CPC Group Ltd Terms & Conditions 

‍These conditions are the current conditions of Crown Partners Consultancy Ltd (CPC Group LTD - the Supplier) and are applicable to every contract with the purchaser (the buyer) of the supplier’s product and/or services.
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‍General.
1.       Any variation of these conditions in any document of the buyer is ineffective unless accepted in writing by the supplier. The buyer agrees to be bound by these terms as the over-riding basis for contract without exception.
2.       The terms and conditions are applicable to the buyer and are also binding to any agents, sub-contractors or third parties employed by the buyer or howsoever associated.
3.      All orders must be confirmed in writing via the signing of an order confirmation sent by the supplier.  Orders cannot be accepted on the basis of verbal instructions or solely through the provision of a purchase order provided by the buyer.

‍Description of Goods or Services provided under this agreement.
‍4.       The services to be provided under this agreement are as described below. Where an additional document such as a proposal or a separate project brief are referred to for the description of services described, both parties agree that they are legally bound by the description of those services as described in the documents and versions detailed herein.
5.       All bid services are subject to buyer obligations section below.
6.       Where services as described overleaf include deal mapping (described as identification of opportunities for the buyer to supply their product or services to a public sector body) the buyer shall deliver up to the supplier a copy of their existing sales pipeline on a bi-weekly basis to avoid duplication of effort, the first document to be provided no later than 48 hours after the date upon which the buyer enters into the contract
7.       If a buyer fails for whatever reason to comply with clause 6, the buyer agrees that the supplier shall bear no responsibility for the duplication of any opportunity which the buyer was already aware of and that the opportunity(ies)in question are properly chargeable under this agreement.
8.      Where the service includes a retainer, this shall be for a 12-month period with a 6-month break clause.  Retainers include a further obligation for a ‘win-fee’ as described in the order form.

‍Buyer Obligations.
‍9.       The client shall provide the appropriate contact points with appropriate delegated authority to comply with requirements of the procurement necessary to fulfil bid content to include as a minimum technical lead, commercial lead, delivery/service management.
10.    The buyer commits to supply relevant and reasonable requested data, information, sign off, and agree to the submission of content prepared by CPC GROUP LTD on behalf of the client or agreement to terms of the contract for which the buyer is submitting a bid within 24 hours of a request from CPC GROUP LTD.
11.    CPC GROUP LTD shall not be responsible for the late supply of the above by the buyer. All approved data shall be submitted to CPC GROUP LTD no later than 48 hours before the close date of the tender process.  For the purpose of clarity this is no later than close of business 1 week before deadline.
12.    The customer acknowledges the limitations of this offer as described in the services to be delivered as described by CPC GROUP LTD in the Scope of Services section of the Order Form.
13.   Any breach of clauses  9, 10, 11 or 12 shall invalidate the moneyback guarantee and all sums will remain due irrespective of circumstance.

‍Money-Back Guarantee (when applicable).
‍14.    CPC GROUP LTD shall not be held liable for any performance of the customer or Government buyers, or any cancellation or rejection of their submission due to inaccurate information agreed by the buyer to be submitted as part of their bid which may or may not result in purchase of the Customer’s services and shall not be deemed to be cause of refund under the money back guarantee.
15.    In the unlikely event of a services or services not resulting in an award of contract to the buyer CPC GROUP LTD will return the Buyer’s payment within 14 days of the Government’s formal announcement of successful Suppliers.  CPC GROUP LTD reserve the right to appeal at our own expense before the end of the standstill period on behalf of the buyer. In the event our appeal is successful, the money back guarantee shall not apply. The amount returned will be based on the number of unsuccessful services pro-rata and subject to a ‘material’ breach in the performance of the contract by CPC GROUP LTD. Further details of the terms of this cover are detailed further into this document.
16.   Where the submission from the buyer includes one or more services, the money back guarantee applies to the proportion of services submitted which failed to be awarded. For example, a £15,000 fee for 3 services charged equally shall receive a refund of £5000 in the event only two of the three submissions are awarded.

‍Payment terms.
‍17.    All orders must be paid for by cheque or BACS.
18.    Under the Late Payments of Commercial Debts (interest) Act 1998, the buyer agrees that the supplier is legally entitled to charge interest on any payments or part payments outstanding after the 14-day terms at the supplier’s discretion.  This will be charged at the Bank of England base rate plus 8%. In any circumstances where for whatever reason this act is deemed inapplicable, the buyer accepts that interest will be accrued daily at 10% above the HSBC base rate.  We reserve the right to cease delivery of services and all fees remain due.
19.    Unless credit facilities have been agreed in writing, by the Supplier, payment is required before despatch of data / research or delivery of services as described below.  Where credit facilities have been agreed payment is due within 14 days of date of invoice, and payable to the supplier.
20.    The buyer agrees that they shall not withhold any payment or part payment thereof under any circumstances as described under clauses 17 and 18 of this agreement.
21.   Any Gain share/commission payments agreed as part of the contract shall be payable once the client has received their payment.

‍Liability.
‍22.   Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy of any data supplied, the supplier bears no liability for the inaccuracy of such data where the supplier can demonstrate to the buyer that such inaccuracy was as a result of misleading data being supplied to the supplier by any source whatsoever in the execution and delivery of the services rendered under this contract. The buyer hereby agrees not to hold the supplier responsible for any loss, damage or costs whatsoever, howsoever caused as a result of inaccuracy of any data provided under or in any way connected to this agreement.
23.   The supplier will make every effort to ensure the delivery of services in accordance with any deadline(s) set out in this agreement. However, due to the nature of data supplied, the supplier is reliant on access to third parties such as, but not exclusive to, people or external information sources beyond the control of the supplier. Therefore, the supplier accepts no liability for loss or damage howsoever arising from any failure to meet any set delivery schedule, such a schedule to be deemed to be an estimated delivery date rather than a guaranteed contractual commitment from the supplier to the buyer.
24.   If any of the enclosed terms are found by a court to be unenforceable, the remainder of this agreement shall stand.

