Victorian Government Procurement Process Design

Exco Partners was engaged by a Victorian Government Department review the Procurement and uplift the approach and detail in order to support more effective delivery and continuous improvement.

The review and subsequent implementation of the framework will enable greater consistency through the refinement of accessible process diagrams and workflows to guide detailed feasibility, engineering and design, procurement and delivery stages of major road projects.

The engagement aimed to identify, and where possible quantify, the specific process areas that have been impacted by changes to the procurement framework, benchmark the current state with other major infrastructure organisations operating within the same procurement framework, and identify potential process changes to improve process efficiency and effectiveness. The engaged sourced a significant data sample of completed procurement requests, developed and analysed the data to inform the design of the to be process models.

The engagement then moved to the implementation of the initial recommendations, specifically a fit for purpose to-be process model designed to reduce the number and frequency of non-conforming procurement requests, make the procurement process (regardless of procurement type) easier to consume, provide greater visibility of the in-flight procurement requests, and define a consistent way of working for the businesses procurement team.

The engagement included the development of an interim automated solution (share-point) to drive earlier stakeholder engagement, and consistent procurement advice to reduce the ‘time to procure
metric’.

Approach

The DMAIC six sigma approach was use to complete the engagement, as follows:

Define

The existing process was not well defined. The engagement documented the current
business practices and compared them to the stated procurement framework (owned by the MTIA).

Measure

A large sample of 1100+ completed procurements was undertaken to understand the
magnitude of the problem. A clear insight was the effort/value relationship on procurement activity.

Analyse

The analysis of the as-is process (via a series of quick start workshops), identified areas
of non-alignment with the MTIA and helped prioritise to-be changes

Improve

The as-is process was then reviewed via 3 difference lenses. The customer, the
approver and the MRPV procurement team to identify and prioritise the improvement areas

Control

In order to ensure uptake of the to-be process (from all stakeholder groups) a detailed
‘playbook’ for the procurement was developed referencing the new automated solution (also
developed).

Governance

The overall engagement was managed by an allocated Exco Partner – who was responsible for
service delivery and commercial oversight.
Skills, capabilities & systems

• Development and management of tendering strategies addressing good commercial and
  government policy and practice
• Development of project tender documentation, including Invitations for Expression of Interest,
  Requests for Proposals, Tenders and/or Quotes, Project Briefs and Service Agreements,
  incorporating:
  
  • Clear and measurable output specifications,
  • Performance standards and performance management requirements
• Advice on and/or management of Tender processes including:
  
  • Tender processes and evaluations (may include interactive tender processes and
    workshops)

Outcomes

The outcomes of the engagement:

• A clear, concise, consistent process for procurement regardless of type (new,
  variation or exemption) or value (less than or greater than $250k)
• A vastly improved customer experience for the departments business. An easier to consume
  process, and an automated procurement initiation document (PID) that improves the time taken
  to seek approval and provides visibility on the status of the procurement activity.
• A significant improvement in the effectiveness and efficiency of the departments procurement
  team’s output. More proactive advice as opposed to reactive execution (as was the case before
  this change)
• A closer alignment of the departments process with the overarching MTIA procurement framework with
  the express purpose of reducing the incidents of non-conforming procurement.

The performance of the engagement:
This engagement was impacted by a number of business issues that required changes to the initial scope, schedule, and timeframes of delivery (the introduction of new stakeholders and delays to the Sharepoint development environment being two issues that required changes to the priority and sequencing of deliverables). The engagement was completed within the agreed timeframes and within the agreed commercial construct to a very high quality standard.

As a value-add the Exco team have agreed to recurring reviews (initially fortnightly and then
monthly) to ensure the new process is embedded, review the performance of the automated solution
and review the data associated with team performance to ensure it is delivering as expected.