Contract and Procurement Management System
With the introduction of the new tendering and contract management system (xRM) including integrated vendor management, the IT Procurement & Portfolio division (ITS PPF) has taken a further step in improving procurement and contract management.
All information concerning tenders, contracts and vendors is stored and managed at a central, accessible (with authorization) location. Thus current data is always easily available and new information directly linked to the corresponding contract, procurement project or supplier. Even telephone calls or emails can be documented with a memo and directly linked with a vendor or contract.
For the uninitiated this may seem like a minor achievement but in reality this is a great, ETH-beneficial, step toward cost-effective and accurate volume control administration of ITS contracts. In the future we can forget about unused contracts which continue only because they weren’t terminated on time, or contracts re-tendered because of a missed renewal date.
Reports on the dashboard show the status of specific procurements, contract renewals due in the next few weeks or contracts currently being processed.
Environment
The system, based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 and SharePoint 2013, was realized by Swisscom ITS according to specifications by the IT Procurement & Portfolio (ITS PPF) division.
All data is accessible via the frontend (Dynamics CRM 2013) while SharePoint 2013 serves as the repository and can be made directly available for an auditor in case of need. However, even with the new system, a physical archive, strictly organized according to the procurement and contract numbers in the system (and not according to the personal preferences of an employee), and allowing direct and fast access, is still necessary.
Objectives
- Process controlled procurement, from tendering to bid assessment and contract conclusion, realized in a transparent and timely manner. All tendering (WTO and others) is documented and includes link to bidder.
- Current procurement processes are supported by a central online document storage system
- All relevant information concerning a tender and / or contract and related suppliers is systematically stored and available online
- All correspondence with suppliers before, during and after procurement is stored in the system and can be retrieved at any time for reviews, audits, or further purchases
- Supplier Management:
- Mergers / acquisitions / closing downs shall be clearly documented for future procurements
- Change of contacts are kept current
- Current data facilitates ETH personnel changes
- ETH in-house customers, users and contract managers will be shown which allows ITS PPF timely contact to the right person in case of contract changes
- Existing contracts are easily found and can be retrieved using a keyword search. This supports the procurement process, obviating the need in some cases for a new contract when an existing one can be used or extended
- Agreement contracts will be published and managed in the current version
- Automatic reminder for upcoming contract extensions, renewals, and terminations
- Simple data evaluations of supplier volume, open procurements, upcoming renewals or requirements and development of the license volume facilitate daily business for the staff and provide figures for management and procurement.
- Similar procurements are much easier to handle with knowledge of ETH IT procurement-needs and of current vendors. Vendor updates can be directly routed to the service user, allowing enough time for an appropriate reaction. In particular, it will be much easier to convey Federal procurement plans to interested parties at ETH.
- To allow future expansion, a scalable system, with possibilities for further development for IT Procurement & Portfolio as well as other ETH domains (additional customers), is installed
- Compatibility with the existing systems of the ETH Zurich Central Bodies (ZO) is ensured
Past
Tenders, contracts, supplier data and correspondence are stored and maintained either in paper form in archives or electronically in different directories or in the mail system. Data is sorted by name, numbers, regional particulars or other personal systems in a central or personal repository.
Present
Existing contracts are reviewed and migrated, initial procurements are processed using the new system.
Online contract and procurement management system and an ordered and structured paper archive for tenders, contracts and vendor data exists.
Future
Internal contracts, SLA and OLA’s for IT services between the IT Services (ITS), the departments and institutes and in the ETH domain, are managed in the xRM system.
Jürg A. Häubi, Manager, Order & Contract Management, and Pius Baumann, Portfoliomanagement, regaining control of the paper-based archive.
Contact
Jürg A. Häubi, Manager Order & Contract Management, ITS IT Procurement & Portfolio, ITS PPF
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