Review previous procurements
Reviewing previous procurements gives you an opportunity to apply lessons learned and check your budget against similar previous spending.
Review previous or current contracts
If this is not a new initiative, review the previous or current contract, including:
- quality of delivery - on time, on budget, to specification
- whole-of-life cost
- the supplier or provider’s performance
- how the contract and relationships with the supplier and stakeholders have been managed
- benefits, assumptions, and intended and unintended consequences
- opportunities for cost and efficiency gains.
If a formal review of the previous procurement has been undertaken, obtain a copy of the report. Otherwise, you can seek feedback about lessons learned from:
- the business owner/sponsor
- the contract manager
- end-users or recipients of the services
- the supplier or provider.
Talk to other agencies and NGOs
Talk to other agencies with recent experience delivering a similar service. Ask about the problems they have encountered and successes they have achieved.
NGOs may be delivering similar services funded by other mechanisms (eg donations or funding from philanthropic sources). Consider speaking to them to see how they deliver the services and what their experience has taught them.
Analyse previous spending
Spend analysis involves identifying all expenditure (contract charges and other costs to the agency) related to the delivery of the services over a period of time.
Find out the whole-of-life costs, and spend and cost trends, and compare this figure with your estimated budget. You may need to either reconsider your budget or reconsider what level of needs can be met if the budget is fixed.