Procedures according to VOL/A or UVgO (national) or VgV (EU)¶

Public contracts for supplies and services are awarded competitively and without discrimination to competent, capable and reliable companies at reasonable prices

Public invitation to award procedure (national) or open procedure (EU)¶

The contracting authorities are primarily obliged to use the public invitation to award procedure or the open procedure, as it offers the greatest competition. In this procedure, an unlimited number of companies are invited to submit bids following a public notice.

1 Procurement procedure data In this first form, you enter important master data for your award procedure, e.g. the total quantity, scope and location of the service, financing data, justification of requirements and, in the case of EU procedures, whether a prior information notice has already been published. Here you can assign one or more CPV code numbers to the award procedure and decide on a possible lot split and the conclusion of a framework agreement. The form also contains a field for inserting files, which you can use to attach additional documents. Further explanations of the form fields can be found in Forms and Function Dialogs.

2 Bills of quantity In this complex function dialog, you enter the required items and quantities for your award procedure, the criteria for evaluating the bids and any questions for the bidders. A detailed description of this function can be found in Bill of quantities.

3 Cost estimate and securing of funding Enter the details for the means test and the type of service in this short form. The estimated total value of the award procedure should be confirmed and documented here. This estimated value comes from the individual items in the bill of quantity. You can also enter the estimated value in a separate field, independently of the items in the BQ. To do this, activate the option Yes in the Yes/No field below the estimated prices displayed. Three further mandatory fields appear in the form. Enter the net and gross sum and a reason for the award note. As part of the adaptation to the EU Directive 2014, you can select the option for Social and other special services pursuant to Section 64 VgV in this form in order to publish your award procedure to the EU using the form provided for this purpose. In this case, a separate threshold value is used to determine the proposed type of procedure and the corresponding form is filled in automatically.

4 Prerequisites for selecting a procedure below or above the threshold In this comprehensive form, you check the exceptions for selecting a procedure in accordance with Section 3 VOL/A or Section 8 UVgO or Section 14 EU VgV according to three types of criteria: - Performance-related selection criteria - Market-related selection criteria - Procedure-related selection criteria You may need to enter reasons for your selection.

5 Choosing the type of procedure At this point in the process, you make the final decision on the procedure for your award procedure. Based on your previous entries, the AI TENDERINGMANAGER will suggest - a public invitation to award procedure in accordance with Section 3 VOL/A or Section 8 UVgO or - an open procedure (EU procedure) in accordance with Section 14 EU VgV. Accept the proposal. If you deviate from the proposed procedure, you must enter a justification for the contract award notice. As part of the adaptation to the EU Directive 2014, the free choice of the type of procedure above the threshold value is guaranteed. This means, for example, that it is no longer necessary to give reasons if a restricted procedure is selected instead of an open procedure.

6 Scheduling Set the dates for your award procedure in this complex function dialog. You can compare the deadlines of several award procedures, export individual or all deadlines of the current award procedure to Outlook and create deadline reminders for yourself or other users. A detailed description of this function can be found in Deadline and Period Manager.

7 Invitation to award procedure in accordance with Section 8 No. 1 a) VOL/A or Section 21 (1) No. 1 UVgO (national) or Section 35 (1) EU VgV (EU). In this form you record - if you have not already done so - the type and scope of the service as well as the place of performance and can assign further CPV codes to the award procedure. If you allow secondary offers, you must explain the minimum requirement and the requirements for comparability here. For award procedures with a lot split, you specify whether the offer is to be submitted for one, several or all lots. At the end of the form there is a File insertion field which you can use to add external documents to your award procedure documents. Further explanations of this field can be found in procurement documents. As part of the adaptation to the EU Directive 2014, you can specify the desired signature level and submission medium here. The selection made here will be included in the announcement text and technically stored in the award procedure documents. The submission of an electronic offers in AI BIDDINGCOCKPIT is then possible via this selection.

8 Create questionnaire for suitability check Here you enter - similar to an evaluation scheme - your own criteria groups with criteria that are relevant for checking the bids. The criteria for the findings when opening the bids are predefined and cannot be changed here. The exact procedure for the function is described in Flexible participation request and offer examination. For more information on creating a scoring scheme, see Rating scheme.

9 National or EU contract notice The extensive contract notice form contains information on the contracting authority, the subject of the contract, legal, economic, financial and technical information, the procedure, etc. Most of the fields are already pre-filled. You can check the information in the form in advance using the Print templates and form printout button at the left end of the form control bar. As part of the adaptation to the EU Directive 2014, the SIMAP notification schemes of version 2.0.9. are included in the EU forms. This also contains a link to the award procedure documents, which are provided on the AI TENDERINGPLATFORM. The registration-free access to the award procedure documents required by the EU Directive 2014 is complied with by offering interested companies the opportunity to access a special area on the AI TENDERINGPLATFORM without registration, where the award procedure documents can be downloaded. Messages from the awarding authority to all bidders can also be viewed in this area. You can also make the participation documents available without registration in the two-stage procedure. However, in accordance with the EU Directive 2014, you have the option of deciding on a procedure-specific basis whether registration-free access to the award documents should be prevented if, for example, it is a classified procurement procedure.

