services provided by RISQS FAQs About RISQS RISQS, formerly known as Achilles Link-up, supports the GB Rail industry in the management of supply chain risk. The scheme has been developed to provide a service for the qualification of suppliers for products and services procured by the industry with the aim of becoming the preferred route for suppliers to engage with their customers in an efficient and effective manner. The scheme is governed by the RISQS board which comprises Network Rail, CECA, TFL, Arup, RIA, RICA, Quattro Group, Telent, Go-Ahead Group, RSSB, Balfour Beatty Rail, First Group, Tata Steel, Siemens, ATOC, Costain, Atkins Global, C Spencer Ltd, Rail Alliance and BAM Nuttal. There are more than 2,600 procurement and engineering professionals who use RISQS to search for qualified suppliers. In many cases, RISQS is a pre-requisite to business in the rail industry. There are four RISQS subscription levels available for suppliers: RISQS standard subscription levels are: Levels Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Number of codes 1 Product code 2-24 Product codes 25-199 Product codes 200+ Product codes RISQS Audit Upon successfully completing the registration and pre-qualification process, suppliers who have selected product codes deemed auditable are required to undertake an audit of their company s Health, Safety, Environment and Quality capabilities. The aim of the assessment is to ensure suppliers meet the standards required by the RISQS community. Network Rail specific qualifications can also be gained through the RISQS Audit e.g. Network Rail Sentinel. The cost of the audit is determined by the product codes you select. Additional Services available with a RISQS subscription: Achilles Supplier Patron Supplier Patron can be added to your RISQS subscription. It is an easy to use search function, which allows you to identify suppliers by the products or services they offer and gives you details of their pre-qualification status. You can also use RISQS Supplier Patron to manage subcontractors or identify potential partners for a joint offering. Achilles NOTiCE With thousands of opportunities published every year, NOTiCE enables your organisation to be informed about relevant contract opportunities in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). You can set up email notifications using your product and service portfolio to avoid missing out on any business opportunities in the UK and across Europe. How you benefit: Based on the product codes selected in your RISQS questionnaire, up to 10 recipients within your company can receive daily emails with the latest contract opportunities Page 1
Access a database to search thousands of opportunities and set up your search criteria for re-use every time you enter the database Gain market intelligence on contracts relevant to your business that have been awarded in the past What are the benefits of joining RISQS as a supplier? Promote your products and services to over 2,600 procurement and assurance specialists Get shortlisted for tender opportunities Save time and effort by completing a single pre-qualification questionnaire and where applicable, show your audit achievements to key players in the rail industry Demonstrate capability to meet the requirements set out by the rail industry Identify improvement potential through an independent assessment and benchmark yourself with practical advice and feedback. I am a relatively small company, how can I benefit? RISQS fully supports small suppliers within the sector; currently 75% of RISQS subscribers are classed as SMEs. In many cases RISQS is a pre-requisite to business in the rail industry. RISQS makes qualifying your organisation for business within the UK rail sector much quicker, by reducing the administrative work load, easier through the standardised process and cost-effective as you only have to complete one prequalification questionnaire. It is a service that gives you access to tender opportunities that match your capabilities. What will it cost to subscribe to RISQS? RISQS Subscription Levels: Level Level 1 (1 product code) Level 2 (2-24 product codes) Level 3 (25-199 product codes) Level 4 (200+ product codes) Standard Subscription 365 + VAT 565 +VAT 895 + VAT 1,285 + VAT Please contact Achilles Customer On-Boarding Team for more information on +44 (0)1235 861118 or email risqs@achilles.com How does the service work? RISQS registers and pre-qualifies suppliers and contractors by gathering information from suppliers, including Financial & Legal, Quality, Health & Safety, Environmental, Professional & Technical, Insurance, Product and Services. Your business can demonstrate its capabilities by selecting one or more of the 3,000 available product codes that best match your area of business. You will then be asked for further information and experience in relation to each specific product group. Each available product code is classified into a risk category, which determines if the product code is auditable or not. The level of risk assigned to each product code is dependent on the business impact that the product or service has to the RISQS members. On completion and validation, your questionnaire will be uploaded to the Achilles portal, for all buyer members of RISQS to access when sourcing and selecting suppliers against the product or service codes that you have registered or qualified for. How do I join as a supplier? Visit www.rail.achilles.com and click on Join as a Supplier to start the application process for the RISQS community. Completing the registration and application form takes approximately 5-10 minutes and you will be asked to provide contact details, company information and select the product and service codes that reflect what your company is offering. Once your registration has been completed, an invoice will be generated and when we have received payment for your annual subscription, you will be sent an activation email to access the online prequalification questionnaire (PQQ). Page 2
