IT procurement in the light of digital transformation
The seventh IT procurement conference again beat the attendance record. In front of more than 380 procurers, consultants and IT providers, public procurement was examined from various perspectives.
This year's IT procurement conference focused on the digital transformation from the perspective of the legislative, judiciary and practice. The revision of the Federal Public Procurement Act as well as innovative solutions for ticketing systems in public transport were the topics of expert presentations. The IT Procurement Conference is aimed at procurers, bidders, consultants and lawyers who are active in the field of public procurement. It is organized by the Digital Sustainability Research Center of the University of Bern, the Federal IT Steering Committee ISB, the Swiss IT Conference SIK, swissICT and CH Open.
The BöB in the mills of the law
National Councilor Kathrin Bertschy gave the plenum a look behind the legislative scenes. The principle "cheap is not always cheap" guided the consultations on the revision of the Procurement Act so far. The proposed mandatory provisions on sustainability and transparency (life cycle costs and the principle of public access) have so far been accepted by the National Council. The discussions in the Council of States are still pending, in which these and other controversial points, such as the subordination of public undertakings and the exclusion rule, will be put to the test. The timetable shows: The new law is not expected before 2020.
Judge Marc Steiner also emphasized the importance of transparency as a guiding principle of revision. Using federal administrative court decisions, he showed how case law affects legislative efforts and vice versa. One focus of the presentation was on good governance aspects. IT procurement in particular, he said, is vulnerable to shoddy contracting and abuse. Anti-corruption would be newly enshrined as a legislative objective. This is a strong signal, but there is still a lack of detail: the provision proposed by the Federal Council on the exclusion of third parties (Art. 13), for example, is "a scandal". He concluded by pointing out that the paradigm shift from price to quality competition is not only part of the revision, but also a subject of case law.
Digital transformation for the public
Innovation is driven not only by the legislature and the judiciary, but also by practice. For example, the start-up FAIRTIQ is revolutionizing the ticketing system in public transport. Founder Gian-Mattia Schucan is the former person in charge of ticketing at SBB, and with the new app he is proving how previous processes can be fundamentally turned upside down through digital transformation. Another revolution is promised by the Digital Sustainability Research Center's launched www.intelliprocure.ch. This platform offers more intelligence in the procurement process by analyzing simap data. Innovations are also coming from simap.ch. Thomas Fischer, member of the board of simap.ch and head of the procurement conference of the canton of Bern, presented the simap2019 project. The modular, open-source-based e-procurement platform is scheduled to go live on May 1, 2019. In addition, the conference offered participants the opportunity to delve into further IT and procurement topics with eight specialist sessions.