10 Sign off notice This step is a sign-off step, i.e. it is normally processed by another employee. The procedure can vary greatly because it is adapted to the needs of the respective customer. You can find further explanations of the sign-off in Sign-off.

11 Publish notice In this step, you send the notice for publication to your award procedure journals and publication bodies, and in the case of EU procedures primarily also to the Official Journal of the EU. You can also send the notice to one or more procurement platforms. These may include:

Official Journal of the European Union (via e-sender interface): for EU award procedures
AI TENDERINGPLATFORM: for national award procedures and EU award procedures
Federal e-tendering platform: for national award procedures and EU award procedures

Before publishing an EU award procedure on one of the platforms, you must confirm that you have sent the notice to the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities in accordance with Section 40 EU VgV. A detailed description of the function can be found at Publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

12 Send award documents In this manual step, you can update the list of participants and enter candidates to whom you will print out the award documents and send them by post.

13 Open bids Opening bids is a manual step in the awarding process, i.e. you must start the task by double-clicking in your task inbox. The electronic bids from bidders via the AI TENDERINGPLATFORM are already displayed, but are still encrypted. After starting the bid opening process, you can decrypt the encrypted bids, enter the bids received in writing and carry out an initial formal review of all bids. A detailed description of this step can be found in opening of offers.

14 Transcript The next automatic step in the award process requires no or only a few entries. The transcript contains a summary of the data from the opened offers, the total number of offers received as well as the number of excluded offers, those received late, those not properly sealed and a summary of all admissible offers, indicating their type (electronic offer or paper offer). You can print this form as a PDF file for documentation purposes of the offer opening using the buttons in the lower left-hand window area Print templates and form printout.

15 Generate revision status of minutes The minutes or other important documents of the award procedure must be saved here as a revision status with a unique time stamp. You can also export or print these forms.

16 Computational check and subsequent entry of bills of quantities In this function dialog, you can enter the bills of quantities of the paper bids. Any differences to the specified total are displayed in the Difference column. Further information on this step can be found in Calculative Check.

17 Record of the mathematically checked bid totals The results of the mathematical check are displayed in this form in a clear table. If required, the price comparison list can be added as an external file.

18 Bid check - Formal check and suitability check This step is used to check the content of the bids for formal aspects, such as whether changes have been clearly identified, the award procedure documents are unchanged, all required declarations have been provided or the bid is complete. A detailed description of this function can be found at Formal check. In addition, the criteria for the suitability check of the bidders in personal and factual terms are also documented here.

19 Enter secondary bids If secondary bids are permitted in the award procedure, this workflow step is also called up. Here, similar to the bid opening dialog, you can enter secondary bids for a main bid or create an independent secondary bid without a main bid. A detailed description of this step can be found in secondary offers.

20 Price comparison The price comparison is purely a display and analysis function, i.e. you cannot make any entries at this point. The price comparison provides you with an overview of the prices of the individual items of all approved offers. Here, the price-related information of the various bidders is compared in a matrix down to item level. This table then serves as the basis for the next evaluation stage. Further details on this step can be found in price comparison.

21 Bid evaluation - price reasonableness check In this evaluation stage, two criteria are used to determine whether the prices offered by the bidders are reasonable. The assessment is made on the basis of the findings from the price comparison. Failure to meet these criteria may lead to the exclusion of a bid.

22 Evaluation The content of the bids for your award procedure is evaluated on the basis of the criteria from the evaluation scheme of the bill of quantities. Depending on the structure and scope of the evaluation matrix, this step is more or less complex. A detailed description of this important function in the award procedure can be found at evaluating the offers.

23 Proposal for award of contract Based on the results of the bid evaluation, in this step the AI TENDERINGMANAGER provides you with an award proposal for the procedure or each lot, which you can accept in order to award the contract to a bidder. You will also see an overview of all prices and the evaluation scheme for the bill of quantities. The bid with the best evaluation result is preselected for the award proposal. You can change this proposal by setting the mark in the Proposal row in another column. If a bidder proposed for the award does not meet all KO criteria, a warning message will be displayed when you exit the step with Next. The setting options and buttons in this step are identical to those in price comparison. If no clear award proposal can be activated when opening the award matrix for an award procedure because several bidders have achieved the best evaluation result at the same time, a corresponding message is displayed.

24 Award proposal form The form for documenting the award proposal is then generated on the basis of the award proposal. Here it is recorded which bidder is to be awarded the contract and under what conditions. Enter the date and an internal justification for the award. You can add an external file in the Note on award proposal field. You can call up the corresponding function dialogs via two further buttons Check of bids and Evaluation matrix. Changes are not possible at this point.

25 Sign off award proposal The form for the award proposal is now signed off, i.e. this step is normally processed by another employee. The process can vary greatly because it is adapted to the customer's needs. You can find further explanations of the sign-off process at Sign-off.

26 Notification of unconsidered bidders pursuant to Section 134 (1) GWB In EU procedures, notification of unconsidered bidders is required pursuant to Section 134 (1). For this purpose, a comprehensive function is available in the AI TENDERINGMANAGER that allows you to print out and send an individual rejection for each unsuccessful bidder or to send it electronically as an attachment to a message. Please read the functional description at notification of unsuccessful bidders. In EU procedures, the award may only be made after the statutory objection period has expired.

