Profile

 What is Procurement ?

The Contracts & Procurement Specific Interest Group (C&P SIG) exists : 

• exists to promote and disseminate knowledge, understanding and best practice of contracts and procurement in a project environment.
• aims is to become a lively and constructive debating forum which takes existing best practice and helps make it better.
• wants to be disseminating this knowledge, understanding and better than best practice through a variety of accessible means.
• has a long term aspiration to become recognised as an international forum at the leading edge of excellence in contracts & procurement for projects. 

What is Procurement? Why a Contract?
Procurement at its simplest is how you go about obtaining the goods and services you want from external organisations. It breaks down into two main activities:

• Strategic decisions in terms of make or buy; work breakdown structure and which parts of the project are allocated to what type of organisations; allocation of principle risks; how these organisations are paid and incentivised to perform; the degree of co-operation required between participating organisations and how they are selected etc.
• The selection procedure itself to select the ‘best fit’ organisations for their part of the project. 

Having chosen the ‘best fit’ organisation, a contract then needs to put in place which reflects these strategic decisions and above all, accurately and sufficiently describes with clarity what it is you want that organisation to deliver, by when and for how much. It also needs to describe how change, which inevitably comes to varying degrees with a project, will be assessed and implemented. This contract then needs to be managed.

From a pure Project Manager's perspective, ultimately you can only manage to the limits of the contract which is in place. Consequently, you need to know what is the contract and ideally have had input into them before they are placed.
 
Why are Contracts & Procurement important?
In an era of technology and complexity, few organisations deliver projects, let alone major ones, with no external help. Where the goods or services are predefined or simple, the contract and procurement process is relatively easy. Where you are procuring complex projects, with evolving needs and which may involve tangible and intangible deliverables it becomes much more complicated.
 
On major projects, research has shown that good procurement decisions can have just as much effect on delivering projects to time, cost and functionality as technical decisions.
 
What has the Contract & Procurement SIG done in the past? What will it be doing in the future?
The SIG was formed in 1993 and since then has held regular presentation and meetings;  published a guide on ‘Contract Strategy for Successful Project Management’ and contributed to the APMs ‘Standard Terms for the Appointment of a Project Manager’ as well as contributing to updates of the APM Body of Knowledge.
 
More recently, the SIG has been inactive. However, in November 2007, we held a major event in London to re-invigorate the SIG. From now on, we hope to regularly hold:

• half day long workshops / forums which are either  :
• educational in format in that they are more training participants in the basics of the topic or
• previously identified topics are reviewed, analysed and better practice developed. These discussions will be incorporated into a revised guide on contracts and procurement.
• evening events throughout the UK, often in conjunction with the APM’s Regional Branches. .

If you want to speak or host an event or just have ideas, please contact us (see below).
 
Who are we?
The SIG is led by the recently appointed chair Dr Jon Broome. Jon has been a member of the SIG for ten years and is an acknowledged expert on the NEC family of contracts and on collaborative procurement, having had a book published on each of these topics and consulted and trained on them internationally. He has also been involved in major procurement initiatives for the UK Highways Agency (the Capability Assessment Toolkit) and Ministry of Defence.
 
The secretary, Dr Steve Simister, is the ex-chair and has been involved in the SIG since its formation. Steve has published extensively in both procurement and more general project management and specialises in public sector procurement through Public Finance Initiatives (PFI) and Public Private Partnerships.
 
What we need now is new members who can actively participate in reinvigorating the C&P SIG! This can either be to contribute to the steering of the SIG, identifying topics and contacts for events or people who have a useful message to tell and want an audience. If you fit the bill, please contact Jon on 07970 428 929 or 0117 9055 335 or jon@leadingedgecc.co.uk