Procurement analysis
The procurement analysis is the document that prepares the purchase of a solution before the decision on next steps. It describes the need, the item to be procured, the market, the roles, the deadlines, the costs and the applicable award procedure. HERMES 2022 counts it among the outcomes of the initiation phase. The team prepares it in parallel with the study as soon as an option provides for buying the solution. Together with the study, it forms the basis for that decision. In German the outcome is called Beschaffungsanalyse.
Goal
The procurement analysis is the document in which the contracting authority gathers what it needs to know to choose the procedure and plan the purchase. Procurement law calls the organisation that awards the contract the contracting authority. HERMES 2022 gives the task that produces the analysis this purpose: to compile "all procurement-relevant information and requirements", to prepare the tendering process and to "establish the basis for selecting the type of procedure". The same task coordinates the purchase with the project planning.
The analysis is a prerequisite for the project management plan and the execution order. The tender documentation then builds on it.
HERMES names the outcome analyse de l'appel d'offres in French. That name suggests a call for tenders that the analysis does not issue. HERMES starts the call for tenders only after the execution release. The analysis can also conclude that no public call for tenders is required, when the contract value allows an invitation procedure or a direct award.
HERMES asks the analysis to take account of "internal and statutory requirements, processes, and deadlines". It cites no act. The legal frame comes from public procurement law. A federal contracting authority applies the Federal Act on Public Procurement (PPA). A canton or a municipality applies the Intercantonal Agreement on Public Procurement (AIMP/IVöB 2019). Both texts number the articles on the contract value (art. 15) and on the procedure types (art. 17 to 21) in the same way. Their thresholds can differ.
Usage
When to use it
- An option in the study provides for buying the solution: HERMES then makes the analysis mandatory.
- Estimated value close to a threshold: the estimate decides between direct award, invitation procedure and open procedure.
- Running contract with a supplier: its expiry sets the deadline for the next award.
- Supplier involved in preparing the procedure: the analysis decides how to handle the supplier's prior involvement before the call for tenders goes out (art. 14 para. 1 PPA).
- Go-live on a fixed date: the legal deadlines for the call for tenders and for appeals enter the procurement plan.
- Public purchase outside a HERMES project: the HERMES sections also structure its preparation.
When not to use it
- Comparing the tenders received: the analysis stops before they arrive; run a vendor assessment.
- Checking that the law permits the solution itself: run a legal basis analysis.
Description
The task in HERMES
HERMES 2022 places the task Prepare procurement analysis in the Project foundations module. It runs in the initiation phase only. It starts at the Project initiation release milestone and builds on the study. HERMES Online assigns the task to the user representative. The project manager takes part in producing the outcome.
HERMES requires work on the procedure to start "as early as possible" in the initiation phase. The clarifications that a call for tenders requires must under no circumstances delay the project. The analysis and the study must match. This applies in particular to the procurement plan.
The Procurement module then takes over for open and selective procedures. In this module the project prepares and issues the call for tenders. It then evaluates the tenders. The contracting authority decides on the award. Other purchases go through the Project management module. HERMES assigns the procurement foundations to the analysis: the needs and market analysis, the clarification of the procedure, the legal aspects and the choice of procedure. The evaluation of the tenders takes up the activities that the analysis planned, for example the vendor presentations and the negotiations.
The sections of the document
HERMES sets the content of the outcome.
