Open Market Consultation (OMC)
Successful procurement requires involving technology companies and consortia at the earliest possible stage. The Open Market Consultation (OMC) aims at actively approaching the market to discover the state of the art.
The OMC consists of an in-depth dialogue and provides an overview on the procurement objectives, the PCP process and the main clauses of contracts. Information sharing will follow established procurement principles of fairness, transparency, and accessibility to information.
Video of International OMC live event
Recorded 14 December 2021
AIMS of the OMC
Initiate the formal dialogue between CareMatrix buyers and the market players
Identify the gap between state-of-the art industry development and the identified needs
Provide a clear justification of the need to procure R&D services (confirm the PCP)
Provide input to fine-tune the request for tender requirements (ITT) and its annexes
Enable and increase the opportunities for the suppliers to form fit-for-purpose consortia
Identify market risks potentially able to endanger business goals and supplier performance
OMC STAGES and features
The OMC is initiated by the publication of the PIN with purpose to forewarn, alert, facilitate and simplify for the market to engage in a future transparent procurement process.
The PIN in the Carematrix project provides early information about the expected starting date and purchase volume for a pre-commercial procurement (PCP) in the sector of Integrated Health Care, and about the OMC that is organised in preparation of this procurement.
For wide publication and per Horizon 2020 guidelines it is published in TED (Tenders Electronic Daily), the online version of the ‘Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU’ dedicated to European public procurement.
A scope document was published 1 December 2021. It describes the challenges/needs for a better care for people with multimorbidity identified during the ‘Needs assessment phase’.
The Request for Information Questionnaire is now closed. Please feel free to download the RFI Questionnaire for your reference.
Four webinars were organised to present the project’s challenges and PCP process to potential suppliers and other interested parties.
In particular, three webinars in each Buyers’ group country (Sweden, Norway, Basque Country - Spain) in Swedish, Norwegian and Spanish respectively. These took place in November 2021.
The agendas were:
- Carematrix
- Main challenge & scope
- OMC and next steps
- Pre-commercial procurement as a tool
- Purpose & advantage
- Phases and tender process
- Questions & answers
An international concluding webinar in English took place 14 December 2021 featuring a summary of previous webinars, including relevant issues from local Q&As (for full transparency), an overview of the upcoming tender, and including a session for matchmaking between potential suppliers.
OMC Sweden >
OMC Norway >
OMC Basque Country - Spain >
OMC International >
The Carematrix website includes in a matchmaking search tool for potential suppliers interested in forming a fit-for-purpose consortia with other interested suppliers to respond to the future Carematrix tender.
The matchmaking space allows potential suppliers to publish their profile, contact details and potential contribution to addressing the Carematrix challenges (during the OMC phase) and to responding to the Carematrix tender.
Matchmaking submissions have now closed, but you can still use the Matchmaking tool to search for potential partners.
The CareMatrix website will provide a space for asking Questions to the project’s consortium during the OMC process (as soon as the Scope Document will be published). Answers by the project’s consortium will be published on the website.
Considering the need to ensure fairness, transparency, and accessibility to information during the whole OMC process as well as equal treatment of all economic operators, project partners will also report and make public any additional information they will provide during the OMC Webinars or any other events/meetings with potential suppliers.
All the information provided through the ‘Questions and Answers’ tool on the website as well as in the OMC Webinars and any other events/meetings will be included in a report (‘Questions and Answers report’) and is now available here in FAQs.
At the end of the OMC process,and just before the publication of the Invitation To Tender, a “Suppliers Information Pack” with information on the future tender will be produced. The SIP will include information on “What’s in it for me” content explaining advantages of PCP as a supplier, PCP contract size (budget), procurement size (first consumers 3 procurers from 3 EU MSs), timetable, etc…
The outcome of the OMC shall clearly demonstrate the Innovation Gap which indicates the start of a PCP process. Departing from the needs/challenges as identified in the Scope document and based upon all the information gathered during the OMC through the dialogue and consultation with potential suppliers and other relevant stakeholders, the Innovation Gap will be identified and pinpointed.
The Innovation Gap, as the main outcome of the OMC, will be the baseline of the Invitation to Tender (ITT).