Transcript Open standards in public procurement stimulating

STEPPIN, an overarching perspective
STEPPIN is supported by the European Commission under the
Europe INNOVA initiative
Topics
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Effects of using standards in tenders
The Framework
Theory and empirical evidence
Legal aspects
Practical examples
Barriers and Enablers
The Handbook
www.europe-innova.org
Objectives of a tender
 Acquisition of required goods, services etc.
– lowest price
– best value for money defined as “the optimum combination of
whole life costs and quality to meet the user requirement”
– lowest risk regarding cost, environment, health and safety
– etc….
– but also: need for new technologies, new suppliers, new
functions….
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Effects of standards
 Referencing standards can help to achieve the
objectives of a tender:
– Standards promote competition between suppliers and prevent
lock-in to a specific supplier
– Standards support compatibility to existing infrastructure and
reduce cost for repair and maintenance
– Standards set minimum requirements for performance, quality
and safety
– Cost and risk reducing effects of standards make it possible to
buy products with innovative features connected with higher risk
and cost
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The Framework
 STEPPIN Framework consists of the following main elements:
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Theoretical framework and empirical evidence
Practical examples
Barriers and Enablers
Models for using standards in tenders
Do’s and Don’ts
Tools for purchasers
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Use of the Framework
 The Framework will be used to define:
– the structure of the Handbook
– the structure of the Dissemination Workshops
– the Policy Recommendations
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Empirical Evidence
 Result of desk research, previous research undertaken by
members, analysis of over 500 tenders and interviews with
stakeholders
 Results:
– Using standards in tenders is not a problem (~40% of tenders)
– When standards are used it is to reduce risks or because of legal
obligations
– Different categories of standards have different effects:
performance based and interoperability standards can foster
innovation
– The use of standards should be considered early in the
procurement process
– Some product/market combinations have more potential
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Empirical Evidence (2)
 More results
– “Innovation” is rarely an issue in the tenders.
– The Tender documents reviewed alone did not provide all the
necessary information.
– Additional information is needed: How is innovation embedded in
the requirements, who has the contract been awarded, what are
the opinions of the supplier and the tenderer about the effects on
innovation?
– Use of our network of experts and additional interviews proved to
be the best approach
 You can help us with more cases!!
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Impact of Innovation for Public Procurement
 Positive impacts
– higher quality of public services and infrastructures meeting in a
better way user requirements; this aspect becomes more
important due to more competition between municipalities,
regions and member states for private investors
– lower whole life costs
 Negative impacts
– higher initial purchasing costs
– higher risks respective whole life costs including frictions to
existing infrastructures
– only very few supplying companies at early stages
 standards are able to leverage the positive impacts and to
reduce the negative impacts of innovation for public procurement
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Practical examples
 It is not easy to find practical examples where standards are
used to procure innovative products or services or to foster
innovation
 Use of standards to explicitly procure innovations is rare
 Most cases are interesting but not perfect: no real open
standards used, legal issues,…
 They will be used as examples that can be improved using
the Framework
 Database with available examples has been created
 Workshops will be used to gather additional examples
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Standards: Barriers and Enablers
 Standards can be barriers and enablers for innovation
– Performance and interoperability standards are enablers,
technical standards can be barriers if technology-specific and
over-prescriptive
– Standards are the outcome of a consensus process,
representing the smallest denominator. The requirements
defined do not necessarily stimulate innovation
– Standards can create lock-in to technologies
– Proprietary standards can dominate the market and prevent
innovation by prevent the access of competitors
– Standards can be old and not reflecting the state of art
 Standards must therefore be used sensible
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Standards in the tender process
 Position in the tender:
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Part of the functional/technical specifications
Selection criteria ( technical capabilities)
Award criteria
Contract
In the RFI ?? document
 Outside the tender process:
– Internal pre-tender phases (e.g. definition of business case, user
needs and specifications)
– Technical dialogue/market consultation
– Market intelligence phase
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Standards in the tender process
Business Case
Establish Need
Develop Need
Procurement Strategy
Pre-qualification
Before Procurement
• Earlier supplier involvement in selecting the standards
• Communication of long-term plans to the market regarding the
referencing of standards
• Early cross-functional dialogue (inc policy, procurement and project staff)
• Unsolicited proposals and the role of standards
• Standards to solve IPR issues
• Input and output specification
• Consider contracting strategy (inc use of SMEs; appropriateness of
partnering)
During Procurement
Tender Preparation
Selection, Award
Implementation
Manage Contract
Evaluation
• Evaluation of proposals by using standards
• Reducing risk by standards
• Evaluate variant bids in relation to standards
• Include appropriate provision for innovation in contract
After Procurement
• Risk and reward sharing by standards
• Manage incentives by using standards
• Continuous improvement via taking account newly released standards
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Source: Blind (2007) based on Office of Government Commerce statistics (2004)
Using standards in tenders
 The “How” of using standards is presented by Ramona
Apostol/Jochem Berns, Corvers:
– Legal aspects and the changes on technical specification in
public procurement
– European Directives
– National Laws and Regulations
– Etc….
– Use and positioning of standards in the document needs careful
consideration
– Opportunities offered by present version of Directive
– “or equivalent”….
– Proof: a burden for the tenderer
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Tools for using standards
 Were to find standards and how to use them: presented by
Siglinde Kaiser:
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Steps to identify the right standard
Role of National Standards Bodies
How to read a standard
Possibilities to change a standard
Definition of a database linking products with standards
Procurers know CPV: Standards experts know ICS: how to solve
this
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The handbook
 Structure of Handbook is based on the Framework
 Target audience: public purchasers and policy makers
 Format: Compendium/Encyclopedia
– Paper version, covering basic principles, acts as a “Quick
Reference Guide” that can be placed on a purchasers desk
– Web based version in English: includes all reports, annexes,
reference material and policy recommendations
– Web based version includes toolset: Knowledge base with
interesting cases and tool to find standards
– Web based version will be initially hosted on Innova website.
– User community will be created
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