DCI FAQs
What is DCI Alert and how can it help me?
The DCI Alert service tailors contract opportunities information to your company's particular products or services, and delivers to you by email matching opportunities every working day. The DCI Alert service searches through the hundreds of contract announcements issued by defense agencies worldwide, including all parts of Europe, the USA, Asia, Africa and the Pacific Rim countries such as Australia and New Zealand.
DCI also provides you with the ability, through this website, to conduct individual searches for other contract opportunities and information in support of your tendering practices, in your own time, 24/7. DCI Online and the Alert service also allows you to monitor competitor activity.
DCI will not only provide you with a daily email containing contract opportunities that are relevant to the products and services that you provides; its Market Monitor service will provide you with essential market intelligence on issues that affect your organisation.
What information will I receive and how frequently will it arrive?
DCI is a comprehensive defense contract information service. It tracks tender opportunities for your company not only from the European Union and the USA but also from throughout the world. It includes European defense contracts published in the OJEU, and all UK MoD contract requirements published in MoD Defence Contracts Bulletin (MoD DCB) as well as contract opportunities from the major US related departments of defense.
DCI delivers to your company each working day, via email, both low- and high-value defense tender opportunities from around the world which matching your unique customer profile.
DCI Alert provides you with information on the worldwide defense market including:
- Open Contract Opportunities
- Sub-contractor Opportunities
- Possible Future Purchases
- Contract Awards
- Sale of Surplus Goods
- Defense News and Reports
- Details of future defense planning
- Your competitors' successes
- Access to historic defense contract information
We GUARANTEE that no other service can match the amount of contract/tender information that you can track through DCI every day.
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Why should I choose DCI over similar products?
If you are in business to succeed you need information quickly on as many appropriate new business opportunities as possible. DCI delivers contract information and market intelligence that you consider relevant through probably the best profile-builder there is, and yet, at the same time, allows you access to the DCI Online search service and resource centre to support your additional needs for information and assistance.
DCI subscribers are supported by a dedicated customer service team who are available to you via email or telephone every working day, and DCI is backed by BiP Solutions Ltd, Europe's leading provider of public sector contract information services.
So, if you want to receive international defense contract leads faster through services provided by the UK's leading contract information provider, the choice you make has to be DCI.
Unlike many other services, BiP Solutions' DCI service is continually reviewed and enhanced as and when new technology allows, to ensure the service offers subscribers optimum performance and content delivery.
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What information is required to build my DCI profile?
A DCI profile consists of three main criteria: keywords, CPV codes and countries. On submission, your profile will automatically be fed into the main DCI Alert system and used to provide you with matching published contract opportunities, which will be emailed directly to you on a daily basis. You may update your profile online as many times as you wish, completely free of charge, using the username and password issued to you upon registration.
CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) codes have been specially developed by the European Union for public procurement. CPV codes are the most reliable and accurate method of locating relevant contract opportunities. From the searchable database, select codes relevant to your products and services and paste them into your profile. You can conduct as many searches as necessary. Please remember to paste your selected codes after each search. CPV codes which are contained within your profile will be highlighted in your results.
To reinforce CPV codes, you can enter additional keywords and phrases applicable to your products and services. These words can either be complete or open-ended, e.g. 'Comput' will find contracts containing the word Computer, Computers or Computing; and when searching for a phrase, you can either search for a complete phrase or leave the last word of the phrase open-ended, eg 'Management Consult' will find contracts containing the phrase 'Management Consultancy', 'Management Consultants' and 'Management Consulting'. If you want to find exact words only - eg contracts which contain both the words Management and Consultancy (but not together as a phrase) - then you would need to insert these words individually under Exact Keywords. Keywords and phrases which are contained within your profile will be highlighted in your results.
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Is support available to assist with any queries?
Yes: As a DCI subscriber, you will have access to FREE support for both technical and contract information assistance, and we will even build your profile with you.
If you require further information or any assistance, please email dci@bipsolutions.com or call the DCI Helpdesk on 0845 270 7065.
If you lose your password you can enter your email address on the 'Forgotten Password' page. Your details will then be emailed to you.
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In what form is the contract information sent and can I print copies of contracts?
Following completion of your DCI profile, you will receive your contract opportunities as HTML files. However, you may choose to receive these as text only or zipped HTML. Please click on 'Preferences' within your profile if you wish to change the delivery format.
You can print individual contract notices and awards which have been issued in your daily email. Simply click on the 'Print Online' link which will take you to the individual contract and from there you can print in the normal manner.
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Can I monitor my competitors?
Yes: Enter your competitors' names in the Exact Keywords section. Please remember to include any abbreviations. You will then be notified of any contracts which have been awarded to your competitors, providing you have indicated, in your profile, that you wish to receive contract awards.
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Can I search for contract data?
Yes: Using the Contract Announcement Search Service within the DCI service you can search for recently published contracts. You can search through open contracts, awarded contracts, suppliers, issuing authorities, issue dates, locations and many more search terms. Once found, notices can be viewed, printed or stored.
You can also upgrade to the DCI Archive service to view past opportunities and award notices to help you identify contracts that will soon be due for renewal, as well as viewing past successes of your competitors, or to conduct research into other business services that you offer or are considering offering which may be of value to the public sector.
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Can I set up additional profiles/emails?
Yes: You may specify that DCI should email contract announcements matching your profile to as many email addresses within your organisation as you require, at a charge of £100 + VAT, per annum (€146.71), for each additional email address to cover the licence extension.
You may also choose to build more than one profile for your organisation.
For a breakdown on costs please email customer.support@bipsolutions.com or call the DCI Helpdesk on 0845 270 7065 for further information.
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Can I upgrade to DCI from another BiP contract information service?
Yes: If you already subscribe to a BiP Solutions contract search service of lower value and wish to upgrade to DCI, we can credit the remaining amount of your current subscription towards the cost of DCI at your written request.
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How do I arrange a subscription?
We offer you the opportunity to receive DCI at a specially discounted price for the first year, plus we give you access to the DCI Market Monitor service (free for the first year only and £350 + VAT (€513.49) for the second year), which provides you with market intelligence specific to your company's requirements.
On subscription you will be able to amend your Alert and Market Monitor profiles as often as you wish to ensure that it accurately describes the tender notices and market intelligence information that your company is specifically interested in. Thereafter you are free to amend your profile as you see fit. For a limited period an annual subscription to DCI costs only £760 + VAT (€1115.00), saving you £200 (€293.42) on the normal subscription price.