Procurement is a value chain. We model it as one.
The Value Chain Evolution Framework (VCEF) describes a market as the chain of steps that create value in it, in a form a machine can read. The Procurement Domain is that model applied to UK public procurement. Every WinCore asset and every Win Family app sits on a link of the chain.
Why a chain, not a database
A database holds records. A value chain says what each record is for: who needs something, how they go to market, who bids, who wins, who delivers. Model the chain and the data has meaning; the question at every link is the same — what does a reader need to know here, and what can AI do about it?
That separation — the data, the knowledge of the domain, and the action taken in a venture — is the Knowledge Domain Architecture. WinCore is the data and knowledge tier. WinPath and WinSignal are the action.
The chain, link by link
What is published at each step, and what AI does with it
Need
A buyer identifies a requirement. Pipeline notices and planned procurements say what is coming. AI reads them for timing and scope.
Route to market
The buyer chooses a route: an open tender, a framework or a dynamic market. The Register holds every route, who is on it and when it opens. AI matches a supplier's record to the routes it should join.
Tender
The notice is published. OCDS holds it within hours. AI qualifies it against a supplier's Elemental Record: fit, readiness, should we apply.
Response
The supplier bids. AI drafts from the supplier's own evidence, including social value, and checks compliance before submission.
Award
The buyer awards. The notice names the winner and the value. AI scores the demand the award creates for the winner's supply chain.
Delivery and renewal
The contract runs and comes back round. Monitoring reads what changes; the chain starts again, with a better record than before.
Where the family sits on the chain
WinCore — every link
Collects and reconciles the published record at each step. Holds OCDS and the Register.
WinPath — need to award
Elemental Record, discovery, qualification, response, monitoring. The supplier's path through the chain.
WinSignal — the award
Reads the award the day it is published and finds the demand it creates for the winner's suppliers.