Qld govt eyes new procurement systems

The Queensland government wants to replace its "fragmented" procurement systems with newer software in order to drive better data linkages and opportunities for strategic sourcing.

The government currently manages a number of whole-of-government procurement and contract management systems through its central procurement body Queensland Procurement.

The systems are used alongside agencies’ own procurement platforms to facilitate the buying of more than $20 billion worth of goods and services each year.

But the existing government-wide procurement systems landscape uses technology from multiple vendors, resulting in “limited data flows between systems due to a lack of appropriate levels of integration”.

This has also caused “inconsistent procurement practices and processes” across government, which has previously attracted criticism from the state’s auditor.

“As a result, user experiences have been impacted by the requirement for manual duplication of some tasks, and difficulties in finding and executing what they need to fulfil their roles and obligations when they need it,” Queensland Procurement said.

“This has also had a downstream effect of limiting inter-agency collaboration on strategic procurement initiatives.”

The government has now begun looking for potential replacement systems, and is undertaking early market engagement to inform its next steps.

It signalled a desire to "capitalise on advancements in the capabilities, functionality and technology of procurement systems in the market, including integration capability, collaboration, user experiences, and innovative solutions”.

Systems within scope cover all aspects of the source-to-contract and procure-to-pay value chains, including e-sourcing, e-catalogues, and contract lifecycle management.

The future procurement systems will be expected to be capable of sharing data, interfacing with agency procurement systems, and able to reduce duplication of tasks and allow for self-service.

Systems for payments and consolidated spend analysis are outside the scope of the market activity.