27 Awarding of contract Similar to the award proposal, you must specify the bidder who is to be awarded the contract. This is done in order to require the awarding party to make a declaration of intent and to document an explicit decision after expiry of the deadline in accordance with Section 134 (1) GWB. A more detailed explanation of the functions and setting options of the award matrix can be found at evaluating the offers.

28 Sending the award letter In this step, you must edit the award letter before sending or printing it and justify the final award of your award procedure. The form is filled with the previous data of your award procedure and that of the selected company and must be completed at this point. Please also read the functional description at notification of unsuccessful bidders.

29 Notification of awarded contracts The workflow for EU procedures ends with the notification of the contract award to the EU. Enter the data for the contract award notice here in the Procedure section, e.g. the official journal number or the date of the notice. This notice can be sent directly to the Office for Official Publications of the EU via the familiar publication dialog via the e-sender interface or as an e-mail and printed out. To ensure that no incomplete SME information is sent to the EU, a check is carried out in the workflow and the incomplete SME participant data (whether the company is a small or medium-sized enterprise) can be subsequently entered here.

30 Notification of bidder rejection in accordance with § 19 VOL/A or § 46 UVgO or § 62 VgV The notification of bidders who have not been considered takes place after the final award of the contract in a national procedure in accordance with § 19 VOL/A or § 46 UVgO or in the EU procedure in accordance with § 62 VgV. Here too, you have the option of sending an individual rejection to each bidder who has requested this. Please read the functional description in the chapter Notification of unsuccessful bidders.

31 Print forms This last step of a procedure contains the option of printing out or exporting important forms such as the award notice, minutes or award proposal or using the Save revision status button to document the current status with a time stamp for any subsequent checks. Then click on Next to end the workflow.

32 End of workflow If no further steps in the award process need to be processed or signed off, the workflow ends with a corresponding message. Once the workflow has been completed, the status of the award procedure changes from active to completed, i.e. the award procedure is no longer displayed in the OPEN AWARD menu or on the overview page as long as the view filter settings for the award listing are not changed. Please note the explanations on filter criteria in the Open dialog in Open award procedure. For a completed award procedure, all forms in the project tree are set to read-only and all write access rights to forms by individual participants in the procedure are revoked.

Restricted invitation to award procedure with public call for competition (national) or negotiated award with call for competition (national) or restricted procedure (EU)¶

In this procedure, the number of companies invited to submit offers is limited by a prior public competition.

1 Procurement procedure data In this first form, you enter important master data for your award procedure, e.g. the total quantity, scope and location of the service, financing data, justification of requirements and, in the case of EU procedures, whether a prior information notice has already been published. Here you can assign one or more CPV code numbers to the award procedure and decide on a possible lot split and the conclusion of a framework agreement. The form also contains a file insertion field which you can use to attach further documents. Further explanations of the form fields can be found in Forms and Function Dialogs.

2 Bills of quantity In this complex function dialog, you enter the required items and quantities for your award procedure, the criteria for evaluating the bids and any questions for the bidders. A detailed description of this function can be found at Bill of quantities.

3 Cost estimate and securing funding Enter the details for the means test and the type of service in this short form. The estimated total value of the award procedure should be confirmed and documented here. This estimated value comes from the individual items in the bill of quantity. You can also enter the estimated value in a separate field, independently of the items in the BQ. To do this, activate the option Yes in the Yes/No field below the estimated prices displayed. Three further mandatory fields appear in the form. Enter the net- and gross sum and a reason for the award note. As part of the adaptation to the EU Directive 2014, you can select the option for Social and other special services pursuant to Section 64 VgV in this form in order to publish your award procedure to the EU using the form provided for this purpose. In this case, a separate threshold value is used to determine the proposed type of procedure and the corresponding form is filled in automatically.

4 Prerequisites for selecting a procedure below or above the threshold In this comprehensive form, you check the exceptions for selecting a procedure in accordance with Section 3 VOL/A or Section 8 UVgO or Section 14 EU VgV according to three types of criteria: - Performance-related selection criteria - Market-related selection criteria - Procedure-related selection criteria You may need to enter reasons for your selection.

5 Choosing the type of procedure At this point in the process, you make the final decision on the procedure for your award procedure. Based on your previous entries, the AI TENDERINGMANAGER

a restricted invitation to award procedure with a public call for competition in accordance with Section 3 No. 3 VOL/A or Section 8 UVgO or
a direct award with a public call for competition in accordance with Section 3 No. 3 VOL/A or
a negotiated award with a call for competition in accordance with Section 8 (4) UVgO or
a restricted procedure (EU procedure) in accordance with Section 14 EU VgV or
a negotiated procedure with a call for competition (EU procedure) in accordance with Section 14 EU VgV.

Accept the proposal. If you deviate from the proposed procedure, you may need to enter a justification for the contract award notice. As part of the adaptation to the EU Directive 2014, the free choice of the type of procedure above the threshold value is guaranteed. This means, for example, that it is no longer necessary to give reasons if a restricted procedure is selected instead of an open procedure.

