Procurement Probity – Chumps or Champions?
Check out this alarming feedback from government procurement managers about their probity auditors and/ or advisors… “ No reference to – or understanding of the need for – a Procurement Plan.”“No mention of scoring priorities or methods in a tender evaluator briefing”“Conflict of Interest identification and management ignored potential or perceived Conflicts”“They could not explain […]
Lean-Agile Procurement (LAP) in NZ – Darling, Dog, or Dancer?

Lean-Agile Procurement is taking the world by storm, we’re told. It’s said to be a clever, fast-paced, supremely efficient model for procurement, which slashes the time and effort of selecting the best supplier. It’s simple, fun and exciting, say its fans. And it sets up a collaborative framework with suppliers from the first engagement.
Celebrating our Awesome Procurement Graduates 2021 – 2022!
We’re thrilled to announce the following graduates who have achieved their public sector Procurement Qualification through working through the Clever Buying Procurement training and assessment programme in 2021 – 2022. Every one of these people has demonstrated they have excellent practical skills in procurement planning, developing RFx documents, and managing tender processes and evaluation. These […]
Your Four Best Tools for World-Class Procurement
Procurement is tough, right? It’s hard to reach the peak of procurement excellence with huge pressure on public organisations to get value for money, short timeframes, complex and risky projects, and pressure to find sustainable solutions – finding the right supplier can be difficult. We have good news! Here are four simple ways you can make […]
How to spot a flawed Procurement Process – fast
A ten-point checklist for busy Procurement Managers You’re emailed a Procurement Plan or RFx for approval, and you’ve got very limited time to check it. Sadly, many RFTs that are prepared by so-called seasoned procurement professionals are not well put together – and as a result, they attract poor quality (or no!) responses. Here’s a […]
Five top tips for setting weights with SQP25
It’s been a couple of years since we introduced SQP25 – a powerful adaptation of the NZTA’s Attribute Weight Setting Tool. In that period, it’s been used by scores of tender evaluation teams to take the guesswork (and hopefully, the nasty surprises) out of setting attribute weights. Through that experience, we’ve refined our thinking and […]
How to become a ‘client of choice’

Making best use of an increasingly limited supplier market to deliver ambitious infrastructure programmes is a challenge for all government agencies today. When work is scarce, the choice between large and small contractors; and between local, regional and offshore suppliers is a luxury that plays into the hands of our buyers. But what happens when […]
Tender Evaluators match-making service – Available now at no cost!

Need a skilled tender evaluator? We can put you in with a skilled procurement professional who needs examples of tender evaluations to complete their NZQA Procurement Qualification. Each of these candidates has completed 80% of the qualification, and has been thoroughly trained in best practice in evaluating tenders and procurement probity. We have candidates based […]
Procurement mentoring – a winning formula

On-job mentoring for procurement capability development – why it works Real, tangible changes in workplace practice are incredibly hard to achieve. Even more so where there’s a mature audience who are, understandably, resistant to change. Busy procurement managers have little appetite for exams, lecture-style teaching or theoretical text-book study. And reliable indicators of their individual […]
Should our big spenders be qualified?

Isn’t it time that those who spend tens of billions of dollars of public money every year should be obliged to be trained and qualified to spend it wisely? We think a generic NZQA-accredited procurement qualification should be required for procurement practitioners of significant projects. The savings – both in procurement process efficiency and in […]