The online PQQ involves the submission of information and certificates related to finance, health, safety and environment, quality management, insurances, products and services, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and legal information. Completing the pre-qualification questionnaire typically takes 2-3 hours and we recommend you gather all the required information and certificates prior to starting the questionnaire online. You will be able to save your work at any time before submitting it to the validation team. To receive a guide outlining the documentation and certification needed to complete the RISQS PQQ please email risqs@achilles.com Achilles RISQS buyer membership Becoming a buyer member of the RISQS community will give your organisation access to validated supplier information on 2,600 suppliers in the GB rail industry. RISQS offers a comprehensive supplier management solution which includes (but is not limited to) the following key applications: Sourcing and qualification of suppliers in relation to specific UK contracts Compliance with EU Procurement Legislation and Audit trail Monitoring and development of existing suppliers Integration with procurement strategy, procedures and systems Flexible supplier search suite with live results panel Validated supplier information including financial risk score and full Equifax report Buyer alerts to track changes in suppliers and product categories. Does RISQS conform to EU Legislation? RISQS is used extensively by procurement, engineering, safety and quality professionals whose organisations need to comply with European Procurement Legislation and Railway Group Standards. Buying organisations in the transport sector are regulated by the Utilities Contracts Regulations 2006 (e.g. Network Rail). They are able to use RISQS to meet their obligations under the regulations. RISQS is the subject of a qualification system notice, published at least annually in the OJEU, allowing any EU supplier to express their interest in being considered for contracts of listed utility buyers by registering with RISQS. About the RISQS Questionnaire What happens when I submit my questionnaire? Once you have submitted your questionnaire it will be sent to the data validation team to quality check and validate all the information you have provided. If your questionnaire is approved your supplier profile will then be published and made available to the RISQS buyer community. If there are any amendments needed to your questionnaire, the validation team will send you an email highlighting the areas requiring further attention before your questionnaire can be published. For Achilles Auditable product codes or any Network Rail specific qualifications, successful completion to this stage will trigger an RISQS Audit. Please note: Network Rail Product Acceptance certain product codes also require applicants to demonstrate that they hold Network Rail Product Acceptance and your questionnaire may also be sent to Network Rail for them to evaluate. The results of this evaluation will be sent to you. What should I do if I receive a data checking message but do not wish to change my answer? Currently you do not have the option to ignore a Quality Checking message, but in the majority of situations we would recommend that you do Page 3
not do this. If you are unsure of how to answer, please contact the Supplier Support team on +44 (0)1235 861118 or email risqs@achilles. com Who has access to my information? Your company information will be made available to all of the RISQS buyer members via an online search system. Your information is not visible to other suppliers or accessible in the public domain. To request a current list of RISQS buyer members, please contact the Supplier Support team on +44 (0)1235 861118. How do the buyers access my information? The buyers have access to a secure online search system. The search system enables the buyers to search for companies by name or product and service codes. If a buyer searches for any products and services that your company is registered to supply, then your company will be displayed in the search results and the buyers can view your information as supplied through the questionnaire. How will I receive buyer enquiries? Once the buyers have identified suppliers through the RISQS search system that they wish to consider for an up-coming tender or contract opportunity, they will contact you directly using the details you provide in your RISQS profile. Some buyers use the Additional Questions (AQ) feature to identify relevant suppliers from the shortlist to contact for further information. Again you will receive an email alert when a buyer invites you to fill out an AQ. What is Additional Questions? Through Additional Questions a buyer can define and send a set of extra questions to the shortlisted suppliers in order to gather further information and to narrow the shortlist to the most relevant suppliers. Suppliers will be notified via email and asked to respond to the questions online through RISQS. When do I need to update my information? You can update your information for no additional cost at any time throughout your subscription. You will receive email alerts from Achilles to update your information when any of your uploaded documentation or certification is due to expire. As a minimum, you will be asked to renew your registration and update your information within your 90 day renewal window. This begins 60 days before your renewal date and ends 30 days afterwards. You will receive a reminder from Achilles in advance of this. What happens if my company is already subscribing to another Achilles community? Achilles operates supplier management communities worldwide on behalf of major industry groups including utilities, rail, oil and gas, and construction. Each community is governed by its own Steering Group of participating industry members who determine the exact nature of the subscription process they require, along with fees. For this reason, each community is operated separately by Achilles and suppliers wishing to serve multiple industries must subscribe separately via those communities that they determine commercially beneficial to do so. Subscription on any other Achilles community is therefore not transferable in whole or part towards RISQS, which has been designed with specific requirements for the GB rail industry. However, one of the big benefits of RISQS for suppliers is that you will now have only one supplier profile, Achilles ID, user name and password, regardless of how many Achilles communities you subscribe to. The general information you provide within the questionnaire will also be shared across communities, for example company and financial information. There will still be some community specific questions to answer for each Achilles community. A list of all common shared data is available on the RISQS website. Page 4