6 Data for the call for competition This form contains a mandatory button Scheduling call for competition, recognizable by the red . This calls up the Deadline and Period Manager function dialog. Set the deadline for submitting requests to participate here. The functions of the deadline manager are described in Deadline and Period Manager. End the intermediate step with the button Next. You return to the initial form. At this point, you also have the option of adding additional documents to the participation competition documents. For more information on file insertion fields, see Forms and Function Dialogs. As part of the adaptation to the EU Directive 2014, you can specify the desired signature level and submission medium here. The selection made here will be included in the announcement text and technically stored in the award procedure documents. The submission of an electronic offer is then possible via this specified selection.

7 Create questionnaire for suitability check Here you enter your own criteria groups - similar to an evaluation scheme - with criteria that are relevant for checking the requests to participate or the offers. The criteria for the findings when opening requests to participate or offers are predefined and cannot be changed here. The exact procedure of the function is described in Flexible participation request and offer examination. For more information on creating a scoring scheme, see Rating scheme.

8 National or EU contract notice The comprehensive contract notice form contains information on the contracting authority, the subject of the contract, legal, economic, financial and technical information, the procedure, etc. Most of the fields are already pre-filled. You can check the information in the form in advance using the Print templates and form printout button at the left end of the form control bar. As part of the adaptation to the EU Directive 2014, the SIMAP notification schemes of version 2.0.9. are included in the EU forms. This also contains a link to the award procedure documents, which are provided on the AI TENDERINGPLATFORM. The registration-free access to the award procedure documents required by the EU Directive 2014 is complied with by offering interested companies the opportunity to access a special area on the AI TENDERINGPLATFORM without registration, where the award procedure documents can be downloaded. Messages from the awarding authority to all bidders can also be viewed in this area. You can also make the participation documents available without registration in the two-stage procedure. However, in accordance with the EU Directive 2014, you have the option of deciding on a procedure-specific basis whether registration-free access to the award documents should be prevented if, for example, it is a classified procurement procedure.

9 Sign off notice This step is a sign-off step, i.e. it is normally processed by another employee. The procedure can vary greatly because it is adapted to the needs of the respective customer. You can find further explanations on sign-off in Sign-off.

10 Compiling the participation competition documents You can check the documents for the participation competition before publication and add further documents if necessary. In contrast to the award documents, you can also publish the invitation to award procedure with empty participation competition documents. In this case, the current version does not contain any file entries and you must confirm a warning message to this effect when completing the step. Further information on this function can be found under procurement documents.

11 Publish notice In this step, you send the notice for publication to your award procedure journals and publication bodies, in particular also to the Official Journal of the EU in the case of EU procedures. You can also send the contract notice and your competition documents to one or more procurement platforms on the Internet. These may include: - Official Journal of the European Union (via e-sender interface): for EU award procedures - AI TENDERINGPLATFORM: for national award procedures and EU award procedures - Federal e-tendering platform: for national award procedures and EU award procedures

Before publishing an EU award procedure on one of the platforms, you must confirm that you have sent the notice to the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities in accordance with Section 40 EU VgV. A detailed description of the function can be found at Publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

12 Print and send out the documents for the call for competition Once a procedure with a call for competition has been published, the documents are available for potential candidates to download from the procurement platform. If required, you can also print out these documents and send them to interested companies by post. Start the step manually by double-clicking from your task inbox. Further information on this function can be found at Sending the participation competition documents. The task is completed when the application deadline for the participation competition expires. If you want to complete the step beforehand with Next, a warning message will be displayed, which you must confirm.

13 Opening the requests to participate As soon as the deadline for submitting requests to participate has expired, you can start this manual step by double-clicking from your task inbox. The electronic requests to participate from the AI TENDERINGPLATFORM are already displayed, but still need to be decrypted and then checked. Applications received by post must now be entered here and subjected to an initial formal check. Further explanations of this function can be found under Recording participation requests.

14 Examination of requests to participate In order to limit the group of participants and to document the examination of the requests to participate, the respective applicants are now examined with regard to their suitability for the characteristics expertise, performance and reliability. You will find an overview of the functional sequence at Formal check. The examination results are displayed in the last line Admission. The participants excluded here will not be considered in the further procedure.

15 Information about the rejection of the application At this point, a rejection letter is created for the rejected applicants. A detailed description of this function can be found in notification of unsuccessful bidders.

16 Revise bill of quantities Here you can - if necessary - make changes to the bill of quantities before sending the award documents.

17 Justification of the number of companies selected In this short form, you document the selection of participants admitted to submit a bid.

18 Schedule award procedure Use this complex function dialog to set the other dates for your award procedure, in particular the bid deadline. Here you can compare the deadlines of several award procedures, export individual or all deadlines of the current award procedure to Outlook and create deadline reminders for yourself or other users. A detailed description of this function can be found in Deadline and Period Manager.

19 Invitation to award procedure in accordance with Section 8 No. 1 a) VOL/A or Section 21 (1) No. 1 UVgO (national) or Section 35 (1) EU VgV (EU). In this form you record - if you have not already done so - the type and scope of the service as well as the place of performance and can assign further CPV codes to the award procedure. If you allow secondary offers, you must explain the minimum requirement and the requirements for comparability here. For award procedures with a lot split, you specify whether the offer is to be submitted for one, several or all lots. At the end of the form there is a File insertion field which you can use to add external documents to your award procedure documents. Further explanations of this field can be found in Forms and Function Dialogs.

