Laurence Pidcock, General Manager New Zealand Government Procurement, outlined government’s procurement roadmap to 2030 at the September PASA Connect Big Breakfast in Auckland.
The “Strategy – Procurement for the Future” is underpinned by the vision: “A fair, transparent, inclusive, and efficient procurement system that delivers high public value to all New Zealanders.”
Laurence was the first keynote speaker to kick off the address to New Zealand procurement professionals in attendance at PASA’s first event in the country in three years.
The New Zealand Government has an annual spend of $51.5 billion.
Public procurement to unlock value
The strategy focuses on three streams, data and transparency, working together as one and unlocking value.
The 2030 target is to have high quality data and insights as evidence for New Zealanders, integrated e-procurement ecosystems, central oversight of procurement system performance, a “one customer approach” for government, improved experience for suppliers and coordinated capability across government procurement.
Laurence highlighted in his presentation: “E-procurement is key “if we get the ownership, boundaries and flexibility right.”
He said “technology would be used to “capture, ingest, and produce quality data from the system to unlock percentage per dollar of public value delivered in procurement.”
The government is focused on transforming its web experience for agencies including sourcing engines, tools and services to better support its procurement professionals.
Warm up for the premier procurement conference
Ahead of PASA’s Annual Conference, with the theme “Why it’s All Different Now”, CEO Jonathan Dutton FCIPS, covered the six new challenges facing Procurement post-Covid in 2022.
Digital evolution
Digital transformation was out and “digital evolution” was in, as part of Fiona Nissen’s presentation. Fiona, Director, ArcBlue Consulting (part of Bain & Co), encouraged the audience to follow the simple steps of define the problem, consider outcomes, develop a plan and then look at the options for their digital projects.
Deploying eprocurement in ESG
How to deploy eProcurement capability to help manage growing ESG requirements was delivered by Mark Rabjohns, Principal Value Solutions Consultant and Dave Jenkins, Account Executive, Australia and New Zealand both of Coupa Software.
The cut through of ESG in the boardroom is being felt, “Our Community is being held accountable to a higher standard,” was one of the key messages in their presentation.
Quoting PWC research, the presentation outlined:
- Employees Nearly 40% of millennials have chosen a job because of a company’s sustainability mission
- Investors 68% of investors use ESG ratings and scores in their investment decisions
- Customers 64% of customers are willing to pay more for sustainable products
Reducing procurement time frames from 18 to six weeks by leveraging the agile procurement methodology, Lean Agile Procurement (LAP) was presented by Stuart Bird, Head of Supply Chain, Watercare. Stuart demonstrated how vendor evaluations and presentations were radically cut from six weeks to just one through agile procurement, while negotiation time frames were slashed in half. LAP is used as BAU in all of Watercare’s procurement processes, with traditional procurement only used in some instances.
“Entering a procurement process was exhausting and cumbersome,” Stuart said.
“Embracing lean agile procurement has significantly reduced the amount of time it takes to make the right decision. Vendors fly through the process.”
Andrea Gregory, Head of Procurement, Frucor Suntory, delved into what it takes over the first 100 days as the new CPO.
Join PASA at it’s Annual Conference, Premier Confex, October 12-13 in Melbourne.