| HERMES 2022 section | What the team records there |
|---|---|
| Reason for procurement | The need for action that justifies the purchase. |
| Procurement contents | The need. The procurement item with its type, condition and quality. Its availability on the market. |
| Tenderers and suppliers | The potential tenderers. The suppliers and the existing contracts with their duration. The requirements for tenderers and their selection. The desired distribution type. |
| Roles and their responsibilities | The tasks of the project manager, the project team and the procurement unit. |
| Scheduling aspects | The target go-live date, the planned period of use and the legal deadlines of the procedure. |
| Financial aspects | The approximate preliminary costing, the efficiency preview and the funding of the consequential costs. |
| Procurement law aspects | The applicable law, the estimated contract value and whether the contract falls within the scope of international treaties. |
| Standards of procurement | The documents used in the procurement and the design of its process steps. |
| Forms of contract | The forms of contract that the procurement will use. |
| Coordination of processes | The dependencies on upstream and downstream processes. The procedure that each option in the study requires. |
| Procurement plan | The procurement steps with their dates and their amounts. |
| Tender procedure | The type of procedure chosen and its grounds. |
| Procedure for questions about the tender | Who answers the tenderers' questions about the call for tenders and its documentation, through which channel and by what date. |
The procedure can differ from one option to another. A standard software subscription and a custom development do not necessarily reach the same value or the same threshold.
Running the analysis
Describe the need and sound out the market. The team starts from the options in the study. It sets what must be bought, in what quantity and in what quality. It establishes who can supply it and how many tenderers will probably respond. A request for information sent to suppliers feeds this step. A market clarification by the contracting authority before the call for tenders does not lead to prior involvement of the tenderers it consults (art. 14 para. 3 PPA). The contracting authority then discloses the results of the clarification in the tender documentation.
Start the work with the procurement unit. A kick-off meeting brings the team and the procurement unit together. It assigns the procurement roles: who drafts the tender documentation, who evaluates the tenders, who writes the evaluation report, who decides.
Estimate the contract value. The contracting authority estimates the probable value of the contract (art. 15 PPA). It adds up all the goods, work and services that are closely related materially or legally. Extension options, options for subsequent contracts and premiums count towards it. VAT does not. A fixed-term contract counts over its whole term and over the term of its extension options. As a rule this term does not exceed five years. An open-ended contract counts 48 monthly payments. A recurring service counts over the last 12 months or over the 12 months after the first order. The law forbids splitting a contract to circumvent it (art. 15 para. 2).
Choose the procedure. HERMES has the type of procedure defined "based on the characteristics of the procurement, the core organization's requirements, and the statutory basis". The PPA provides for the open, selective, invitation and direct award procedures (art. 17). In the open procedure the contracting authority publishes the call for tenders. Any tenderer may submit a tender. In the selective procedure the contracting authority also publishes the call for tenders. It then assesses the eligibility of the tenderers and selects those that may submit a tender. In the invitation procedure it invites tenderers of its choice without a public call for tenders and obtains at least three tenders if possible. In the direct award procedure it awards the contract directly to one tenderer.
The procedure follows from the estimated value and the thresholds in Annex 4 (art. 16). Supplies of goods, services and construction work each have their own thresholds. A mixed contract takes the type of the supply with the highest value (art. 8 para. 3). A contract falls within the scope of international treaties when its goods or services appear in Annexes 1 to 3 and its value reaches the thresholds in section 1 of Annex 4 (art. 8 para. 4). For a federal office this status does not change the procedure for a CHF 300'000 service contract. It lengthens the minimum deadlines.
| Procedure | Supplies of goods | Services | Construction work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct award | under CHF 150'000 | under CHF 150'000 | under CHF 300'000 |
| Invitation | from CHF 150'000 | from CHF 150'000 | from CHF 300'000 |
| Open or selective | from CHF 230'000 | from CHF 230'000 | from CHF 2'000'000 |
| Open or selective within the scope of international treaties | from CHF 230'000 | from CHF 230'000 | from CHF 8'700'000 (total value of the structure) |
The Federal Council adjusts the thresholds periodically (art. 16 para. 1). The team checks the version of Annex 4 in force on the date of the analysis. For a canton or a municipality it reads the thresholds in the annexes of the AIMP/IVöB 2019 in force.
