Who are Achilles?
What is the FPAL Supplier Management Service?
How does the service work?
Why join FPAL?
What type of company should register?
I am a relatively small company. How can I benefit?
What is the cost of registration?
How do I join? - the registration process
Are multiple registrations necessary for different branches?
Who has access to my information?
When do I need to update my information?
How do purchasers access my information?
How will I receive purchaser enquiries?
Can I contact the Oil & Gas companies direct?
Can I search FPAL?
How does the FPAL service fit in with Verify, UVDB, Link-up?
Does the FPAL service conform to EC legislation?
Help?
Who are Achilles?
Achilles identifies, evaluates and monitors supplier information on behalf of major organisations worldwide. We build and support supply chain communities in many industry sectors, creating unique and valuable global networks which create business opportunities for both purchasers and suppliers.
Joining an Achilles Supplier Management Service enables businesses to connect to a network of potential purchasers with increased opportunities across a whole industry sector. With just one pre-qualification questionnaire to be completed, once this data has been verified, a supplier’s details can be viewed by every single buyer registered in that particular regional industry sector. At the same time, registered suppliers also have the opportunity of discovering more about industry standards and quality requirements, improving their existing service levels and enabling a better appreciation of what is required to match and beat the competition.
What is the FPAL Supplier Management Service?
Achilles operates the First Point Assessment (FPAL) Supplier Management Service on behalf of all the major UK, Dutch & Irish upstream Oil & Gas organisations. By registering, this service enables you to pre-qualify and market your company to an entire industry sector through a single questionnaire. FPAL helps towards reduction in costs, time and administrative workload and is a service that gives you access to tender opportunities that match your capabilities.
Established in 1996 FPAL is now recognised as the standard approach to supplier pre-qualification within the UK, Dutch & Irish upstream Oil & Gas Sector.
There are two registration options:
FPAL - pre-qualify your business to major Oil & Gas organisations:
- The Oil & Gas purchasers use the FPAL system to source suppliers and so do not need to re-issue as many of their own questionnaires.
FPAL + Notice - Do you need to be informed of relevant contract opportunities in the UK and Europe? Notice gives you access to a search facility and a database of thousands of contract opportunities, as published on the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). There are thousands of opportunities published every year and Notice enables you to target the ones appropriate to your company by specifying commodity codes (CPV codes), keywords and countries of interest.
How does the service work?
FPAL pre-qualifies suppliers and contractors under various headings. There are over 900 standard codes and 2500 standard keywords used and controlled by the Oil & Gas sector.
Information is gathered about suppliers, e.g. financial performance, health, safety, environmental policy, products and services data and is checked for accuracy and currency. The information is then made available on-line to the purchaser.
The Oil & Gas organisations for example, BP, Talisman, Amec, Wood Group, are able to access FPAL and utilise the system for identifying potential suppliers and managing information on their existing suppliers. When a purchaser has a requirement for a contract or other purchase, FPAL allows them to search for potential suppliers or contractors in a fair and consistent manner, by applying objective criteria against the information registered by each supplier.
Why join FPAL?
Once your completed online questionnaire has been submitted, checked and uploaded on FPAL, you will have met the pre-qualification needs of the major oil & gas purchasers. These companies use FPAL to source pre-qualified suppliers to work with them on projects, as well as the supply of goods and services. Over 2500 Purchasing professionals regularly use FPAL to create both long and short lists of suppliers and contractors. The service provides:
- A primary route to new and continued business. Pre-qualify your business to over 80 oil & gas companies who have billions of pounds worth of spend
- An opportunity to give your company’s detailed information once, and then just maintain it on a regular basis
- The opportunity to save time and effort associated with the completion of repetitive pre-qualification documents
What type of company should register?
Any company can register as long as you can provide a product or service to the Oil & Gas sector.
I am a relatively small company. How can I benefit?
The Oil & Gas purchasers are keen to encourage all of their suppliers to register as it makes the process of supplier identification and management more efficient for both the purchasers and their suppliers. A growing number of main contractors such as Amec, Wood Group, Petrofac, Prosafe & Aker Solutions now use FPAL to do their selection of sub suppliers and many of these sub suppliers are relatively small companies.
What is the cost of registration?
The FPAL annual registration fee for suppliers is set by the FPAL Steering Committee. This fee includes your registration on FPAL for one year and the quality checking and validation of your questionnaire by the FPAL team. The fee includes free advice from the FPAL team on how to register effectively and attendance at optional supplier workshops designed to ensure that you get the maximum benefit from your registration.