Are multiple registrations necessary for different branches? Companies with multiple branches may have different sales regions and organisational structures. Suppliers can choose to register more than one branch to expand their business opportunities, or to register as a single company. It is essential that the legal entity that wishes to become the contracting partner is registered on RISQS. In the questionnaire suppliers can add details of their associated companies and locations but there is one main contact point displayed on the system per supplier registration. For registering companies that belong to a Group please refer to the specific note on the website or contact Supplier Support on +44 (0)1235 861118. How do I change my company name or move to a group accreditation with Achilles? If you are changing company name but remaining the same legal entity you can amend your company name in the questionnaire and this will automatically update onto our systems. You will need to upload the official Change of Name certificate you will have received from Companies House to support this. If you are changing legal entity you will need to set up a new RISQS account, as a new company will be registering on the community. You will need to pay a new registration fee and if applicable, will be required to undertake a new audit. Once the questionnaire has been submitted and approved, and the audit has been undertaken and passed, your change of company will be complete. Please note that the legal entity that will become the contracting partner will be required to be qualified. For more information please see the respective briefing note on the RISQS website, or call Supplier Support on +44 (0) 1235 861118. Can I search RISQS? RISQS searches can only be carried out by subscribing buyer companies. These are Network Rail and UK rail industry major contractors; Murphy, Carillion and Costain. If you would like to talk to someone about buyer membership, please call a member of the RISQS team on +44 (0) 1235 861118. Why am I being asked to update information on my questionnaire when I have already done this? Your information is taken from the last published questionnaire. If you have made updates during that time and not submitted, the system will not recognise your changes. Once you have submitted your updates to our Data Validation team and they have approved your questionnaire, it will then be published and the system will recognise the new information. How do I upload and change my documents? To amend a document within the questionnaire you will need to log in, click the red Edit button in the Link-up box in the main body of the page and navigate to the page holding the document you wish to change. You will need to delete any existing documents before you can upload a replacement PDF or JPEG. To update a new file, you will need to click on the Browse button, locate the file you want to upload and press Open. A link will appear in your text box, press the Upload button to complete the process. What browser can I use to fill out my questionnaire? The questionnaire is fully compatible with Google Chrome, Internet Explorer version 7 and 8, as well as version 9 and 10 with Compatibility Mode turned on. If you use an Apple Mac, you can now download a copy of Google Chrome for Apple, which will allow you to work within the questionnaire. How do I change my contact information? You can do this through the My settings section, which can be found on the left hand side of the screen when you log in. To change the Page 5
contact information for your organisation please update the Contact Details section in your questionnaire. Can multiple people in my company have access to our profile? Yes, within the Manage Users section company administrators can add additional people, as well as managing the existing users and contacts. How do I add/remove/fill out my product codes? You can add or remove codes in the Products and Services section of the RISQS questionnaire by clicking on the Modify Product Code Selection button. To complete your questionnaire you will need to click on each code and fill in all the mandatory fields. Does the QHSE information need to be entered for each Product Code individually or can it be allocated to a group or all of the product /service codes? Once the quality management section is complete you can apply this information against some or all of your product code selections as appropriate. When can I download the Achilles Link-up certificate? Once your information has been validated, you can download the Achilles Link-up certificate from the portal, from the Community Certificates link on the home page menu. What is my Achilles ID and where can I find it? Your Achilles ID is unique to your company and will be displayed on your Achilles Link-up certificates it will also be visible on the top left corner of the questionnaire, above the different section headings. Why can t I edit my questionnaire? The first reason could be you are not using a compatible internet browser. Secondly if you have submitted your questionnaire for data validation, it will not be editable until the data validation process has