Art. 21 para. 2 allows the direct award procedure irrespective of the thresholds in nine cases (let. a to i). For example, only one tenderer is eligible due to the technical or artistic features of the contract or for reasons of intellectual property protection and there is no appropriate alternative (let. c). Due to unforeseeable events, procurement becomes so urgent that even with shortened deadlines no open, selective or invitation procedure can be carried out (let. d). A change of tenderer to replace, supplement or extend goods or services already provided is impossible for economic or technical reasons or would cause considerable difficulties or substantial additional costs (let. e). The contracting authority documents each direct award based on this paragraph (art. 21 para. 4). The analysis records the letter invoked and the facts that support it.
Draw up the procurement plan. The team builds the plan backwards from the date by which the contract must be signed. The legal deadlines set its floor. For a contract within the scope of international treaties in the open procedure, tenderers have at least 40 days from publication to submit their tender (art. 46 para. 2). In the selective procedure they have at least 25 days to request participation. From the invitation they then have at least 40 days to submit their tender. Outside the scope of international treaties the deadline is generally at least 20 days (art. 46 para. 4). Art. 47 allows these deadlines to be shortened under certain conditions.
A tenderer can appeal against the call for tenders and then against the award within 20 days of their notification (art. 53 para. 1 and art. 56 para. 1). For a contract within the scope of international treaties, the contracting authority concludes the contract only after the appeal period against the award has expired (art. 42 para. 2). The call for tenders for a supply or service contract is in principle published in at least two official languages (art. 48 para. 5). The plan therefore also provides for translating the documentation.
Organise and fund the procurement. The team formulates the requirements for the project organisation. It plans the people and the budget that the procurement consumes: drafting the documentation, answering the questions, the evaluation and any vendor presentations. It checks that the funding covers the whole procurement and its consequential costs.
Coordinate the analysis. The team finalises the analysis with the controlling and compliance bodies responsible for procurement. At the decision on next steps, the project manager checks that the study and the analysis point to the same course of action.
Pitfalls
Leaving the options out of the value. An estimate that omits the extension option or the maintenance underestimates the contract. It can lead to an invitation procedure where the law requires an open or selective procedure. A competitor can appeal against the award that follows (art. 53 para. 1 let. e PPA).
Splitting the contract. Cutting a purchase into lots to stay below a threshold violates art. 15 para. 2 PPA. Lots of goods or services below CHF 230'000 avoid the public call for tenders. Below CHF 150'000 they also avoid the invitation procedure. A procurement plan that shows three successive mandates to the same supplier for the same item reveals the splitting.
Having a supplier write the specifications. The contracting authority excludes a tenderer that took part in preparing the procedure when the advantage gained cannot be offset and the exclusion does not jeopardise competition (art. 14 para. 1). The contracting authority offsets the advantage by passing on the preparatory work, by disclosing the names of the participants or by extending the deadlines (para. 2). The analysis records who contributed to what.
Planning without the legal deadlines. A procurement plan that puts the contract signature three weeks after the execution release ignores the deadline for submitting tenders and the appeal period. The project then waits for the procurement.
Writing the analysis after the study. The study compares its options on their timelines. An analysis written afterwards finds out too late that a tender deadline makes a go-live date untenable. HERMES has the two prepared in parallel for this reason.
Copying the thresholds from an earlier analysis. Annex 4 sets its values for the years 2026 and 2027 only. An analysis that copies the thresholds of a previous project can therefore select a procedure that the value no longer allows.
AI considerations
An AI assistant drafts the sections from the options in the study, the notes from the kick-off meeting and the list of existing contracts. It lists the cost items that the estimate must count and flags a missing option or maintenance. It summarises the responses to a request for information and groups the suppliers by type of solution. It translates the documentation into the second official language for review.
The team checks every threshold and every deadline that the assistant cites against Fedlex. A language model readily reproduces the thresholds of an earlier period. The legal qualification stays with the procurement unit and the legal service: whether the contract falls within the scope of international treaties, whether a direct award exception applies, whether a supplier has prior involvement. The estimated value and the budget do not go to an AI service that the organisation has not authorised. A tenderer that knew them would gain an advantage over its competitors.