Cancellation.
‍25.   The buyer has the right to cancel this order within 7 days of the date of the order. Notice must be given in writing and by Recorded Delivery.  There are no other circumstances in which cancellations will be accepted.
26.   Should work have already commenced at the instruction of the buyer prior to cancellation being received by the supplier under the terms of this agreement, the buyer agrees to reimburse the supplier for work carried out up to and including the date upon which cancellation was received in compliance with clause 1.
27.   The supplier shall have the right to cancel the order under reasonable grounds and shall not be liable for any loss howsoever arising in relation to Buyer Obligations in this document and the Service Delivery document.
28.   Cancellation will incur charges for any work already delivered as a proportion of the work undertaken between commencement of the contract and the proposed submission date.
29.   Where up-front bid management fees are discounted as a benefit of retained services agreed in a proposal, in the event of cancelled or deferred retainer services, the full bid management fee will immediately become due.

‍Jurisdiction.
‍30.   These Terms and Conditions constitutes the contract and no employee of the buyer has a right to vary the same.
31.   Any court proceedings arising out of a contract, where the advertising services have been carried out in England and Wales will be issued at, heard and determined by, the Exeter Crown Court in accordance with the Laws of England & Wales.

CPC Group can be contacted via the following:
Enquiries@crownpartners.co.uk
24 Hunts Field Close, Lymm, England, WA13 0SS
Registered number 16710028

Customer Obligations
The customer MUST adhere to the requirements below for a bid to be successful. Should any of these requirements fall short of expectation, the success of the bid is compromised and as such CPC Group cannot be held responsible. Naturally, we will endeavour to ensure this does not happen by managing the process and detailing a fair service level agreement, only requesting what is realistic and essential in terms of the client workload and timing. We will also ensure that the customer is notified at least once prior to a request deadline passing, to give the customer every chance to address the outstanding requirement before the SLA is breached. 

Customers must respond to our requests for information within the following timings: 
•Pre-ITT: 5 business days
•ITT: 48 hours 
•Submission week: 24 hours 
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- Clients must inform us of any concern or problem answering our questions within 24 hours of receipt.
- Clients must share portal login details with us to enable us to complete the process (because only one login per company is allowed) 
•Clients take responsibility for their own pricing, which must be submitted at least 10 business days prior to a submission deadline. 
•Clients must provide multiple points of contact, at least 2 within the business, to ensure a smooth process in the event a member of your team is ill or on leave. 
•Clients must monitor their own portals (daily) during the ‘evaluation period’ and alert CPC Group to any new clarification questions. We cannot support if we are not aware. 
•Clients must read the tender document and flag any concerns over suitability within 24 hours of release 
•Clients must pay their bills in full and on time. Failure to do so will result in an immediate hold on all work and put the application into jeopardy. This will also break the SLA and forfeit any guarantees. 

Our Obligations and Guarantee
We endeavour to provide a seamless service by managing workload and the process, and making customer expectations clear in advance, prior to beginning any work, and request that customers confirm contractual agreement of these terms via email. In the event the customer is at risk of non-compliance with their SLA after initial request, we will notify them of this at least 24 hours prior to the deadline to allow time to rectify. If the customer fails to comply despite the additional notification, then we will notify them of failure to comply. We will still endeavour to complete the bid successfully however cannot be held responsible for the outcome, should the SLA agreement bebroken. In the unlikely event the bid fails, we will organise an engagement call to discuss next steps and alternatives to mitigate fallout in the first instance. In the event there is no alternative or next step possible, the validity of the conditional guarantee will be reviewed in line with the customers adherence to their SLA through the entire process, and only in the event of a material error by CPC Group. Any refund is associated to the failed element (for example the fee associated to 1 failed lot, as opposed to all lots, should multiple lots have been bid for). Examples of a material error are:
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•CPC failing to complete a mandatory question in the bid process
•CPC entering information into the wrong fields
•CPC missing a deadline through our own fault
•CPC failing to advise the customer of a mandatory requirement

The following are examples that are NOT a material error:

•Client providing false or incorrect information that we then use in the application
•Client failing on their pricing
•Client failure to advise CPC of a mandatory exclusion for example not informing us of a director’s status or a financial shortfall. •Client not adhering to the SLA
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In the event of a failure CPC can and will appeal the decision within 10 days of notice, should there be grounds for appeal. Should the customer refuse to exercise this right, the conditional money back guarantee above will be forfeit. Procurement Bodies can make last minute changes to the scope and timing of a framework, and this is outside of our control, though we tend to have a deep understanding of the way frameworks evolve over time, as is our subject matter expertise, on occasion unpredictable changes can occur. If the contracting authority/ procurement body make changes to the timeline or scope of a procurement, this is entirely out of CPC’s control and does not constitute a material error on our part. Should the timing of a procurement be delayed by the procurement body, CPC will pause the process and re-engage at the appropriate time in line with the new timeline of delivery and submission deadline. Should the proposed lot or scope be altered by the procurement body to such a degree that the framework falls completely out of scope for the client, CPC will endeavour to switch the customers bid to an upcoming agreement of greater relevance. If the customer refuses to be switched to an alternative agreement, then they can exercise their right to cancel in line with the conditions above.