Every public contract awarded to an indigenous supplier brings social benefits that extend far beyond simple goods and services. Jobs are created, communities are strengthened, and indigenous businesses get the opportunity to grow in size and capability. It’s this insight that has led to the New Zealand government’s progressive procurement target, which requires all public agencies to devote 5% of their contract spend to Maori businesses. For government agencies, however, this target brings its own challenges. Sourcing and engaging Maori suppliers is not always easy – particularly for small agencies that lack the resources necessary for strategic procurement. Navigating these challenges was the focus of our webinar: Progressive Procurement Targets – A Practical Approach. For those who didn’t secure a seat, take a look at the FULL video recording below:
Get the key points with 4 minutes of Quick Bites

 

Here are 4 of the key tips we covered:

Harness the power of the community

144 New Zealand government agencies adhere to the progressive procurement policy, in addition to thousands of smaller boards and trustees. By creating a community out of these buying groups, agencies can help each other engage Maori businesses more efficiently. 

We covered various strategies for this in our webinar, such as:

  • Sharing lists of suppliers
  • Creating a centralised dataset of supplier information that other agencies can access
  • Sharing performance insights

With this ethos of sharing, progressive procurement becomes a joint effort across the buying network, from small agencies (e.g. school boards) to larger government bodies. 

Make it simple for Maori businesses to engage in your procurements

Clunky procurement processes are a major barrier for Maori businesses looking to win government contracts. The simpler your business makes it for indigenous vendors to register their intent, and even learn of contract opportunities to begin with, the more successful you’ll be. 

In our webinar, we discussed the importance of:

  • Fast quoting timeframes
  • Transparent listings of contract opportunities
  • Removing arduous manual processes for supplier data capture.

Start tracking the outcomes of your Maori business engagements

Tracking the outcomes of your Maori procurements is critical for benefit capture, and it also allows both parties to get the feedback needed for an ongoing relationship. This includes standard reporting on cost and contract fulfilment as well as records of supplier performance and satisfaction.

Sharing these outcomes with Maori vendors allows them to refine their business processes for future procurements, so make your reporting transparent. As webinar attendees learned, feedback also goes both ways: suppliers should have the opportunity to comment on their experience of your organisation, so you know what to improve to better engage with Maori businesses in future. 

Streamline the process with a procurement management system 

Provided you choose the right solution, a procurement management system can empower your sourcing team to reach Maori engagement targets much more efficiently. 

Webinar attendees saw first hand how the Portt platform can be configured for progressive procurement, but regardless of what solution you opt for, aim to secure the following characteristics. 

A centralised database of indigenous suppliers

One of the biggest challenges for buyers is simply knowing which vendors are Maori owned, and which are available for a procurement event. 

With the right management system, you’ll have a centralised database of vendors with all relevant data – including the details of indigenous ownership. In Portt, for example, you can filter a list of Maori vendors by industry, ownership status, and much more. 

Community sharing

Progressive procurement targets are much more achievable if government agencies choose to combine and share their supplier data. Doing so means that even the smallest trustee can access lists of Maori suppliers and data generated by larger, more well-resourced organisations.

In Portt this occurs through the creation of custom Portt Communities: groups of organisations who have elected to share supplier data via a centralised platform. Join our next webinar to see how it can work for your organisation.

Seamless supplier onboarding

An effective software solution should also remove friction from the onboarding process, so indigenous suppliers aren’t burdened by the endless paperwork and administrative procedures that compromise so much contract activity. 

Portt comes with ready-made onboarding templates that can be adapted to your organisation, so suppliers only need to fill out a single set of details which are then updated across all relevant fields in the system. 

Discover the keys to reaching your procurement targets

Join the procurement professionals who are staying informed with Portt’s regular webinars and professional development events.