IT Planning 2004/2005 - Project Proposal Template

Project Title / Procurement Process /Document Management
BIAS / (Finance) Procurement
Project Sponsor / Karen Bowman
Author / Karen Bowman

1Background and Drivers

Procurement document issues

Procurement is the process from identification of need, through sourcing (including quotes/tenders/EU process) and negotiating/awarding contracts to the familiar and more automated purchase order-receipt-pay stage.

We have eProcurement developments for the later stages and a simple tool in the Procurement Office for the OJEU advert and eTender.

However we have templates / guidance and actual project documents in our office and also in the academic/support service areas in separate systems and paper at present. There is no standard approach to procurement document creation, file storage and access for team-working across the campus, although our staff do broadly follow the same steps. Document sharing is via multiple emails/copies. Academic colleagues find the procedure for OJEU (~£150k) cumbersome. Funding bodies can request detailed data on decision processes. Change is needed to make this simpler. A web-based solution is needed.

We need a tool for easy access for reviewing procurement documents and work in progress, especially for OJEU level tenders where legal compliance is required.

Why essential in 2004/5?

Procurement is an area where a large volume of information requests occur: from current or rejected suppliers or those interested in gaining our business or market researchers or even members of the public/pressure groups etc. interested in the University expenditure decisions, annually ~ £110M of public/charity money.

A Procurement Process /Document Management system which can deal with OJEU projects is deemed as essential and urgent in 2004/5 for 1 January 2005, Freedom of Information requests to any member of the University, requiring an answer in a matter of days, may not be met from current files (paper and electronic) as these are held in various Schools/Support Services and only partially in the Procurement Office.

Without an electronic procurement filing and document management system considerable procurement resource will be tied up in filing/ search rather than adding value to procurement. Recently a single forensic audit request – for one transaction with one School took 2 man-days of senior staff time to respond, due to disparate versions of documents/emails and systems used.

The new arrangements must be in place for 01 January 05 for Freedom of Information compliance. It is likely that enquiries will relate to recent high value projects to start with so it is proposed to focus on OJEU tenders initially.

Skills and Resources

The Procurement Office have no systems skills and little administrative resource and suffered a large turnover of staff in recent years. We have a reduced staff base, due to budget pressures.

Although EU level procurements are required to be referred to the Director of Procurement in planning guidance and in the University Procurement Manual guidance and research body rules, exact procedures/documents and project file references in each Support Service and School vary considerably.

There is a need for standard EU procurement project management processes and document workflow, easy access to filing and work in progress documents to allow academic colleagues to be able to monitor their projects and for our limited procurement staff to provide cover for each other in absences, as well as for FOI.

Suitably skilled resources are needed to support the Procurement Office to project manage and streamline the internal systems and business processes needed to implement changes within Schools/Support Services to achieve the University procurement strategy and implement standard good practice procurement project processes and document management workflows, which meet Schools/ Support Service areas needs.

The lead resource should be a process change manager, with a focus on bringing together common strands of the University procurement processes and disparate systems (computer and manual) currently employed into a coherent whole, using web and other means to make compliance with FOI and good practice easier.

Initial tasks will address EU threshold (~£150k) and above procurements.

A procurement/systems staff resource will be bid for in the planning round.

Way forward

During the current year, action will be taken to identify exemplars or technical solutions which promote good procurement workflows in a similar environment. There may be a software tool available for around £60,000p.a.TBC but further investigation is needed.

We would propose to introduce this system for Procurement Office -supported projects over EU threshold initially and then evaluate for further implementation in subsequent years. Once implemented this will be a multi-year project for support .

Objectives

To develop a solution to Procurement Process /Document Management which can address FOI requests by 1 January 05 and which creates a standard procurement project management process/filing system and document workflow initially for OJEU projects.

To support FPSSG Vision A to embed etc. procedures and workflows in systems, D to use new technology to enhance etc new business requirements and E to use appropriately recognised data standards.

Benefits

  • Total visibility of all tenders and relevant information (subject to rights and permissions) giving greater management control.
  • Correspondence Wizard quickly distributes information to Tenderers.
  • Standard Text features saves imputing time.
  • Automatic assessment through XML questionnaires and score sheets.
  • Actions can be placed on staff and monitored through the system.
  • History function provides management information and ease of reference audit trail.
  • Improved continuity when staff are absent.
  • Remote access for all levels of management.

Process improvement, reported by supplier of system in use in Sheffield University and elsewhere between 10% and 28% have achieved timesaving in the following areas:

  • General Administration
  • Supplier Correspondence
  • Automatic Assessment
  • Document distribution (cost savings with paper and postage usage)
  • Reduced storage costs

2Project Category

3.1 Project Category

Essential
(External) / To allow compliance with research funders and FOI requests.

1.2Multi-Year

The first stage will be undertaken in 2003/4: to analyse the business needs, establish model procurement project management steps, create document and workflow templates, and prepare for changes in filing /document management system.

This will allow rapid specification/selection and implementation of a package solution to establish a robust and efficient procurement process /document management system for the Procurement Office.

2004/5 will implement the system prior to the 1 January 04 target, possibly based on an existing package solution, which was enhanced for HE sector from another University.

This will be for data from 2004/5 procurement projects above OJEU threshold initially.

During the year the tool will be used for all OJEU projects supported by the Procurement Office and evaluated for wider application.

A staff resource to assist with the business analysis at School/Support Service and to project manage and promote the process /system changes will be bid for as part of the planning round.

Once established any maintenance of the system will need to be funded as part of corporate systems support on a multi-year basis as this will become core to the University’s compliance with EU Procurement law.

