Canadian construction participants have long recognized that accepting the lowest price bid does not guarantee maximum value. Achieving a value-based procurement approach is a challenge, particularly for the Canadian public sector clients who are limited in their ability to evaluate the competitive bids based solely on the low-bid award system. Bid and cost data from 218 projects from three major public sector construction clients in the Greater Toronto Area are evaluated. Compared to the other clients, the cost escalation is significantly higher for the client that does not have a standard prequalification policy. Increased contractor competition (high number of bids) and a large price gap between low bid and other bids are correlated to higher cost escalation for the non-prequalifying client. Also, the organizational culture of the non-prequalifying client is less results-oriented. The research demonstrates the importance of prequalifying for clients that award based solely on the low bid.

Canadian construction participants have long recognized that accepting the lowest price bid does not guarantee maximum value. Achieving a value-based procurement approach is a challenge, particularly for the Canadian public sector clients who are limited in their ability to evaluate the competitive bids based solely on the low-bid award system. Bid and cost data from 218 projects from three major public sector construction clients in the Greater Toronto Area are evaluated. Compared to the other clients, the cost escalation is significantly higher for the client that does not have a standard prequalification policy. Increased contractor competition (high number of bids) and a large price gap between low bid and other bids are correlated to higher cost escalation for the non-prequalifying client. Also, the organizational culture of the non-prequalifying client is less results-oriented. The research demonstrates the importance of prequalifying for clients that award based solely on the low bid.

The Public Construction Commission was established on July 20, 1995. In order that government departments have a rule to follow, the Government Procurement Act is promulgated by presidential decree on May 27, 1998. Furthermore, its spirit was established on the Chapter I- General Principle, the Article one ¡§This Act is enacted to establish a government procurement system that has fair and open procurement procedures, promotes the efficiency and effectiveness of government procurement operation, and ensures the quality of procurement.¡¨ There are more than 40 seed laws and 10 types of operating regulations enacted by the administration, the Public Construction Commission, since the implementation of the Government Procurement Law. Hence, the Government Procurement Act tends to be more complete. However, the act is not only applied to the public departments, but also applicable to other organizations, such as public schools. It can be observable from the Act 3 ¡§Procurement conducted by any government agency, public school or government-owned enterprise (hereinafter referred to as the "entity") shall be governed by the provisions of this Act. With regard to the matters not provided for in this Act, other relevant laws shall govern.¡¨; Act4 ¡§A juridical person or organization which takes a grant from an entity shall conduct a procurement in accordance with this Act and be under supervision by the entity provided that the amount of the grant is not less than half of the procurement value and also reaches the threshold for publication.¡¨ and Act 5 ¡§An entity may entrust a juridical person or organization to conduct its procurement.¡¨ From the above, it is obvious that they should abide by the Government Procurement Act, and the purchasing behavior of organization, which takes the financial subsidy over 50% from government, also should obey the act. Therefore, regardless of whether a formal civil servant, as long as the purchasing behaviors are relevant to the government procurement, the contractor personnel must to follow the Government Procurement Law. In this study, the architecture-oriented government procurement management model (AOGPMM) is constructed which is based on six fundamental diagrams of the structure-behavior coalescence (SBC) architecture. AOGPMM represents multiple views of procurement management by integrating the structure and behavior of government procurement. So, the purchasing officers can effectively understand the whole picture of government procurement through AOGPMM. Keywords: Enterprise Architecture, Government Procurement, AOGPMM

Until several years ago, organizations mainly focused on optimizing business processes within organizational boundary. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software had been a hot issue for companies to improve their operations. Towards the end of last century however, organizations increasingly included supply chain management, customer relationship management, and supplier relationship management in their roadmap for implementing information technology. Business-to-business (B2B) transactions and collaboration between organizations have received increasing attention. E-Procurement is an important issue of B2B transaction and collaboration. Stiff competition, fast changing customer preferences, shortening product life cycle, and product variety proliferation have pushed modern manufacturing industries to be more flexible to cope with their environments. Along with dynamic capacity allocation, efficient material procurement forms a pillar to support flexible manufacturing. Therefore, the implementation of e-procurement system in enterprise is an inevitable trend. Then the next issue comes to what benefit occur from e-procurement system? Most past research have addressed the benefit issue based on the case study of single enterprise. Little investigation has conducted quantitative research to assess the performance with respect to supplier and buyer. How to estimate the impact on performance for both of buyer and supplier as a result of implementing e-procurement system is the research issue addressed in this project. Given the web-based e-procurement system as the enterprise procurement platform, this research attempts to address the direct impact on business processes for buyers and suppliers simultaneously, and subsequently to evaluate the impact on performance for them. In addition, this research also intends to investigate the impact on relationship between buyers and suppliers. In fact, the motivation of supplier in implementing e-procurement system might be different from that of buyer, leading to different results which might occur. The questionnaire survey conducted in this research can help to evaluate the performance for buyers and suppliers.