20 Submission of the award procedure documents Before publication, you can check the award procedure documents using the Compile button in the publication function dialog. For further information on compiling the award procedure documents, please refer to the explanations procurement documents. To ensure that the award procedure documents are also available in electronic form on the tendering platform, click on the button Submit documents. The version number appears at the top right in the column Procurement documents.

21 Print award documents for selected participants At this point, you can send the award documents to the selected applicants by post. For award documents sent electronically, the information Dispatch via Publication dialog is displayed, i.e. the documents are available for download on the platform. To send the invitation to award procedure by post, click on Send for each applicant for whom By paper is selected as the dispatch type. In the subsequent dialog, you can select and print the documents individually. Close the print dialog with Close. If you want to complete this step before the offer deadline via the Next button, you must answer a warning message.

22 Open bids Opening bids is a manual step in the awarding process, i.e. you must start the task by double-clicking in your task inbox. The electronic bids from bidders via the AI TENDERINGPLATFORM are already displayed, but are still encrypted. After starting the bid opening process, you can decrypt the encrypted bids, enter the bids received in writing and carry out an initial formal review of all bids. A detailed description of this step can be found in offer opening.

23 Transcript The next automatic step in the award process requires no or only a few entries. The transcript contains a summary of the data from the opened offer, the total number of offers received as well as the number of excluded offers, those received late, those not properly sealed and a summary of all admissible offers, indicating their type (electronic offer or paper offer). You can print this form as a PDF file for documentation purposes of the offer opening using the buttons in the lower left-hand window area Print templates and form printout.

24 Generate revision status of minutes The minutes or other important documents of the award procedure must be saved here as a revision status with a unique time stamp. You can also export or print these forms.

25 Computational check and subsequent entry of bills of quantities In this function dialog, you can enter the bills of quantities of the paper bids. Any differences to the specified total are displayed in the Difference column. Further information on this step can be found in Calculative Check.

26 Record of the mathematically checked bid totals The results of the mathematical check are displayed in this form in a clear table. If required, the price comparison list can be added as an external file.

27 Bid check - Formal check and suitability check This step is used to check the content of the bids for formal aspects, such as whether changes have been clearly identified, the award procedure documents are unchanged, all required declarations have been provided or the bid is complete. A detailed description of this function can be found in Formal check. In addition, the criteria for the suitability check of the bidders in personal and factual terms are also documented here.

28 Enter secondary bids If secondary bids are permitted in the award procedure, this workflow step is also called up. Here, similar to the bid opening dialog, you can enter secondary bids for a main bid or create an independent secondary bid without a main bid. A detailed description of this step can be found in Secondary Offers.

29 Price comparison The price comparison is purely a display and analysis function, i.e. you cannot make any entries at this point. The price comparison provides you with an overview of the prices of the individual items of all approved offers. Here, the price-related information of the various bidders is compared in a matrix down to item level. This table then serves as the basis for the next evaluation stage. Further details on this step can be found in price comparison.

30 Bid evaluation - price reasonableness check In this evaluation stage, two criteria are used to determine whether the prices offered by the bidders are reasonable. The assessment is made on the basis of the findings from the price comparison. Failure to meet these criteria may lead to the exclusion of a bid.

31 Evaluation The content of the bids for your award procedure is evaluated on the basis of the criteria from the evaluation scheme of the bill of quantities. Depending on the structure and scope of the evaluation matrix, this step is more or less complex. A detailed description of this important function in the award procedure can be found at offer evaluation.

32) Award proposal Based on the results of the bid evaluation, the AI TENDERINGMANAGER provides you with an award proposal for the procedure or each lot in this step, which you can accept in order to award the contract to a bidder. You will also see an overview of all prices and the evaluation scheme for the bill of quantities. The bid with the best evaluation result is preselected for the award proposal. You can change this proposal by marking the proposal line in another column. If a bidder proposed for the award does not meet all KO criteria, a warning message will be displayed when you exit the step with Next. The setting options and buttons in this step are identical to those in price comparison. If no clear award proposal can be activated when opening the award matrix for an award procedure because several bidders have achieved the best evaluation result at the same time, a corresponding message is displayed.

33 Award proposal form The form for documenting the award proposal is then generated on the basis of the award proposal. Here it is recorded which bidder is to be awarded the contract and under what conditions. Enter the date and an internal justification for the award. You can add an external file in the Note on award proposal field. You can call up the corresponding function dialogs via two further buttons Bid check and Evaluation matrix. Changes are not possible at this point.

34 Sign off award proposal The form for the award proposal is now signed off, i.e. this step is normally processed by another employee. The process can vary greatly because it is adapted to the customer's needs. You can find further explanations on sign-off in Sign-off.

35 Notification of non-considered bidders pursuant to Section 134 (1) GWB In EU procedures, notification of non-considered bidders is required pursuant to Section 134 (1) GWB. For this purpose, the AI TENDERINGMANAGER provides a comprehensive function that allows you to print out and send an individual rejection to each unsuccessful bidder or to send it electronically as an attachment to a message. Please read the functional description at notification of unsuccessful bidders. In EU procedures, the award may only be made after the statutory objection period has expired.