FPAL is a subscription-based service where the annual fee is based upon the number of product codes chosen. To see which product/service codes are applicable please view the FPAL product/service code guide.
Below are the costs of registering with us:
FPAL Tier 1 £619+VAT*
(up to 5 product codes)
FPAL Tier 2 £714+VAT*
(6 – 15 product codes)
FPAL Tier 3 £ 1,019+VAT*
(16 – 25 product codes)
FPAL Tier 4 £1,155+VAT*
(26 + product codes)
Additional Service
FPAL NOTICE £395+VAT*
FPAL Purchasers pay substantially higher fees as their share of funding the service.
For further information visit the what it costs section of the website.
How do I join?- the registration process
First step is to join online
Once your registration details and payment have been processed, you will be issued with a password and logon details which will enable you to complete and submit your online questionnaire.
Complete questonnaire
The questionnaire collects information regarding your business to enable purchasers to consider your business for potential or continued work.
Submission & evaluation of questionnaire
Upon receipt of your completed questionnaire, FPAL perform various quality checks on the information provided. If there are any concerns these will be flagged and you will need to revisit the questionnaire. On passing the quality procedure, the questionnaire details will be published to the live system. Your questionnaire will be shown on FPAL for all Purchasing members of the service to have access to when sourcing and selecting suppliers against the product codes that you have registered or qualified for. You are advised to review your questionnaire regularly and ensure that the information available to FPAL Purchasers is kept up-to-date.
Are multiple registrations necessary for different branches?
Companies with multiple branches may have different sales regions and organisational structures. Suppliers can choose to register individual branches separately to expand their business opportunities, or to register them as a single company with just one FPAL registration. 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.
Who has access to my information?
Your company information will be made available to registered users from all of the purchaser members via an online search system. To view the current list of purchasers click here
When do I need to update my information?
You can update your information for no additional cost at any time during the year. It is strongly recommended that you do this if there are any changes within your organisation so that the purchasers have the latest information about your company and can contact you easily. As a minimum you will be asked to renew your registration and update your information at least annually and you will receive a reminder from the FPAL team in advance. Having a poor, incomplete or out-of-date supplier record may decrease your chances of being added to a short list.
How do purchasers access my information?
The purchasers have access to a secure on-line search system. The search system enables the purchaser to search for companies by name or by selecting products and services codes. To download a copy of the Product and Service Code Guide click here . As a registered supplier, if a purchaser searches for the products and services that your company is registered to supply, then your company will be displayed and the purchaser can view your information as supplied through the questionnaire.
How will I receive purchaser enquiries?
Once the purchasers have identified suppliers that they wish to consider for an up-coming tender or contract opportunity through the FPAL search system, they will contact you directly.
Can I contact the Oil & Gas companies direct?
Once registration is complete, a contact list for each of the purchasing companies is available.
Can I search FPAL?
FPAL searches can only be carried out by subscribing purchasers. If you would like to talk to someone about purchaser membership, please
click here.
How does the FPAL service fit in with Verify, UVDB and Link-Up?
Achilles manages over 28 supplier management schemes worldwide and these schemes have been developed to meet specific industry needs. FPAL is the UK, Dutch and Irish oil & gas industry specific service. UVDB is the UK Utility Industry specific service and Link-Up is the UK rail and transport industry supplier management service. Because each questionnaire has been developed by that specific industry, they ask for specific information appropriate to that sector, therefore your organisation will need a separate subscription if it wants to make itself visible to different industrial sectors. If you would like to learn more about other Achilles services please,
click here.
Where supplier verification and assessment is applicable for contracts of high operational risk, FPAL Verify is used. FPAL Verify allows your company to demonstrate compliance to health & safety, environment and competence & training requirements. Over 35 Oil & Gas companies use the system to qualify their supply chain through a standard assessment of their management systems, specifically tailored to the Oil & Gas industry requirement. If you would like to learn more about FPAL Verify please, click here.
Does the FPAL service conform to EC legislation?
FPAL is operated as a ‘qualification system’ under Article 30 of the EC Utility Directives. This means that subscribing organisations do not need to individually publish notices in the journal – Achilles publish bi-annual Qualification System Notices (QSNs) on their behalf.
Purchasers using FPAL no longer need to publish individual calls for competition in the OJEU.
Help?
For more information, please contact the FPAL Team:
First Point Assessment
7 Burnbank Business Centre
Souterhead Road
Altens
Aberdeen AB12 3LF
T: +44 (0)1224 337533
E: registration@fpal.com
1st January 2012