Choosing a Website Supplier for a Malta Grant Application

A supplier is not suitable for a grant project simply because it advertises grant-friendly websites. You need a provider that can quote against the applicable requirements, deliver the agreed system and supply the records your application actually needs.

Establish which rules govern the purchase

Business Enhance is not one universal procurement checklist. Identify the specific scheme, call, guidance version and grant agreement. Do not transfer a rule from an older programme or assume every digital purchase has the same quotation requirement. Ask the administering body to clarify ambiguous items before you place an order.

For Digitalise your SME Call 2, the guidance describes alternative evidence routes for the investment proposal; the technical-specification/quotation option has its own conditions. Have your application adviser identify the route you are using. This article supplies a commercial preparation checklist, not a substitute for those rules.

Give every bidder the same functional brief

Describe what staff and customers must be able to do. Include page/content responsibilities, integrations, data migration, account ownership, testing and training. Specify essential constraints such as an existing booking system or a stock feed that must remain authoritative. Avoid specifications that merely copy one supplier's marketing language.

Provide a shared assumptions sheet. If one bidder expects you to supply final copy and another includes writing, their prices are not directly comparable. Record required delivery evidence alongside each major function. This makes the quote useful both as a purchase decision and as a later acceptance checklist.

Request transparent quotations

Ask suppliers to identify their legal business details, the proposed solution, implementation work, third-party charges, payment milestones and support arrangements. Explain the documentation your adviser says is required. A capable developer should be able to distinguish what it can confirm from information only the programme administrator can approve.

Do not ask a supplier to invent unrelated quotations, backdate agreements or describe ordinary renewals as different expenditure. If a provider is related to your business, disclose the connection for assessment. A neat-looking document cannot repair a purchase that fails the applicable conditions.

Match the contract to the approved scope

Keep an agreed list of deliverables and exclusions. If the chosen proposal changes after approval, record the reason and obtain any required permission before treating the change as covered. Agree who owns licences and data, what happens if the provider changes personnel and what handover material must be supplied.

Set milestones around demonstrable work. A completed homepage is not evidence that stock reconciliation or payment notifications function correctly. Use representative test cases and ask for results that someone in your business can understand and repeat. Keep records of defects and their resolution.

Keep a practical evidence folder

• Approved scope and the exact proposal accepted.
• Clarifications, supplier-selection records and change approvals.
• Agreements, invoices and the payment evidence actually required.
• Delivery, training, licence and acceptance records.
• The current guidance and grant agreement used for your decisions.

Assign responsibility for that folder before delivery begins. Your accountant, application adviser and supplier have different jobs; make the handoffs explicit. Our grant-application planning guide shows how to organise the wider decision without promising funding or presenting Kollox as a grant-awarding body.

Sources and review

Official references checked on 18 October 2026. Provider terms, funding calls and technical documentation can change; verify the applicable version before committing to a purchase or application.

• Digitalise your SME Call 2 application and procurement requirements
• Practical implementation and claim guidance linked by the programme