epractice: eprocurement workshop 25 may 2011 - richard baker

© Sequence 2011

Sell2WalesUsing procurement to stimulate economic development

Richard Baker

Managing Director

© Sequence 2005 © Sequence 2011

Introduction / about us

• We’re a digital Agency

• Extensive private & public track record

•We’re passionate about e-Government

• We focus on great web user experiences

• We’re not a vendor

• We’re a solution provider of:

• Portals & web applications

• Intranets & extranets

• Mobile solutions• Context:

• Pre-award phase

• eNotification / eNoticing

• (eSubmission/ eAwarding)


•25.1% economically inactive (21% UK)

• Decline of primary and secondary industry

• >99% of businesses SMEs

• GVA of £44,333m (2007)

• 10th out of 12 UK regions (2007)

• Output 90% of EU25 average (2002)

• Desire to grow Tertiary ‘service’ sectors

• Reliance on public sector employment

Introduction / Wales


Introduction / small country big change

• Devolution in Wales:

• Powers with the Economy, Health, Education and Local Government

• Policy, legislation (regulation/ guidance) or Assembly Measures (Welsh laws)

• £6Bn public sector spend

• 300,000 businesses = win/ win?


Background / savings to frontline

Buyers

£5Bn

Save £100

M• Standardisation of practices

• Up-skilling of the buyer community

• Improved techniques (consolidation, frameworks, consortia etc)

• Adoption of E-Procurement tools


Background / e-Procurement

• Three ‘steps’ to E-Procurement

• Easy wins first

• Quantity/ big hits


• For buyers:

• Provide buyers with free tools and make them good

• It must interoperate

• Make it easier to advertise/ find suppliers

• How can suppliers be up-skilled to engage with the public sector?

• Make it flexible

• For suppliers:

• It must be free

• It must be easy to use

• It must be relevant

• How can we make it more efficient (self service)

• Low value is what matters

Background / the e-information brief

• Surprisingly liberal UK approach:

• No legislation for digital signatures

• No mandate for use of national portal


Barriers / different agendas

Value WalesDepartment for

Enterprise & Transport

BuyersSuppliers


Barriers / first agenda item

Buyers SuppliersGoods & services

> X for < £

< X for > £


LegislationD

E&T

Valu

eW

ale

sBuyers Suppliers

• Best practice:

• I’m local!

• Hand written quotes are OK?

• I know the buyer...

• Best value:

• Not always cheapest

• Not always local/ de-risk

• Sustainability

Barriers / second agenda item


• Consultation, consultation and consultation...

• Focus on the mandatory – OJEU 1st low value 2nd

• Make it ‘frictionless’ - key once...

• Do not legislate (very British...)

• Make it one for all (irrelevant of region/ size/ sector)

• Accommodate differing procurement practices

• Offer supplier list/ closed RFQs (avoid the fear of overload)

• Make it free

• Need to develop ability:

• Develop the supply chain

• Provide support for buyers

Barriers/ removing them…


• Private sector portal – definitive ‘touch point’

• Notice searching:

• View OJEU, non OJEU , RFQ notices and Tier 1 (e.g. Sub contracts)

• Welsh notices and wider EU notices

• Subscribe to automated E-mail notification of new opportunities

• Procurer searching:

• Locate buyers who buy your service/ product

• Maintain a detailed visible profile for procurers

• Supplier development:

• Education/ training/ support

• Partnerships/ collaboration

Solution / suppliers


• Public sector portal – first step in ‘e’

• Notice creation:

• OJEU notices

• Non OJEU notices (Bilingual)

• RFQs

• Tier 1 (e.g. sub contract)

• Supplier Searching:

• Supplier database

• Approved supplier lists

• Flexible solution:

• Scales to different procurement organisations/ structures

• Process driven – to help with compliance

• 3rd sector, schools etc.

Solution / buyers


Metrics / key milestones

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Better Value Wales

report published

Sell2Wales strategy

commissioned

Sequence commissione

d

Sell2Wales strategy

publishedNPW site launched

50,000

suppliersRFQ

functionality included

£2Bn notices published

10,000 suppliers 200

procurement organisation

s

1500 procurers

2009 2010

2011 2012

£10 Billionadvertised

5,000notices

V2.0

1st OJEU notice sent

Squid


Metrics / How is it being used?

• Buyers:

• 364 Welsh procurement ‘entities’

• >3,000 procurement users across these organisations

• ~ 160 notices published monthly

• 10,000 notices published to date

• Suppliers:

• 52,000 registered suppliers

• 12,000 matched alerts sent daily

• £15Bn notices advertised to date

• Achievements:

• 20% of the Welsh supplier & 80% of buyer communities registered

• Contracts awarded to Welsh suppliers increased from 35% (2004) to 50% (2010)

• Platform used to advertise >60% of Welsh purchasing

• 71% of suppliers would recommend Sell2Wales to other businesses


• Single site for suppliers, buyers and tier 1 contractors

• Move away from procurement jargon

• Improved performance and security

• Focus on improved user experience:

• Google type keyword searches

• Location searches (including radius)

• Faceted search

• Saved searches not profile based

• Vastly improved CPV search

• Improved matching

• Planned construction projects

• Configurable email frequency

• ‘Complex’ suppliers (branches)

• Improved supplier search (partners?)


Conclusion / the need for a ‘hub’

Hub

(Supplier Questionnaire Unified Information Database)


Conclusion / some parting thoughts

• Key lessons learned:

• Recognise the economic development benefits of public procurement (it’s an opportunity not an overhead)

• Don’t focus exclusively on the transactional savings/ benefits - think long term

• Suppliers expect Facebook/ Amazon/ eBay – not an ‘exposed’ software solution

• Interoperability is key – it’s an open market!

• It’s not just about the buyer...:

• Don’t let the buyers drive this, it needs to be in partnership with Economic development teams

• Think from the supplier perspective as well as the buyer

• Be wary of procurement platform extensions – you need user experience to be core


Conclusion / some parting thoughts

• A model others are following…

• A model others are following....

• Why re-invent?

© Sequence 2011Richard Baker

Managing Director

[email protected]

+44 (0)29 20935222

@Richlybaked

Sell2WalesUsing procurement to stimulate economic development

epractice: eprocurement workshop 25 may 2011 - richard baker

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