scottish Government. 

All opportunities are advertised on Public Contracts Scotland (PCS). If the Buyer is using PCS-Tender to manage the tender the Contract Notice on PCS will tell you if you need to submit your response on PCS or PCS-Tender.

Read more about PCS-Tender and how to find user guides and support on the PCS-Tender page.

Pair your PCS and PCS-Tender accounts

You can link your PCS and PCS-Tender accounts together. Follow the user guide in PCS to pair your PCS and PCS-Tender accounts.

I have set up my accounts, what happens next?

Quick Quotes

Buyers may use Quick Quote on PCS to obtain competitive quotes for low value/low risk purchases from suppliers who are registered on the website. Only suppliers selected to quote by the buyer can access the details of the contract opportunity and submit a quote. More information on this process is covered in the quotation section of the Supplier Journey.

You must have Supplier Finder Profile switched on to be found by Buyers when they use Supplier Finder Search on PCS. Buyers use this search to find suppliers they might not already be aware of.

Contracts

For higher value contracts (regulated procurements) buyers will publish Contract Notices on PCS which give information about the planned tendering process. Registered PCS suppliers will automatically receive email alerts when Contract Notices matching the CPV codes in their alert profile are advertised. You must have Alert Profile switched on to receive these email alerts.

Through PCS you can then: