Procurement issues

Okay had my first taste of what i believe is a very unfair process - we were "invited" - this from a previous Public Sector client - to pitch for a large project under one of their sub-departments - that would be whittled down to 3 agencies for the 2nd stage interview.

If the public sector are going to engage in much needed community engagement processes, they need to put aside some of their long-winded procurement procedures and work on a pilot project basis with smaller consultants that are already engaged in this process.

We decided to review our approach to public sector contracts this month, after several frustrating months of effort without reward.

 We have decided that responding "cold" to any tenders we see (from TenderAlert or Supply2Gov) is a waste of time and effort. Instead we are going to try to leverage our relationships with existing clients into neighbouring areas and to get out and about more to events and conferences.

Tips for Marketing to the Public sector from a consultant who believes everyone would beneift if procurement was made more user-friendly and flexible.

The London Borough of Lambeth seems to be taking some steps in the right direction; they are running a workshop this Wed 6th December at 17:00 "Understanding Public Sector Procurement" to guide local companies "how they can fit in ?"

We have been responding to a number of tender opportunities in the area of web design and development, and have found the whole process extremely frustrating.

First, we have completed Pre-Qualification Questionnaires (PQQs) for about a dozen opportunities. Although similar in some ways these are sufficiently different to take quite a while to complete. And mainly they are asking bureaucratic questions which have little or no relevance on our ability to do the work. Very few are online, and many require hard-copy submission.

Government departments seem doomed to repeat the same mistakes whenever they procure web-related services.

I don't know if anyone saw the following exchange - Private Eye magazine picked it up (and I was among the commenters):