<p>As of 1 December 2009 the Treaty of Lisbon came into force. The Treaty brings along several changes for the physical structure of the EU. There are no changes aimed directly towards procurement, however the Treaty of Lisbon might prove to include changes of major impact. Article 3 (3) NEU includes a change to how the inner market shall be achieved. The Treaty text has gone from an inner market based on competition to include a “social economic market”, however there is no indication of what this means from a procurement perspective. The inner market and procurement had difficulties already before the entry of the Lisbon Treaty. There was arguments as regards to how fair a state could intervene trough public procurement to achieve positive social effects. The CJEU has persistently held that the inner market shall be built by the help of the inner market and competition. The Commission has during the last years started to express a different opinion than the CJEU with regards to low value procurements. The legislators has also shown a great interest for the SME’s and ensured more leeway for these companies to receive help form the member states. The ECJ has however made it difficult to support further than the actual startup phase of an SME. The European Parliament is critical to the Commissions work with regards to measures supporting the member states and ignoring the CJEU. The EU Parliament fears the consequences a more protectionist approach might have on the development of a free inner market and express concern for the legal uncertainty developed trough the lack of attention to the procurement market when introducing the “social market economy” with the Treaty of Lisbon.</p><p>The EU Parliament and the CJEU might have to adjust their opinion on competition within the inner market towards the Commissions opinion. The thesis does however conclude that an inclusion of the de minis principle in the test for equality of suppliers might be all that will be done to clarify this legal uncertainty.</p> / No formal opposition.

Purchasing and supply education and training are vital to the success of Eskom and most importantly to the survival and growth of the profession. In the last decade, the field of procurement has been faced with many changes which have had dramatic impacts on the field of purchasing and supply chain and which ultimately have influenced education and training needs. Eskom is currently facing a number of key challenges to meet current increasing demand fuelled by economic growth and to manage a build program of some R84 billion over the next five years to meet future load demand. These challenges have to be met in the face of Chinese and Indian consumption of raw materials which is affecting their availability to Eskom suppliers. This is putting further strain on the procurement practitioners within the Generation Division who are required to be both highly skilled and knowledgeable in order to meet the challenges in this dynamic and competitive profession. However, continual poor audit results achieved by the majority of the Power Stations in addition to the inclusion of Procurement and competencies and skills development on the Big Five List of high risk areas, have been a clear signal that there is a major problem in the Procurement field, not only across the Generation Division, but Eskom wide and possibly country wide as well. Although the focus of this dissertation will be on the Generation Division, it is envisaged that the recommendations made will be able to be utilized Eskom wide and possibly even in other organizations external to Eskom. A three pronged approach was utilized when conducting the research. This approach consisted of an extensive literature review of the existing body of knowledge available, this was used in conjunction with surveys and interviews conducted. The results obtained from a sample of 89 procurement practitioners, managers and training practitioners were used to reach findings and to make conclusions. It is important to note that there is a dire lack of local information concerning the subject, overseas journals and books were thus used as a reference source a majority of the time. Although there is currently a Procurement Curriculum which Procurement Practitioners are required to complete, it was found that the curriculum did not meet the requirements of the practitioners and did not adequately provide them with the necessary competencies required of them to perform their tasks effectively. There is thus a dire need for this curriculum to be reviewed and to take into consideration the competencies required to assist the Procurement Practitioner to become world class and to elevate the status of the organization to that of a worldclass organization which possesses the competitive advantage. The above mentioned issue was however not seen to be the major issue. Other possibly more important issues were deemed to have also contributed to the poor audit results and subsequent poor image of Procurement. The major issue, the author believes is due to the fact that there is no professional body recognized by Eskom. This has contributed to a host of problems for example, lower graded jobs, discrepancies in grades between divisions, no standardized entry level criteria to name but a few issues. This has resulted in the Theory of Self Sealing Behavior taking place in the form of a de-motivated body of employees which in turn has contributed to the poor image procurement possesses in the organization. It is believed that if a new nationally recognized and credible professional body is created, a multitude of problems will be minimized. This body will however be required to provide guidance and a professional status which is so desperately required in the procurement field. It is furthermore believed that this will positively change the perception that management currently possesses of Procurement. Other important recommendations made include: • Generation Commercial Training to be re-linked to the Corporate Supply Chain Management Office which will enable the Department to provide guidance and World Class Procurement and Supply Chain Management Training Eskom wide. • Standardized entry level criteria. This should preferably be a Degree in Supply Chain Management. Further studies must be encouraged as it is envisaged that in the next decade a Masters Degree will be seen as the minimum requirement. Retention and succession plan policies must be encouraged to ensure that employees are retained and that a transfer of skills occurs. The survey conducted indicates that a majority of the people are over the age of 50. • The entire manner in which Commercial Training is currently training practitioners must be reviewed. For example, alternate training interventions must be introduced for example the internationally recognized International World Trade Centre Supply Chain Program. Alternate forms of training should be introduced for example, the reading of journals, updating of skills by looking at a video etc. The introduction of adult principles of learning into training interventions is of vital importance to ensure maximum transfer of learning. Senge (1990: 64) states that "Tackling a difficult problem is often a matter of seeing where the high leverage lies, a change which with minimum of effort - would lead to lasting, significant improvement." With this in mind it is suggested that the change which would have the highest leverage would be the introduction of a formalized coaching and mentoring system in Eskom. By utilizing the competencies and past experiences of the older people, coupled with the correct world class skills will ensure the success of this discipline. Without this sharing of knowledge, the required professional status will never be obtained. In conclusion it is believed that the current skills issues which are currently being experienced by Eskom are not unique to Eskom, there is currently a skills shortage country wide. However, because Eskom is such an significant and visible organization in South Africa it is imperative for the future economic growth of South Africa that there is a culture change in Eskom towards Procurement with the career development of purchasing and supply change management professionals being viewed as a top priority. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

