1. Complete application form
The first step to register or qualify a business on Link-up is to complete the online application form.
Upon receipt of your application form and subscription fee a link to an online questionnaire will be sent to you to allow you access.
2. Complete questionnaire
The questionnaire collects information regarding your business to enable members of the Link-up scheme to consider your business for potential or continued work in the UK rail sector. Examples of the type of information required is given below – please note that your questionnaire will be configured based on the goods, services or works that you wish to supply.
- Financial & Legal
- QualityHealth & Safety
- Environmental
- Professional & Technical
- Insurance
- Product & Service specific questions.
Your business can demonstrate its capabilities by selecting one or more of the 2900 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 defined into one of three categories, depending on the business impact to the Link-up members:
Registration – registration product code are deemed not to be business critical or import any risk.
Scored Evaluation – product codes in this category are deemed to be business critical, import a risk and typically be of a higher contract value. Specific questions relating to experience and technical capability will be asked and your questionnaire will be evaluated and scored against a marking scheme agreed by members of Link-up.
Auditable – auditable product codes are cover products and services which relate to works undertaken on the railway infrastructure and your business will therefore be required to undergo a Link-up Audit in addition to the Link-up questionnaire. To find out more about the Link-up Audit scheme click here.
Product group booklet
A full listing of the Link-up product codes can be viewed here. This clearly indicates whether each product code is Registration, Scored Evaluation or Auditable.
Certain product codes also require Network Rail Product Acceptance before qualification can be completed – please see below for details.
3. Submission & evaluation of questionnaire
The above graphic identifies the process that your application goes through in order to achieve fully qualified status on the Link-up portal.
The questionnaire is divided into two parts, code justification questionnaire (CJQ) and supplier profile questionnaire (SPQ). Initially access is provided to the CJQ. Upon receipt of your completed CJQ the Link-up team will perform various quality checks on the information provided.
All this is of course online. If your business has applied for one or more scored evaluation or auditable product codes then your questionnaire will be evaluated, scored and the results published on the Achilles Rail portal.
For auditable product codes successful completion to this stage triggers a Link-up Audit. 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.
4. Registration/Qualification on the Achilles Rail portal
Your questionnaire will be uploaded to the Achilles rail website for all members of Link-up to have access to when sourcing and selecting suppliers against the product codes that you have registered or qualified for. You are advised to regularly review your questionnaire and ensure that the information available to members of Link-up is kept up-to-date in order that your business doesn’t miss any relevant contract opportunities.
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