Examples
The following extract reproduces the "Procurement law aspects" section of a federal office's analysis. It shows how an extension option changes the contract value and therefore the procedure.
| Item | Basis of calculation | Amount excluding VAT |
|---|---|---|
| Firm-term software subscription | 48 months at CHF 2'800 | CHF 134'400 |
| Extension option | 12 months at CHF 2'800 | CHF 33'600 |
| Configuration and data migration | Lump sum | CHF 60'000 |
| User training | Lump sum | CHF 12'000 |
| Estimated contract value | Art. 15 para. 3 and 4 PPA | CHF 240'000 |
| Type of supply | Services: all four items are services (art. 8 para. 2 let. c PPA) | |
| Threshold | Open or selective procedure from CHF 230'000 (Annex 4, art. 4 para. 1, values for 2026 and 2027) | |
| Procedure selected | Open procedure | |
Without the option the value falls to CHF 206'400. An invitation procedure would then seem sufficient. Art. 15 para. 4 nevertheless counts the option in the term of the contract.
Visualisations
A first diagram shows the order of the questions that leads a federal office to its procedure: the direct award exception, the estimated value, then the scope of international treaties. A second diagram places the legal deadlines of an open procedure after the execution release. The sections of the document, the thresholds and the estimate in the example are rows and columns. They are therefore tables.
Cost
| Dimension | Level | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Preparation | Medium | The team gathers the options in the study and the existing contracts. It obtains a contact in the procurement unit. |
| Execution | Medium | The market study and the estimate take a few sessions. A direct award exception also requires a legal opinion. |
| Documentation | Medium | Thirteen sections to complete. The procurement plan follows each revision of the planning in the study. |
Tooling
The HERMES Word template Procurement analysis can be downloaded from the outcome page on HERMES Online.
simap.ch is the public procurement platform of the Confederation and the cantons. The contracting authority publishes the call for tenders and the award of open and selective procedures there (art. 48 para. 1 PPA). The team reads the awards for comparable contracts there to identify the active suppliers and the number of tenderers to expect.
Fedlex publishes the PPA in force and its Annex 4. The DTAP website publishes the text of the AIMP/IVöB 2019. Each canton's systematic compilation of laws contains its act of accession.
A spreadsheet calculates the contract value item by item and holds the procurement plan. The organisation's contract register lists the current contracts and their expiry dates.
Sources
- Swiss Confederation, Federal Chancellery, HERMES 2022, Project Management reference manual, outcome 4.4.1.9 Procurement analysis: the description of the outcome and its content. The same manual places the task in the Project foundations module (§3.4.2.1). It bases the tender documentation (outcome 4.4.1.8), the execution order (task 5.4.3.10) and the decision on next steps (task 5.4.2.7) on the analysis.
- Swiss Confederation, Federal Chancellery, HERMES 2022, Project Management reference manual, task 5.4.3.6 Prepare procurement analysis: the purpose, the procedural questions, the scheduling rules, the prerequisites, the activities and the roles.
- Swiss Confederation, Federal Chancellery, HERMES 2022, Project Management reference manual, Procurement module (§3.4.2.2): the scope of the module and its boundary with the analysis.
- Federal Act on Public Procurement (PPA), SR 172.056.1, status as of 1 January 2026: art. 4 and 8 (contracting authorities and supplies), 14 (prior involvement), 15 (contract value), 16 to 21 (thresholds and procedures), 42 (conclusion of the contract), 46 to 48 (deadlines and publications), 53 and 56 (appeals), Annex 4 (2026 and 2027 thresholds).
- Swiss Conference of Cantonal Directors of Public Works, Spatial Planning and Environment (DTAP), Intercantonal Agreement on Public Procurement (AIMP/IVöB 2019): the text of the agreement and its annexes.