Bakgrund: Det har nu passerat 20 år sedan företag i allt större utsträckning började frångå synsättet på inköp som en renodlad stödfunktion av operativ karaktär. I en omgivning som ställer allt högre krav på korta ledtider, hög kvalitet och en hög grad av flexibilitet har synsättet på inköp och anskaffning av varor som en strategiskt viktig funktion och kostnadsdrivare fått stor utbredning inom de flesta branscher. I takt med att den teknologiska utvecklingen under de senaste två årtiondena har tillgängliggjort internetbaserade lösningar för att ta emot och lägga order och söka lämpliga leverantörer har intresset för e-procurement-system ökat allt mer. Även Sveriges offentliga organisationer har uppmärksammat de potentiella effekter som ett införande av ett dylikt system kan medföra. Forskningen på området är dock sparsam och den forskning som är tillgänglig berör främst privata företag i tillverkningsbranschen. Syfte: Att identifiera och beskriva effekterna av att implementera ett e-procurement-system i en offentlig organisation samt jämföra om dessa överensstämmer med de effekter som presenteras i forskning utförd på privata organisationer. Metod: I arbetet har en kvalitativ fallstudie av Växjö kommun genomförts. Empirisk data har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med dels inköpare ute på Växjö 3 kommuns enheter men också med en anställd centralt i kommunen som ansvarar för e-handeln. Teoretisk data har samlats in genom litteraturstudie. Slutsats: Många av de effekter som finns presenterade i det teoretiska ramverket kunde även identifieras inom Växjö kommuns verksamhet. Resultaten visar att Växjö kommuns inköpare generellt spenderar mindre tid på inköpsrelaterade aktiviteter än vad de gjorde innan implementationen av e-procurement-systemet INES. Det uppmärksammades dock att tidsåtgången för dessa aktiviteter kunde reducerats ytterligare om integreringen av leverantörernas lagersaldo och prisinformation hade fungerat bättre. Från centralt håll har bättre kontroll och överblick över inköpen erhållits sedan implementeringen av INES och mängden administrativt arbete har reducerats kraftigt.

No description available.

Zugl.: Oestrich-Winkel, European Business School, Diss., 2006. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Business Administration, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Nov. 20, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 186-193). Also issued in print.