Procuring digital products and services - our lessons so far: Introduction .
THE WORLD IS MOVING TO DIGITAL.
Some organisations are well on their way. Many are at the beginning of their journey. Most are still working out what to do and how to do it.
Procurement, in too many important places, continues to be unfairly perceived as a hindrance rather than help. Organisations want to work in an agile way but often procurement is an afterthought. For years people have either ignored it or forgot about it. Equally, the procurement profession, for whatever reason, continues to struggle to make its voice heard.
‘Our lessons so far’ is a collection of blog posts primarily aimed at the procurement profession. It is a candid account of our experiences of working with digital folk. The same folk who some believe to have reduced governance and poor adherence to financial value.
We fundamentally know this is not true. We want to bust these myths with real life examples and provide insights. That is our aim of the ‘Our lessons so far’ collection.
Digital and technology leaders need to pivot to deliver their vision and business objectives and the only way they can is with procurement professionals helping them do so. That means you. This is not just a public sector issue, but widespread in the private sector - banking, retail and charity sectors, to name a few.
In order to be successful in delivering digital services you need to become experts in ‘user-centred design’ and ‘multidisciplinary delivery’. You need to submerge yourself in these two areas in every way.
The rules for buying (especially in government and the wider public sector) can be tricky and complex but the process is necessarily open, inclusive and transparent. That is what buying digital services should be based on:
delivering real user needs
open industry engagement
easy to use documentation
efficient and effective contracts using plain language
‘Our lessons so far’ isn't designed to be everything to everyone, neither is it definitive - technology markets change quickly.
But it is a start.
It is our attempt at sharing our experiences so others can learn from them.
Curshaw are bold and dynamic and we put ourselves out there. We lead by example, hoping others follow and helping procurement push forwards.
‘Our lessons so far’ looks at the many different aspects of procuring products and services which digital teams need. Where there are common connections we recommend grouping into areas such as:
requirement and industry engagement
community of practice and governance
contracting for digital services and performance data
tender documentation and plain language contracts
delivery, contract management and exiting
creating a digital category
Many procurement functions focus most of their efforts in the procurement stage of the commercial lifecycle, thereby giving less attention to both:
pre-procurement (understanding the user needs and market engagement) and
post-procurement (delivery, contract management and exit).
In our opinion this needs a complete reset.
In the public sector the ‘procurement’ phase is where the least amount of innovation and risk lies, as there are comprehensive regulations and standard processes to follow. As such, we believe less effort should be spent on the procurement phase and more effort on pre- and post-procurement phases.
As an entire contracting life cycle, consider how much time is spent understanding a market and its innovations or managing a contract, versus the procurement of the contract?!