36 Awarding of contract Similar to the award proposal, you must specify the bidder who is to be awarded the contract. This is done in order to require the awarding party to make a declaration of intent and to document an explicit decision after expiry of the deadline in accordance with Section 134 (1) GWB. A more detailed explanation of the functions and setting options of the award matrix can be found at offer evaluation.

37 Sending the award letter In this step, you must edit the award letter before sending or printing it and justify the final award of your award procedure. The form is filled with the previous data of your award procedure and that of the selected company and must be completed at this point. Please also read the functional description at notification of unsuccessful bidders.

38 Notification of awarded contracts The workflow for EU procedures ends with the notification of the contract award to the EU. In the Procedure section, enter the data for the contract notice, e.g. the official journal number or the date of the notice. This notice can be sent directly to the Office for Official Publications of the EU via the familiar publication dialog via the e-sender interface or as an e-mail and printed out. To ensure that no incomplete SME information is sent to the EU, a check is carried out in the workflow and the incomplete SME participant data (whether the company is a small or medium-sized enterprise) can be subsequently entered here.

39 Notification of bidder rejection in accordance with § 19 VOL/A or § 46 UVgO or § 62 VgV The notification of bidders who have not been considered takes place after the final award of the contract in a national procedure in accordance with § 19 VOL/A or § 46 UVgO or in the EU procedure in accordance with § 62 VgV. Here too, you have the option of sending an individual rejection to each bidder who has requested this. Read the functional description at notification of unsuccessful bidders.

40 Print forms This last step of a procedure contains the option of printing out or exporting important forms such as the award notice, minutes or award proposal or using the Save revision status button to document the current status with a time stamp for any subsequent checks. Then click on Next to end the workflow.

41 End of workflow If no further steps in the award process need to be processed or signed off, the workflow ends with a corresponding message. Once the workflow has been completed, the status of the award procedure changes from active to completed, i.e. the award procedure is no longer displayed in the OPEN AWARD menu or on the overview page as long as the view filter settings for the award listing are not changed. Please note the explanations on filter criteria in the Open dialog in Open award procedure. For a completed award procedure, all forms in the project tree are set to read-only and all write access rights to forms by individual participants in the procedure are revoked.

Restricted invitation to award procedure without a call for competition (national) or negotiated award without a call for competition (national)¶

In this procedure, a limited number of companies are invited to submit offers without a call for competition.

1 Procurement procedure data In this first form, you enter important master data for your award procedure, e.g. the total quantity, scope and location of the service, financing data and justification of requirements. Here you can assign one or more CPV code numbers to the award procedure and decide on a possible lot split and the conclusion of a framework agreement. The form also contains a file insertion field which you can use to attach additional documents. Further explanations of the form fields can be found in Forms and Function Dialogs.

2 Bills of quantity In this complex function dialog, you enter the items and quantities required for your award procedure, the criteria for evaluating the bids and any questions for the bidders. A detailed description of this function can be found in Bill of quantities.

3 Cost estimate and securing of funding Enter the details for the means test and the type of service in this short form. The estimated total value of the award procedure should be confirmed and documented here. This estimated value comes from the individual items in the bill of quantity. You can also enter the estimated value in a separate field, independently of the items in the BQ. To do this, activate the option Yes in the Yes/No field below the estimated prices displayed. Three further mandatory fields appear in the form. Enter the net and gross sum and a reason for the award note.

4 Prerequisites for procedure selection below threshold In this extensive form, you check the exceptions for procedure selection in accordance with Section 3 VOL/A or Section 8 UVgO according to three types of criteria: - Performance-related selection criteria - Market-related selection criteria - Procedure-related selection criteria You may need to enter reasons for your selection.

5 Choosing the type of procedure At this point in the process, you make the final decision on the procedure for your award procedure. Based on your previous entries, the AI TENDERINGMANAGER will suggest - a restricted invitation to award procedure without a call for competition in accordance with Section 3 No. 4 VOL/A or Section 8 (1) and (2) UVgO or - a direct award in accordance with Section 3 No. 5 VOL/A or - a negotiated award procedure without a call for competition in accordance with Section 8 (4) UVgO. Accept the proposal. If you deviate from the proposed procedure, you must enter a justification for the contract award notice.

6 Scheduling Set the dates for your award procedure in this complex function dialog. You can compare the deadlines of several award procedures, export individual or all deadlines of the current award procedure to Outlook and create deadline reminders for yourself or other users. A detailed description of this function can be found in Deadline and Period Manager.

7 Invitation to award procedure in accordance with Section 8 No. 1 a) VOL/A or Section 21 (1) No. 1 UVgO (national) In this form, you enter the type and scope of the service and the place of performance - if you have not already done so - and can assign further CPV codes to the award procedure. If you allow secondary offers, you must explain the minimum requirement and the requirements for comparability here. For award procedures with a lot split, you specify whether the offer is to be submitted for one, several or all lots. At the end of the form there is a File insertion field which you can use to add external documents to your award procedure documents. Further explanations of this field can be found in Forms and Function Dialogs. As part of the adaptation to the EU Directive 2014, you can specify the desired signature level and submission medium here. The selection made here will be included in the announcement text and technically stored in the award procedure documents. The submission of an electronic offer in AI BIDDINGCOCKPIT is then possible via this specified selection.

