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Introduction and Objectives
Quicklinks
Introduction
Objectives of the Toolkit
What the Toolkit is Not
Strategic Procurement Overview
Introduction
Scottish Public Sector Procurement
The Scottish Public Sector spends around £8 billion each year with thousands of different suppliers of goods and services. This expenditure goes through over 200 buying organisations across the Scottish Public Sector, frequently buying similar goods and services. There is a significant opportunity to leverage regional and sectoral spend to achieve greater value for money through collaborative working. This will require procurement professionals, service-users and suppliers to work closely together to drive these improvements.
In addition, there are a number of internet-based enabling technologies, collectively referred to as eSourcing and eProcurement, that will help improve operational purchasing processes. This will enable procurement staff to focus on high value adding services like sourcing, supplier relationship and service management. These new technologies will also improve requisitioning and buying processes for users of the new systems across the organisation and help suppliers improve their fulfilment processes and further reduce costs.
Scottish Public Procurement Toolkit
The Toolkit provides best practice guidance and is recommended to all Scottish public sector staff who are involved in procurement. It is aligned to the Procurement Policy Manual, which expands the mandatory policy as defined in the Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM). SPFM must be adhered to for all procurements involving goods, services, consultancy, research and works/construction.
Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM).
Procurement Policy Manual
Objectives of the Toolkit
The purpose of the Scottish Public Procurement toolkit is to support procurement professionals in the Scottish Public Sector in the process of developing and implementing commodity strategies.
The toolkit has four main objectives:
To provide a step-by-step guide to profiling a commodity, developing and implementing a commodity strategy
To provide a set of templates that User Intelligence Groups can use to collate and analyse the data required ensuring that the most appropriate strategy for the commodity is defined
To standardise the strategic procurement process across organisations in order to facilitate collaboration and associated benefits
To advise on the the legal and policy obligations involved at each stage of the procurement process
The final commodity strategy document is made up of templates that are contained in the following sections of the toolkit. The Commodity Strategy Index below list the key documents and suggests minimum and optional requirements for a complete strategy.
Commodity Strategy Index
What the Toolkit is Not
The toolkit is aimed at procurement professionals and those who spend most or all of their time on procurement related activities. It is not a basic introduction to procurement for beginners.
The toolkit is procurement specific. It is not intended to be be a general project management methodology such as PRINCE2, or to replace the Gateway Review process for high-risk, mission critical projects, although it can be used in conjunction with both PRINCE2 and Gateway Reviews if required. Nor is the Toolkit a policy
Using the Toolkit in a Wider Project Context
No procurement project exists in a vacuum. Although the tookit gives advice and guidance on how to set up and manage User Intelligence Groups and develop and inplement commodity strategies, it should in most cases, be used as part of a wider project or programme management structure. A typical PRINCE2 project structure is shown below.
Typical Project Structure
All organisations have different management structures, however there should be clear reporting and escalation lines between the teams responsible for individual commodities and senior management. In all cases there should be someone that the team can call upon to set strategic direction, escalate risks and issues that cannot be resolved within the team and sign-off of key stages when required.
The toolkit is primarily aimed at developing and implementing procurement strategies for supplies and services. The Construction Procurement Manual should be consulted for detailed guidance on works and construction related projects.
Construction Procurement Manual
Strategic Procurement Overview
Strategic procurement covers the whole procurement cycle from identification of need to the contract management and review process. It is therefore wider than traditional purchasing, which covers only the tendering and contracting parts of the process.
Much more emphasis is placed on the work that needs to be done engaging with key stakeholders and understanding the market before the tendering process begins, and in ensuring that the contract continues to meet the users requirements after award.
Strategic Procurement Overview
Many of the templates within the toolkit are in PowerPoint format to ease communication at stakeholder meetings.
To save these templates in a version that you can edit yourself you should click the appropriate template hyperlink, right mouse click over the "Open File" link and select the option "Save Target As".
This Toolkit has been developed from work done by various organisations inlcuding Capgemini, NHS National Procurement, Glasgow City Council, OGC, and IDeA. The Scottish Procurment Directorate gratefully acknowledges all those who contributed.
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