Background
The AWARD® software was used by the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) MITER project to support the evaluation process on a £240m contract to consolidate three existing construction and mechanical handling equipment contracts into one. The fleet includes about 4,600 pieces of equipment at approximately 300 locations in 14 countries, used by the armed forces during peace time activities and on deployed operations and training.
The winner of the seven-year contract, which runs until 2027, will maintain, manage and support the fleet, including excavators, bulldozers, cranes and forklift trucks. The contract is part of a restructuring strategy for the MOD’s plant management and maintenance functions.
Role of Commerce Decisions
We were engaged to provide our evaluation planning and preparation solutions to support the MITER procurement, delivered by our AWARD® software and team of expert consultants. AWARD® was chosen based on our proven track record of delivering many similar, high value strategic projects in MOD and across the defence sector globally. We provide highly-experienced consultants with backgrounds in industry and defence, who can support the running and oversight of strategic, complex procurements.
Project challenges
The key project challenges we needed to overcome were:
- Involving and consulting a dispersed team of stakeholders, including Army and Commercial project teams, legal and insurance advisors. This comprised 10 different workstreams and over 70 AWARD® users.
- Recognising the customer’s desire to apply a Whole Force Approach, in particular incorporating different classes of contractor working as part of a cohesive team.
Project objectives
- Maximise the use of supplier personnel and facilities in all environments
- Minimise capital commitment
- Work closely with the Army as the lead customer to maintain continuity of service
- Work with different groups of personnel across the project including the military, civilians and contractors on deployed operations
The value added by Commerce Decisions and AWARD®
Strategic Project support
Our expert consultancy team led the initial criteria design discussions using our formalised Structured Criteria Development (SCD) process. We refined and agreed the key topics from the outset, providing stakeholders with a unified view of the project’s objectives and ensuring all the goals and requirements were clear and achievable.
With these in place, our team of consultants supported the allocation of the most appropriate subject matter experts to lead working groups on the development of the project criteria. This structure worked effectively throughout the process, with the right people in place in each group, enabling productive meetings and the generation of robust criteria under our team’s overall direction. The consultants set a rigorous timetable to maintain the project team’s interest and drive momentum, whilst ensuring outputs would meet all legal requirements. This approach enabled our consultancy team to support the establishment of a coherent and watertight question set, detailing the evidence required from prospective suppliers and the way in which it would be assessed and scored.
This provided the project team with the confidence that the question set would pass Scrutiny and secure approval for release.
During the next stage of the SCD process, our consultants supported the MITER team in using the AWARD® Value for Money module to run the Weighting Workshop to apply an appropriate set of weights across the criteria set. These sessions gave members of the project team the opportunity to consider a prescribed set of factors in determining the most important criteria. As AWARD® aggregates the weights, the methodology ensured a fair and collaborative process which was both auditable and transparent.
Our expert consultants then led interactive wargaming exercises to help the team identify any gaps and build assurance that the project’s value-for-money objectives would be achieved. Once again, having documented evidence of this sensitivity analysis in report form was an important step in gaining approval.
The MITER team benefitted from close interaction with our team of consultants, with individual groups taking responsibility for technical aspects of the requirement and then feeding back into the whole invitation document set.
Once the tender invitation had been issued to prospective suppliers, AWARD® was used to support supplier interactions, which included over 200 clarification questions, the submission of all bids and calculation of the results.
Project outcome
The Commerce Decisions team supported the project from July 2017 to contract award in December 2019. Our support throughout the process enabled the MOD project team to award the contract in line with their desired timescales and to successfully achieve the following outcomes:
- Collaborative identification and agreement of project goals
- Robust, fit for purpose and appropriately weighted criteria
- A robust audit trail of decisions and record of all activity
- An optimised value for money solution that was delivered to time and budget
“The 10 ITN questions […] stood the test of time, right the way through negotiations to the point where they remained work streams after contract award. Assigning a lead to each provided excellent continuity. Our experience of using Commerce Decisions and AWARD® made the negotiation more effective and efficient.” – Simon Herrington, MITER Project Manager
About Commerce Decisions
Commerce Decisions provides the AWARD® strategic software and expert services to support the effective planning, preparation and execution of procurements. For over 20 years AWARD® has been trusted to deliver some of the largest, most complex procurements globally across government, defence, transport and infrastructure, totalling over $500 billion.
AWARD® has been proven to shorten time to contract, improve value for money, and reduce risk to support the delivery of the best possible outcomes.
Defence Sourcing Portal (DSP) and AWARD®
AWARD® has been used by MOD projects since 2001, and remains in place as part of DSP to support the evaluation activities on complex projects. Complex projects would typically include those that are high risk, high value, particularly sensitive, multi-lot or using Willingness to Pay.
The Commerce Decisions Services Team
Commerce Decisions expert services team provides support from the planning stages of your project right through to the evaluation and contract award. Our services include proven methods for building robust and defensible criteria and for weighting them effectively, defining value for money approaches, undertaking sensitivity analysis and developing risk and cost scenarios. We are also on hand to support teams with negotiation, competitive dialogue and other procurement procedures. Commerce Decisions consultants are JAGGAER accredited and can provide expert application support across DSP.
Complimentary webinars for the UK MOD
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