been completed. Finally you may not have the correct access rights assigned for your user. If you are not experiencing the above issues, please contact the Supplier Support team on +44 (0)1235 861118. Am I able to print off my questionnaire? Yes. It can be useful to print the questionnaire to help gather/review your information. You can print at anytime using the print button located in the top right corner of all pages. This will export the data into a PDF document, where you can choose which sections to print. I have submitted my questionnaire by accident, how can I unlock it? Do not worry, please call a member of the Supplier Support team on +44 (0)1235 861118 and we will unlock it for you. Why am I showing as expired? If your subscription date has lapsed, you will need to make a payment for the next year s subscription. Please contact our Customer On- Boarding team on + 44 (0)1235 861118. Or your questionnaire annual update has lapsed. Your questionnaire should be updated and renewed annually around your subscription expiry date. If you fail to do this, your questionnaire will lapse causing your subscription to be seen as expired. To resolve this, you will need to submit Page 6
your questionnaire for data validation. Please note that the Link-up Audit status can also show as expired. Do I need to provide financial figures? Yes, financial figures are an important part of the questionnaire that is used by buyers when selecting suppliers to invite to tender. You will need to provide the last three years worth of financial figures. If you have not been in business that long, you will either need to provide the financial figures for your completed years business or one year s projected figures. Wherever possible, we will automatically populate this information for you using information from Equifax, who in turn get their information directly from Companies House. Do I need to upload my Ultimate Parent Company s financial figures? Yes, if you have an Ultimate Parent Company and it is incorporated within the United Kingdom, you will need to upload the latest financial years figures. This is requested to help show the buyers the overall size of your company s group, which could increase your company s chances of being invited to larger tenders. Please note that if you have an Ultimate Parent Company, you do not need to list it again in the Associated Companies section at the bottom of the Group Information page. Do I need to provide insurance details? Yes, you should upload certificates or schedules, and all other associated details, for the insurances your company holds. You will notice that many insurances have Required next to them you do not necessarily have to hold all the required insurances, you just need to state if you have this required insurance or not. As a minimum you will need to upload Employers Liability if you have more than one employee, as it is a legal requirement within the UK for a company with employees to hold this insurance. Do I need to upload my Companies House certificate? Yes, in Link-up Engage our buyers do ask that all incorporated suppliers upload their official Companies House certificate which is issued to companies when they first incorporate. If you do not hold this in your head office, some companies keep their official documentation with their accountants or solicitors, so it would be worth contacting them to see if they have a copy. If your company has changed name since it incorporated, you will need to upload your Change of Name certificate instead of the original registration certificate. About RISQS Audit Will I require an audit? As part of the RISQS registration process, you will also be asked to complete a short application form to identify if your organisation will require an Audit. There is an additional cost associated with the audit. You can download the audit application form from www.rail.achilles.com. The RISQS Audit is an assessment of a company s Management Systems. The aim of the RISQS Audit is to ensure suppliers meet the standards required by the industry and the qualification level aspired to by your organisation. Will I still have one audit on an annual basis? Yes, the RISQS Audit is still an annual assessment. How will I know which codes fall into which audit category? The assurance requirements have in most cases been harmonised for each activity code per Level 1 code group, e.g. Signalling Design is all auditable, Signalling SMP is not auditable. Special cases exist in codes groups 04 General Business Services and Supplies, 07 Railway Services and Supplies and 08 Building Works. All auditability requirements can be found in the product code booklet which is available for download at www.rail.achilles.com. Page 7
How far in advance will I now have to book? The same booking and scheduling conditions apply. Please note that with the phase out of the 30 day grace period it is crucial that the audit takes place at least 15 working days before audit expiry, to allow for the audit report development and upload. A new fast track option is being introduced. A limited number of fast track slots per month are available, a fee of GBP 250 + VAT applies. Terms and conditions apply. How far in advance will I receive the documents to prepare for this? The new audit protocols and auditor guidance are available for download at www.rail.achilles.com. However, if your audit scope covers multiple modules, these will be combined into one protocol document for your audit. We will aim to provide the final relevant documents four weeks prior to the audit. Will the reschedule/ cancellation terms and conditions stay the same? Yes, however they will be extended to include the new fast track option. Further assistance For more information, please contact the Achilles Team on +44 (0)1235 861118 or email RISQS@achilles.com Achilles Information Ltd 30 Western Avenue, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4SH UK T: +44 (0)1235 820813 F: +44 (0)1235 821093 E: enquiries@achilles.com www.achilles.com 08-04/2016 Page 8