Aurora Engineering Partnership

Engineering Delivery Partner and the Aurora Engineering Partnership The Engineering Delivery Partner is the default route for Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) procurement for engineering services, and is accessible to wider Ministry of Defence (MOD) departments and agencies. QinetiQ, Atkins, a member of SNC-Lavalin Group, and BMT have joined forces to form The Aurora Engineering Partnership to support DE&S transformation strategy and drive benefits through the delivery of engineering services. The partnership brings with it considerable cross-sector and non-defence experience and a strong track record of delivery. Both DE&S and the Aurora Engineering Partnership are committed to a vision and mission for the EDP and implementing increasingly longer-term, output- based programmes for engineering services, fostering innovation and right first time solutions for the Front Line Commands; and enabling MOD programme milestones to be achieved cost-effectively and on time. Our vision for EDP A strong and professional engineering partnership, enabling agile and efficient outcomes for front line equipment and support. Our mission for EDP Provide leadership across the engineering enterprise in partnership, to drive increased performance and productivity across the full scale of engineering services, by focussing on outcomes for those on the front line. About the Provider Network – – Wide supplier base. We have 122 companies signed to our EDP Provider Network with the capability and capacity to sustain MOD in-scope requirements. Providers are listed in Appendix 1. – – SME friendly. Of the 122 companies, 83% are SMEs 1 . We have rolled out an SME friendly strategy which has included open, inclusive advertisement to join the Provider Network including the use of Defence Contract Online, the use of a webinar to inform potential providers, a common e-sourcing tool and procurement processes across the Partnership and SME friendly terms and conditions, including removal of unlimited liabilities and consequential losses. – – SME engagement. In January 2019 we held an inaugural Insight Day with our Provider Network. The event was extremely well attended and contained workshops looking at skills development and cost saving ideas. – – Advisory Group. The Provider Network Advisory Group has been established with representatives for the following categories: • Micro Provider (Quorum); • Small Provider (Red Scientific); • Medium Provider (CDS); and • Large Provider (Frazer-Nash). The Advisory Group also includes industry bodies ADS, Tech UK and Team Defence. The representatives will be the voice of the Provider Network, feeding back and collaborating with Aurora to deliver Engineering Services to DE&S. Building the Provider Network The Aurora Provider Network was established through a rigorous tender process which included the following four stages: Stage 1: Expressions of Interest The pre-qualification approach started with a call for Expressions Of Interest (EOI) utilising Defence Contracts Online/Defence Contracts Bulletin (the MOD advertising portal), social media, and via direct broadcast to organisations in the Aurora existing supply chains and through trade bodies (including ADS and Tech UK). Stage 2: Provision of Information Aurora Engineering Partnership created a webinar to enable industry to judge whether participation in the PQQ process would be worthwhile based on their own organisations’ capability and interests. Stage 3: Pre-qualification Development and Registration Those individuals that viewed the webinar and who wished to proceed with a pre-qualification submission were invited to register on CurtisFitch, an e-sourcing software suite customised for the Aurora Engineering Partnership. Stage 4: Pre-qualification assessment The assessment process evaluated both Technical and Commercial aspects of each pre-qualification submission: Technical Assessment Providers were given the opportunity to select category codes which they deemed relevant to their organisation for both the provision of manpower and/or engineering outputs. These category codes map providers’ capability against cross cutting engineering disciplines and/or sector specific engineering disciplines for Air, Land and Sea. Shown on the following tables: 1 The EU recommendation 2003/361 defines SMEs as “the category of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is made up of enterprises which employ fewer than 250 persons and which have an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million, and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million.