Working with providers to help your procurement process

What does a good procurement process look like? Something we often see in the market are knee-jerk reactions. A problem within an organisation has been identified so a tender has gone out to market in a bid to rectify it. Whilst this can work, it pays to have an intimate understanding of what your problem is, how you would like to solve it and the impact the solution will have on your team and the future of your service.  

Ultimately, understanding your procurement needs is the first step of your new project.  

Once understanding is established, it makes life a lot easier (for you and a provider) when the implementation phase of the project gets underway. 

Understanding procurement to understand the project 

At CACI, we use our proprietary FUSION project management methodology to underpin every implementation that we deliver to customers. The first phase of this is to shape the project. Working closely with your team, we establish what the project will look like, what your needs are and what success will look like. This is the stage where buy-in needs to be established across your teams, from management to end-user levels.  

Having a fundamental understanding of why you’re purchasing a new technology solution makes this stage far more straightforward. It’s very difficult to elaborate on vague concepts and ideas. 

Helping your chosen technology provider to help you is half the battle: 

• What are the long-term, strategic aims of your service? 
• What areas of practice do you need the technology to assist with? 
• How will it positively impact your team? 
• How you will resource the project internally? 
• What timelines are you aiming to achieve? 
• How will training be conducted? 
• How will the system handle departures and new starters? 
• What do you want the system to look like in five years’ time? 

Starting with the why 

What do you want and why do you want it? It sounds like such a simple question, but a failure to grasp this point creates major issues over the lifecycle of a project. It makes it difficult to obtain buy-in internally, whilst making it difficult to explain to a provider what you need their technology to achieve for you. 

This needs consideration of everyone involved, from those responsible for the procurement through to those who will be working with the technology and service users. Across this spectrum, what does good look like? 

This is when knee-jerk reactions can hamper the success of a project, where it is deemed to be important to be implementing a system in response to a situation, rather than considering the value proposition and impact of new software thoroughly. If a decision has been made in haste, without due consideration as to how it will impact end users and service users, then the definition of success will likely deviate from the originally intended definition. They may well feel that the existing solution works well for them, too. Change management is another important consideration from the outset – FUSION change management. 

It is also important to understand your existing technology infrastructure. Often we see cases of competing influences within an organisation, whereby a decision is made as to the infrastructure based upon cost and/or convenience for the IT team. Whilst these are undoubtedly important considerations, it can leave organisations relying upon software which doesn’t meet the required outcomes for staff and end users. 

Understanding why you need new technology and focussing on those outcomes, before taking a tender to market, helps the lifecycle of the project. 

How CACI can help 

If you are looking for new solutions, it is worth speaking to providers before entering a formal procurement process. Of course, procurement needs to be conducted along specific guidelines set by your organisation but speaking to providers to gauge an understanding of their technology and how it might benefit your organisation is a good idea. 

Furthermore, at CACI we have worked with countless customers on implementation and project management. We developed FUSION based upon the understanding of project delivery accrued  over thousands of projects. We can work with you and your team outline how the project would be developed and delivered, outlining each step to help you achieve project buy-in across everyone affected. 

Procurement frameworks 

The final step, once you’ve understood what the project is and what success will look like, is understanding how you can procure. CACI is listed on several public service procurement frameworks. Going through this route can help to avoid lengthy tenders and legal wrangling over contracts. Talking to providers in advance will help in gathering this knowledge so that once you’re ready to move, the procurement process runs as smoothly as possible.