Dynamic Purchasing Systems: A Flexible Alternative to Frameworks

A dynamic purchasing system (DPS) is an entirely electronic, open process for purchasing commonly used goods, works or services. Unlike a framework agreement, a DPS must remain open to any supplier that meets the selection criteria throughout its lifetime. Suppliers may apply to join at any stage, and the authority must evaluate and admit qualifying suppliers within ten working days of receiving a complete application.

The DPS is established under Article 34 of EU Directive 2014/24/EU. There is no maximum duration limit (unlike the four-year cap on frameworks), making a DPS suitable for categories of recurring expenditure over long planning horizons. The OGP has encouraged use of DPS for categories where the market changes frequently, such as professional services, where new entrants should not be locked out by a closed list of pre-qualified suppliers.

To establish a DPS, the authority publishes a prior information notice and a contract notice announcing the system. The notice must describe the category of goods, works or services, the qualification criteria and the indicative quantities or values. All procurement under the DPS is conducted electronically; the eTenders platform supports DPS establishment and management for Irish contracting authorities.

Once the DPS is live, call-offs are awarded by mini-competition. The authority invites all admitted suppliers (or a relevant sub-category) to tender, evaluates responses against published criteria, and awards to the winning tender. Each call-off must be preceded by an adequate standstill period before contract execution, mirroring the requirements for above-threshold contracts. Authorities can divide a DPS into categories to allow targeted mini-competitions for specific sub-types of requirement.

The key advantage of a DPS over a multi-supplier framework is openness: new market entrants can qualify and compete throughout the life of the system, which is particularly valuable in fast-moving technology markets. A framework, once established, is closed — a supplier that was not awarded a place in the original competition cannot enter until the framework expires and a new one is established.

The trade-off is administrative burden: because all admitted suppliers must be invited to each relevant mini-competition, a large DPS with many suppliers can generate voluminous responses that take significant evaluation resource to assess. Frameworks, especially ones where suppliers are ranked or tiered, can allow more direct award or targeted mini-competitions with fewer respondents. For stable, mature markets, a framework may be more efficient; for dynamic or innovative markets, the DPS is generally the better choice.

Irish authorities that have operated DPS systems report that clear categorisation at establishment makes mini-competitions much more manageable. A DPS for professional services, for example, might define sub-categories by discipline (legal, engineering, financial) so that a mini-competition for legal advice is sent only to admitted suppliers in that sub-category rather than the entire DPS population.

Authorities should also establish a regular review cadence for the DPS admission queue — ideally weekly — so that new applicants are not left waiting beyond the ten-working-day statutory evaluation window. Failing to admit a qualifying supplier within that window is a procedural breach that could give rise to a challenge from the supplier concerned. GovIQ's procurement router can flag DPS admission deadlines automatically as part of the procurement programme management workflow.