3Project Justification

UNIVERSITYGOALS
Excellence in Education / Will support good practice and demonstrate economical use of teaching resources for procurement.
Educational Opportunity / N/A
Postgraduate Activity and
Lifelong Learning / N/A
Excellence in Research / Will support good practice and demonstrate economical use of research resources for procurement.
Commercialisation and
Knowledge Transfer / Will support good practice in FOI and in communication with commercial sector bidders for our procurements.
Internationalisation / Will assist in making our procurement processes standard and easier for international collaborations.
Interaction with the
Community / Will assist in making information available on request.
Support for the Professions / Will assist in improving good practice in procurement internally and make the University an exemplar for others.
Quality Management / This supports the strategic development objective:
Develop its procurement systems, e.g. by identifying opportunities for collaborative purchasing, either internally or with a consortium of other institutions or higher education sector-wide and developing a new Procurement Task Force to contribute to improved purchasing.
BIASROADMAP / eProcurement Freedom of Information Process Change
OTHER / This is an essential project to comply effectively with procurement Freedom of Information requests or funders enquiries and will change inefficient internal processes.

4Scope

This project will take the identified procurement project management process/document management workflow for EU level procurements in the University, and procure /implement a tool which will introduce standards compliant with the information strategy and University FOI and records management guidance.

It will NOT guarantee that all EU procurements are conducted legally but will assist budget-holders and Heads of College/Support Services to be assured of due process, monitor and manage documents work-in-progress and report to funders and FOI enquiries efficiently.

5Deliverables and Timescales

5.1Deliverables

1. Project Management/Document Workflow

Procurement project workflow and associated work-in-progress documents are developed to a relevant standard eg using templates. Actual work-in-progress documents must be easily accessed to provide a suitable service to University colleagues and potential suppliers, during sickness/absence etc. and from 1 January 2005, to be able to handle Freedom of Information requests.

2. Publications Schedule

At relevant stages of a procurement project, we will also require to have an entry onto the publications schedule for Freedom of Information including current procurement guidance, policies and procedures, and up-to-date contract notices and awards accessible externally.

3. Purchasing Information

Users need easily used and up-to-date contract information – not all of which is generated internally – but which must be kept current and accessible to staff via the University website. This may also be used to assist the University to respond to Freedom of Information requests.

It is anticipated that the first phase will cover 1 above, the Buyers Guide will cover 2 above initially and 3 above will be a refinement of the system at a later stage.

  • New Service - procurement project/document management design and procure
  • Software system – procurement document web-interface and workflow tools
  • Implementation service – MIS to develop and implement solution and standards
  • Infrastructure Upgrade – May require webserver or other server reconfigurations

5.2Timescales
Records and document management, including nomenclature, filing and website upgrade with workflow in Procurement Office by Dec 04. Develop standards and document workflow to and from Procurement Office as soon as possible thereafter.

Hard milestone is 01 January 2005 for Freedom of Information procurement publications schedule /requirement to meet deadlines for enquiry responses.

6Assumptions, Risks, Dependencies and Constraints

Assumptions

–MIS can develop or procure and implement to these standards within a tight timescale.

–CSG planning round funds a procurement/systems resource with

  • enough professional procurement expertise to specify solution
  • systems and business analyst skills to support Schools/Support Services
  • project management / process re-engineering implementation skills
  • communications skills and marketing ongoing business analyst skills

Such resources could be procured on a consultancy basis, but would be expensive.

Risks

–Historical records are not entered on new system – FOI requests most likely to relate to recent actions on procurement projects.

–Considerable procurement resource is tied up in records management if this requirement is not addressed.

–Compliance with new systems for EU procurement has to be managed by Heads of Colleges/Schools

–Adequate time for implementing the new process.

Dependencies

–Funding of a post of procurement systems change manager

–Sufficient procurement /technical knowledge to specify and implement

–Communications with all Schools/Support Services of benefits of change

Constraints

–FOI hard deadline of 1 January 05

–Current mixed paper/K-drive and School/Support Service records

–Standards are to be developed during 03/04

–Cost of commercial software/ resources to implement

–Lack of discipline in EU procurement project management

7Task Estimates

Define scope and stages, define standards for procurement project management nomenclature, define templates and design suitable procurement process workflow, including publication to the FOI publications schedule or University procurement information website.

Design and procure the project management /document workflow solution.

Train and develop Procurement Office staff to work to these standards.

Train and develop devolved procurement/purchasing staff in the rest of the University.

Implement, test, populate and manage/maintain the system.

8Financial Summary

8.15 Year Costs and Benefits

5 Year Summary / IT Services / Support
Groups / Colleges / Total
Costs / £6,300 / £143,100 / £149,400
Benefits / £239,000 / £25,000 / £264,000
Total MIS staff requirement 2004/05 / 25 days
Licence purchase £28,750
external instal, implement, train, project management costs estimated
Resource for benefits realisation: business process~£40k p.a 50% on this project reducing = could be consultancy
Time on records management estimated @£10k Procurement and £5k College p.a. time saved
Tender fees would be raised to same structure as current implementations = £30,000
EC 25X12 supppliers LITS 12 x 5, fees escalate with contract value
s/w such as PrOJECt +VAULT notional savings £4800

A small part of the solution is the Publications Schedule link to current OJEU notices, provided by BiP Buyers Profile estimated £4,500+VAT for 3 years from 2004.

Benefits of this approach include savings on PrOJECt+VAULT licence ~£4,500 p.a and allow rapid response to FOI requests.

Other Funding and Staff Resource Requirements

Has Business area still to secure additional Funding or Staff Resources in order to do this project? / YES bid for licence from equipment budget
Resource to support business process re-engineering part funded from vacancy?

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