8.Create questionnaire for suitability check Here you enter your own criteria groups with criteria that are relevant for checking the bids - similar to an evaluation scheme. The criteria for the findings when opening the bids are predefined and cannot be changed here. The exact procedure for the function is described in Flexible request to participate and offer evaluation. For more information on creating an evaluation scheme, see Rating scheme.

9 Applicant selection In this function dialog, a preselection of possible applicants is made from the list of all company data. If the desired applicant is not yet included in the list, they can be entered here. The exact sequence of the function is described in Bidder selection in restricted procedures.

10 Justification of the number of selected companies In this short form, the list of applicants is displayed and you must justify the number of selected companies. If you wish to make changes, you can go directly back to the selection of participants from here.

11 Letter to applicants The lower part of this function dialog is identical to the Publication dialog in a public tender. In the upper part of the window, the list of selected participants is displayed instead of the list of Internet platforms. The selected communication channel (post or award platform) is preset for each applicant. After clicking the Publish button, the window for printing the award procedure documents is opened for each via post applicant. Further information on publishing the award procedure documents can be found at Publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

12 Opening offers Opening offers is a manual step in the procurement process, i.e. you must start the task by double-clicking in your task inbox. The electronic bids from bidders via the AI TENDERINGPLATFORM are already displayed, but are still encrypted. After starting the bid opening process, you can decrypt the encrypted bids, enter the bids received in writing and carry out an initial formal review of all bids. A detailed description of this step can be found in opening of offers.

13 Record The next automatic step in the award process requires no or only a few entries. The transcript contains a summary of the data from the opened offers, the total number of offers received as well as the number of excluded offers, those received late, those not properly sealed and a summary of all admissible offers, indicating their type (electronic offer or paper offer). You can print this form as a PDF file for documentation purposes of the offer opening using the buttons in the lower left-hand window area Print templates and form printout.

14 Create revision status of transcript The transcript or other important documents of the award procedure must be saved here as a revision status with a unique time stamp. You can also export or print these forms.

15 Computational check and subsequent entry of bills of quantities In this function dialog, you can subsequently enter the bills of quantities of the paper bids. Any differences to the specified total are displayed in the Difference column. Further information on this step can be found in Calculative Check.

16 Record of the mathematically checked bid totals The results of the mathematical check are displayed in this form in a clear table. If required, the price comparison list can be added as an external file.

17 Bid check - Formal check and suitability check This step is used to check the content of the bids for formal aspects, such as whether changes have been clearly identified, the award procedure documents are unchanged, all required declarations have been provided or the bid is complete. A detailed description of this function can be found at Formal check. In addition, the criteria for the suitability check of the bidders in personal and factual terms are also documented here.

18 Record side bids If side bids are permitted in the award procedure, this workflow step is also called up. Here, similar to the bid opening dialog, you can enter secondary bids for a main bid or create an independent secondary bid without a main bid. A detailed description of this step can be found in Secondary Offers.

19 Price comparison The price comparison is purely a display and analysis function, i.e. you cannot make any entries at this point. The price comparison provides you with an overview of the prices of the individual items of all approved offers. Here, the price-related information of the various bidders is compared in a matrix down to item level. This table then serves as the basis for the next evaluation stage. Further details on this step can be found in price comparison.

20 Bid review - price reasonableness check In this stage, two criteria are used to determine whether the prices offered by the bidders are reasonable. The assessment is made on the basis of the findings from the price comparison. Failure to meet these criteria may lead to the exclusion of a bid.

21 Evaluation The content of the bids for your award procedure is evaluated on the basis of the criteria from the evaluation scheme of the bill of quantities. Depending on the structure and scope of the evaluation matrix, this step is more or less complex. A detailed description of this important function in the award procedure can be found at offer evaluation.

22 Award proposal Based on the results of the bid evaluation, the AI TENDERINGMANAGER provides you in this step with an award proposal for the procedure or each lot, which you can accept in order to award the contract to a bidder. You will also see an overview of all prices and the evaluation scheme for the bill of quantities. The bid with the best evaluation result is preselected for the award proposal. You can change this proposal by setting the mark in the proposal row in another column. If a bidder proposed for the award does not meet all KO criteria, a warning message will be displayed when you exit the step with Next. The setting options and buttons in this step are identical to those in price comparison. If no clear award proposal can be activated when opening the award matrix for an award procedure because several bidders have achieved the best evaluation result at the same time, a corresponding message is displayed.

23 Award proposal form The form for documenting the award proposal is then generated on the basis of the award proposal. Here it is recorded which bidder is to be awarded the contract and under what conditions. Enter the date and an internal justification for the award. You can add an external file in the Note on award proposal field. You can call up the corresponding function dialogs via two further buttons Check of bids and Evaluation matrix. Changes are not possible at this point.

24 Sign off award proposal The form for the award proposal is now signed off, i.e. this step is normally processed by another employee. The process can vary greatly because it is adapted to the customer's needs. You can find further explanations of the sign-off in Sign-off.

25 Award of contract Similar to the award proposal, you must specify the bidder who is awarded the contract here. This is done in order to request a declaration of intent from the awarding party. A more detailed explanation of the functions and setting options of the award matrix can be found in offer evaluation.

