Seventh National Public Procurement Conference

The Scottish Government is committed to improving access for companies to public sector contracts. A major step to remove some of the bureaucracy for both private and public sector will be the introduction of the Standard PQQ. This session will inform delegates about common issues regarding pre-qualification and will outline the plans for the introduction of the PQQ approach in Scotland.

Willie will offer an overview of the current procurement landscape and will highlight the challenges experienced by many bidders and buyers alike. Although this presentation is entitled The Bidder’s Eye View, Willie will also draw on his experience of working as an assessor and a technical advisor. He will focus on the often extreme pressures experienced within the construction sector and what that can mean at a practical level to buyers and bidders. Construction is the most expensive and most competitive procurement sector in Europe, largely as a result of the scale of the process which is often used, the time taken to bid, high numbers of bids and the time needed to assess them rigorously. These factors can often cloud the decision making process and suggests that great care should be taken in the formulation of that process well before any opportunity is advertised. Willie will highlight many common problems which exist and will conclude with a vision, which can hopefully assist buyers and will streamline the process for all concerned.

Smaller publicly funded bodies face the challenge of ensuring that they can constantly increase capability and have the required resources to cost-effectively manage complex EU procurement. To address this issue, APUC has put in place a shared service-based solution that has been highly successful with interest in the model now being expressed by other Centres of Expertise and sectors.  In this session, APUC talks through the background, the resource modelling and the benefits achieved.

The EU and Scottish legislative requirements of procurement are changing. This workshop provides an update on progress of the EU modernisation work and a national perspective on consolidating Scottish Legislation. There will be opportunities to interact with the group on what is important to you as a procurement professional and to your organisation.

Engaging effectively with the market and developing strategic supplier relationships is critical not just to the delivery of savings and operational success of our collaborative contracts, but also helps us exploit opportunities in the supply chain to directly contribute to economic recovery and growth. Collaborative leads from across the Scottish public sector are working together to target our key suppliers in a co-ordinated way to develop strategically beneficial relationships. Our ability to influence suppliers and their supply chains increases exponentially when we work together across the public sector at a national and UK level. This workshop will look at:

• Emerging SRM Strategy
• Aim of the strategy
• Exploiting collaborative relationships in government
• How we will implement

This session looks at the importance of Procure to Pay from a procurement manager’s viewpoint and how the Scottish public sector’s eCommerce shared service is being used to deliver contracts more effectively. The session will update you on new developments in the eCommerce shared service. Using a case study on the value of P2P for procurement managers, there will be advice on how to develop your own P2P Action Plan to obtain maximum value from contracts.

Enabling change through procurement allows organisations to achieve improved Procurement Capability Assessment results and deliver benefits to meet the pressures of today’s fiscal and economic environment. This workshop gives an opportunity to discuss techniques to implement change and, importantly, how to influence others to recognise the benefits professional procurement can bring.

With a commitment to a Sustainable Procurement Bill, Scotland will be one of the leading lights in the implementation of legislation on this subject. Using examples of best practice from around the world, this lively and interactive workshop will discuss “What should we include in the Bill?” This will be an opportunity for you to engage and influence ideas at an early stage in the development of the legislation.

Once the contract has been awarded, the implementation has to take place and the benefits realised, and we all know this can be challenging! This workshop will focus on three key elements that need to be considered to help you realise the full contract potential.

The Procurement Capability Assessments (PCA) highlighted supplier and contract management as an area for development. This session presents an opportunity to share experiences, identify good practice and compare current processes and procedures.

As part of the eCommerce Shared Service, a new suite of Professional Buying Tools are coming your way. In this session we will focus on understanding of the functionality of the technology and the benefits that the modules can bring. (eTendering/eEvaluation; eContract supplier management; and eAuctions).

The Supplier Engagement Working Group, Chaired by Liz Cameron of the Scottish Chamber of Commerce, has been instrumental in the positive development of several high-profile procurement reform initiatives such as the Standard Pre-Qualification Questionnaire and database, the Single Point of Enquiry Champions Group and the online Supplier Journey. Come along to learn how listening to feedback from suppliers can help make you an excellent public sector customer!

The Scottish Government published ' Scotland's Digital Future: A Strategy for Scotland' on 3 March 2011. The strategy sets out the commitment to develop a national plan during 2011 for the roll-out of next generation broadband across the whole of Scotland. The recently published Review of ICT Infrastructure in the Public Sector in Scotland by John McClelland, CBE recommends a new plan to address the issues and opportunities associated with large-scale public sector broadband infrastructure within Scotland.

This workshop will consider the alignment of these plans in terms of the Government’s vision for roll-out of next-generation broadband, including

• aggregation of public service demand for infrastructure and services to achieve value for money
• scope for public services investment to help build the infrastructure network and bring benefits to citizens and businesses
• the commitment to develop a national broadband plan to achieve availability to all by 2020, with significant progress by 2015