Tender for this contract was advertised through the European Journal (OJEU) and a full procurement procedure was completed. We originally asked for expressions of interest from suppliers to which we had plenty of response and issued Pre Qualification Questionnaire's to each supplier.

We then received 14 completed PQQ's and evaluated these to produce a 'shortlist' of 5 suppliers to invite to tender.

The ITT's where distributed with a return date of 23rd December 2009. A full and detailed evaluation of these was then completed using a Quality / Price ratio of 70% / 30% for which Nationwide Retail Systems came out as a clear winner. It is my opinion that the area's which stood out in the NRS bid were the attention to detail, the importance placed on support and maintenance of the product and also the development of a Centralised system to enable Wrexham CBC to monitor the various sites operating this package from a central office. These facts along with the very competitive pricing, not only of the initial purchase costs but also of annual maintenance and support, ensured that NRS were awarded the Framework Agreement to supply WCBC schools catering section with Cashless dining solutions for the next 3 to 4 years.

Steve Jones, Senior Support Officer, Support Services Section, Learning and Achievement Dept., Wrexham C.B.C