Procurement Processes

Scalability of Interactive Procurement Processes

Post author:PME4U
Post published:January 31, 2017
Post category:Market Engagement Market Research Probity And Ethics Procurement Policy Procurement Processes Uncategorized
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Interactive procurement processes open up the channels of communication between supplier and buyer. They enable both sides to get a better understanding of the requirements and the solution that allows better deals to be brokered, bigger pies to be baked if you like. They also allow the gap between what the customer thinks they are getting and what the supplier is able to give to be narrowed. But often these processes are seen as complex and expensive exercises that require extended periods to execute. What if they could be adapted to allow any size procurement benefit from improved communication between the buyer and the seller.

Use of Subject Matter Expert in Procurement Processes

Post author:PME4U
Post published:January 29, 2017
Post category:Market Engagement Procurement Processes
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What are the benefits and risks associated with having a Subject Matter Expert involved in a procurement process and what role they can play. A Subject Matter Expert can position a project to achieve the very best outcomes, or they can choke the project into mediocrity, even potential failure. Let's take a look at how to get the very best value from these highly skilled, but specialised, advisors.

Procurement Tasks for quite times

Post author:PME4U
Post published:December 14, 2015
Post category:Capability Development Contract Management Procurement Processes Templates
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Many organisations have a slow down through festive seasons as many people head off on holidays and the volume of work often slows. So if you're lucky enough to be working during a quite time, what procurement tasks can you do to take advantage of the extra flexibility and set yourself up for when the pace picks up again?

Does your market engagement model surprise your vendors?

Post author:PME4U
Post published:August 16, 2015
Post category:Market Engagement Procurement Policy Procurement Processes
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When going to market for the provision of new goods or services, we are aiming to get the best deal we can and often in the shortest possible time, but are these two objectives mutually exclusive? Can you expect the best outcomes when you minimise the vendors response time? Does the market engagement model you currently use to engage the market often result in catching the suppliers unprepared and unable to provide a good response?

The real cost of low integrity procurement

Post author:PME4U
Post published:July 25, 2015
Post category:Capability Development Probity And Ethics Procurement Policy Procurement Processes
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Last year I noted two significant cases, amongst many others, of poor procurement practices resulting court cases and the payment of damages. Envoy Relocation Services successfully sued the Canadian Government for unfair treatment during successive procurement processes. The court awarded Envoy $30 million in lost profits and also directed the Government to pay Envoys $10 million legal costs; in another case, a major retailer sued a Central NSW coast council in Australia over a faulty process, resulting in damages of around $2 million being awarded to the retailer. The council later appealed and won, but the court, delays and internal staff costs must have been significant. While these commercial horror stories will capture the headlines and provide great examples for frightening clients during probity briefings, are the fines the only damage suffered by organisations through poor procurement practices resulting in low integrity procurement.

A simple guide to writing good criteria

Post author:PME4U
Post published:May 11, 2015
Post category:Evaluation Market Engagement Procurement Processes
Post comments:1 Comment

I've seen a lot of guides and presentations outlining, sometimes in great detail, what it takes to write a good criteria for an invitation document, but who can remember all of that. In reality, you can break it down into three areas of consideration. What do I want supplied; How will I know a supplier has it; How will I assess their responses.

Qld State Government – New Tender and Contract Templates

Post author:PME4U
Post published:March 21, 2015
Post category:Contract Management Contracting Frameworks Probity And Ethics Procurement Policy Procurement Processes Templates Tools
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As a key component of their goal of making it easier and more efficient for suppliers and agencies to do business with each other, in February this year the Procurement Transformation Division launched a new set of goods and services procurement invitation and contractual frameworks for use by all Government Agencies. If you are a supplier to or a buyer for the Queensland State Government and you haven't familiarised yourself with them yet, then it is high time you did. So what is new and what do we need to know about this new framework?

What can we learn from the Competitive Dialogue process model?

Post author:PME4U
Post published:April 4, 2014
Post category:Capability Development Market Engagement Market Research Procurement Processes
Post comments:1 Comment

Competitive dialogue is an approach to market that is somewhat akin to parallel negotiation, but instead of hashing out the finer points of the final contract, the aim is to have the market refine the specification before it is published to invite final offers. It utilises the additional parameters of shared intellectual property and a collaborative process in a controlled environment that retains competitive tension through to the signing of the final contract. First written into European procurement regulations in 2006, the methodology has become a preferred method of market engagement for complex projects in the UK and it is now written into the procurement policies in New Zealand, but it is largely unheard of in Australia. The process is designed for the strictly regulated public sector procurement environment of Europe, but is there something to be learned for other environments?

Contracting services with certainty when requirements are uncertain

Post author:PME4U
Post published:March 9, 2014
Post category:Capability Development Contracting Frameworks Market Engagement Procurement Policy Procurement Processes
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The whole concept of a contract is to provide certainty of the agreement between two or more parties, but what do you do if that certainty does not exist and you need to provide a level of certainty in the relationship?

The importance of compliance with policy

Post author:PME4U
Post published:January 30, 2014
Post category:Capability Development Procurement Policy Procurement Processes
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A few years ago I was told by a middle manager to stop referring to the policy "...as the policy is not always right". More recently I was in a procurement reform workshop and the statement was made that we should "...stop focusing on compliance and instead focus on outcome". Back a few years I was chatting to a bio chemist who was traveling the world reviewing quality systems, he said "Australia has some of the best quality systems I've seen anywhere in the world...none of them work, but on paper they look great". These are all symptoms of the same issue and often "reducing compliance" is seen as the answer, but what is really going on?