Technology for procurement reform

Taken together, the Scottish Procurement Information Hub, Best Practice Indicators and the Public Contracts Scotland form a comprehensive package of tools and services that will underpin the procurement reform process, help in the strategic planning process and demonstrate progress made in the extension of best practice.

Project	Rationale	Input Requirements	Frequency	Outputs
Non Pay Spend	The Hub offers detailed information on institutional expenditure, allowing opportunities for improved procurement and collaboration to be recognised, pursued and recorded.	Line Level detail of Non Pay Accounts Payable expenditure data covering the previous academic year	Annually September	Detailed spend analysis, including: No. of transactions/ invoices per supplier No. of suppliers Common suppliers Expenditure with SMEs

The Scottish Procurement Information Hub is a centrally funded sophisticated analytical tool which allows procurement professionals to determine:

• how much they are spending on external goods and services from third party suppliers;
• who the key suppliers are;
• how many transactions were made with each supplier;
• where the suppliers and spend categories are used in common.

Annually in September, Universities and Colleges will be asked to refresh the data in the hub that generates these expenditure analysis reports through the provision of detailed annual extracts from their accounts payable systems.

Download a copy of the template: Analytic – Scottish Data Extraction Specification

Download a copy of the template: Analytic – Data Extraction Sample Mock Ups

New and existing users can arrange training on the Hub through Spikes Cavell Analytic: New User Training

Project	Rationale	Input Requirements	Frequency	Outputs
Best Practice Indicators	The BPIs are designed to serve as a means of allowing the institutions to monitor their own progress in improving efficiency, collaboration, compliance with contracts and e-procurement.	Refresh Lite (summary spend data)	Quarterly August / November / February / May	Performance reports Comparisons with sectoral and national averages Ability to plan strategically and track improvements and progress Register of all contracts entitled to use Basic capability/resource review Record efficiencies
		Contract Register (category C, C1 & Other)
		Institution Profile (web based questionnaire)

Summary Spend Data (Refresh Lite) – file containing total expenditure values and number of transactions, by supplier, per month. Core Trade Spend only should be included – salaries, grants, payments to other public bodies etc should be excluded.

Download a copy of the template: Refresh Lite Template

Contract Register – file containing details of contracts for which the organisation is the contracting authority (Category C or C1), or ‘Other’ (O) type contracts such as OCG. In the case of C1 contracts the authority will also have to indicate which other public bodies are entitled to use the contract. Category A and B contracts are centrally uploaded by the Centres of Expertise. A link is being built so that if an institution places a contract notice and contract award on Public Contracts Scotland, their contract register on the Hub will be automatically updated.

Download a copy of the template: Contract Register Template

Profile – this is a web form which asks for data relating to those BPIs that do not depend on expenditure or contract information (i.e. BPIs 1 – Efficiency, 7&8 – Skills, and 9 – eProcurement).

Download a copy of the template: Profile Template

BPI Data Input training can be arranged directly with Spikes Cavell: Data Input Training

Additional BPI Information can be found at: BPI Procurement Guidance

Project	Rationale	Input Requirements	Frequency	Outputs
Public Contracts Scotland	Public Contracts Scotland provides a single, consistent, free-to-use, transparent mechanism for engaging with suppliers over contracting opportunities. In conjunction with the BPIs and the Hub it will produce progressively a comprehensive register of all publicly-awarded contracts in Scotland.	Contract Notice and Contract Award details	Ad Hoc	Automatic publication on OJEU for above threshold contracts Ensures adequate publicity for below threshold contracts Greater visibility = greater competition = prospects of better terms Automatic input to Hub contract register Planned – PQQ & Quick Quote

Public Contracts Scotland (the Scottish contracts advertising Portal) provides a free of charge, easy to use, open, transparent and effective resource for all purchasers and suppliers in Scotland.

The portal has 3 main objectives:

• To stimulate economic growth in Scotland by developing a competitive market environment in which potential suppliers have easy access to all essential information on business opportunities arising from the public sector.
• To enable the Scottish Public sector to achieve Best Value for money by exposing the majority of procurement to an open and transparent competitive process.
• To standardise procurement documentation, for pre-qualification questionnaires, to aid completion by suppliers and evaluation by purchasers.

By using the portal, Universities and Colleges are able to process an OJEU contract direct to the European Publications Office for advertising on the European Tenders Electronic Daily website or a sub threshold contract for advertising on the Public Contracts Scotland website.

Additional Information can be found at: www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk

For more information on any of the above public procurement reform projects, please contact the APUC Management Information team (0131 442 8930).