Food for thought: Rules-based purchasing

Those who sell consultancy to the public sector (and increasingly to the private sector) will be well aware of the procurement processes that they must navigate to win business. In the name of effectiveness, purchasing has become increasingly rules based.

The buyer's aim is to achieve best value through fostering competition to drive down prices and by creating a level playing field to give all comers a chance. But this has other implications. The procurement process becomes longer and more expensive for both the seller and the buyer. The approach also tends to commoditise purchases so that the intangibles associated with the delivery of service get ignored, frustrating the end user by seemingly making it more difficult to choose the supplier they would prefer to work with.

In addition, buyers have to get smarter at writing specifications. The spec must be tight enough to ensure that it will lead to proposals that will deliver the required outputs, but must not be so tight that it will squeeze out any scope for innovation. Sellers must be good at understanding the spec and writing a proposal that addresses it, demonstrating understanding of the business need as well as being priced competitively.

The result for the buyer and seller of consultancy services is that the pre-tender phase becomes more important than ever and to be able to explore options and approaches before the rules kick in is increasingly critical. Experience shows that if the consultant is not interacting effectively with the client at this stage, the chances of success are undoubtedly reduced.

Ed Moffatt