26 Sending the award letter In this step, you must edit the award letter before sending or printing it and justify the final award of your award procedure. The form is filled with the previous data of your award procedure and that of the selected company and must be completed at this point. Please also read the functional description at notification of unsuccessful bidders.

27 Bidder notification of bid rejection according to § 19 VOL/A or § 46 UVgO The notification of bidders not considered according to § 19 VOL/A or § 46 UVgO takes place after the final award of contract. Here too, you have the option of sending an individual rejection to each bidder who has requested this. Read the functional description at notification of unsuccessful bidders.

28 Notification of awarded contracts (national) From a contract value of 25,000 euros, the workflow ends with the notification of the national contract award. In the Awarding authority section, enter the missing data of the contracting authority and the end date of the publication period of the notice on the platform. Send the notice for publication to your award procedure journals and publication organs or to one or more procurement platforms.

29 Print forms This last step of a procedure contains the option of printing out or exporting important forms such as the award notice, minutes or award proposal or using the Save revision status button to document the current status with a time stamp for any subsequent checks. Then click on Next to end the workflow.

30 End of workflow If no further steps in the award process need to be processed or signed off, the workflow ends with a corresponding message. Once the workflow has been completed, the status of the award procedure changes from active to completed, i.e. the award procedure is no longer displayed in the OPEN AWARD menu or on the overview page as long as the view filter settings for the award listing are not changed. Please note the explanations on filter criteria in the Open dialog in Open award procedure. For a completed award procedure, all forms in the project tree are set to read-only and all write access rights to forms by individual participants in the procedure are revoked.

Negotiated procedure without a call for competition (EU)¶

In this Europe-wide procedure, the contracting authority contacts candidates of its choice directly to negotiate the award of the contract. There is no public announcement of the award procedure. The contracting authority negotiates with the candidates on the award procedures for services provided as part of a professional activity or in competition with professionals.

1 Procurement procedure data In this first form, you enter important master data for your award procedure, e.g. the total quantity, scope and location of the service, financing data, justification of requirements and, in the case of EU procedures, whether a prior information notice has already been published. Here you can assign one or more CPV code numbers to the award procedure and decide on a possible lot split and the conclusion of a framework agreement. The form also contains a file insertion field which you can use to attach additional documents. Further explanations of the form fields can be found in Forms and Function Dialogs.

2 Bills of quantity In this complex function dialog, you enter the required items and quantities for your award procedure, the criteria for evaluating the bids and any questions for the bidders. A detailed description of this function can be found in Bill of quantities.

3 Cost estimate and securing funding Enter the details for the means test and the type of service in this short form. The estimated total value of the award procedure should be confirmed and documented here. This estimated value comes from the individual items in the bill of quantity. You can also enter the estimated value in a separate field, independently of the items in the BQ. To do this, activate the YES option in the Yes/No field below the estimated prices displayed. Three further mandatory fields appear in the form. Enter the net and gross sum and a reason for the award note. As part of the adaptation to the EU Directive 2014, you can select the option for Social and other special services pursuant to Section 64 VgV in this form in order to publish your award procedure to the EU using the form provided for this purpose. In this case, a separate threshold value is used to determine the proposed type of procedure and the corresponding form is filled in automatically.

4 Prerequisites for procedure selection above threshold In this comprehensive form, you check the exceptions for procedure selection in accordance with Section 14 EU VgV according to three types of criteria: - Performance-related selection criteria - Market-related selection criteria - Procedure-related selection criteria You may need to record justifications for your selection.

5 Choosing the type of procedure At this point in the process, you make the final decision on the procedure for your award procedure. Based on your previous entries, AI TENDERINGMANAGER will suggest a negotiated procedure without a call for competition (EU procedure) in accordance with Section 14 EU VgV. Please accept the proposal. If you deviate from the proposed procedure, you must enter a justification for the contract award notice.

6 Scheduling Set the dates for your award procedure in this complex function dialog. You can compare the deadlines of several award procedures, export individual or all deadlines of the current award procedure to Outlook and create deadline reminders for yourself or other users. A detailed description of this function can be found in Deadline and Period Manager.

7 Invitation to tender in accordance with Section 35 (1) EU VgV (EU) In this form, you enter the type and scope of the service and the location of the service - if you have not already done so - and can assign further CPV codes to the award procedure. If you allow secondary offers, you must explain the minimum requirement and the requirements for comparability here. For award procedures with a lot split, you specify whether the offer is to be submitted for one, several or all lots. At the end of the form there is a File insertion field which you can use to add external documents to your award procedure documents. Further explanations of this field can be found in Forms and Function Dialogs. As part of the adaptation to the EU Directive 2014, you can specify the desired signature level and submission medium here. The selection made here will be included in the announcement text and technically stored in the award procedure documents. The submission of an electronic offer in AI BIDDINGCOCKPIT is then possible via this selection.

8 Create questionnaire for suitability check Here you enter your own criteria groups with criteria that are relevant for checking the bids - similar to an evaluation scheme. The criteria for the findings when opening the bids are predefined and cannot be changed here. The exact procedure for the function is described in Flexible request to participate and offer evaluation. For more information on creating an evaluation scheme, see Rating scheme.