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PROCESS |
The prime contractor for the ASSIST project was The Open Group.
A large set of procurement improvement actions for SMEs was collected and documented. The work relied heavily on the VALIDATE Best Practice Reference Set, from which a subset of 21 improvement actions was selected, appropriate for SMEs.
A clear step-by-step Improvement Action Template was developed for each action (each consisting of between two and five pages). The templates include environmental and organizational issues to be considered when implementing each specific action.
Examples of improvement actions are:
The Open Group and QAI Europe jointly developed a set of presentation materials and hand-outs on procurement improvement successes and challenges. Each Project Partner also prepared information covering aspects of procurement improvements based on their experiences with organizations in their regions.
A PC-Based Assessment Tool was developed to assess current procurement practices in relation to identified best practices. The formal modelling and assessment methodology was taken from the PULSE project, and the user interface, graphics, and evaluation facilities were based on an existing tool framework.
The assessment tool was tailored to provide a self-assessment tool (the Diagnostic Software Tool) to enable organizations to measure their performance relative to best practice and more mature IT procurement processes.
Each participant was supplied with the PC-Based Assessment Tool in advance of the workshop. The data was used within the workshop to provide guidance specific to the participant’s current situation and practices.
The data was also stored in a central database for EC reference.
A series of three workshops were held in each of Belgium, U.K., and Sweden, to collect a minimum sample of 35 profiles of current procurement practices in European SMEs, and to determine where each SME was in need of further assistance.
The workshops consisted of an initial briefing, followed by parallel sessions addressing the three main categories of procurement:
Each participant rotated through these sessions. Individual sessions were also scheduled with each participant.
Each workshop had a follow-up contact program which was used to track the implementation of the assigned improvement actions. The participants were asked the following questions on a three-monthly cycle:
Participants were also asked to complete a feedback form at the end of each workshop to get their immediate reactions, so that continual improvements could be made.
Over 40 organizations participated in ASSIST workshops in Europe during the pilot phase. The participants' scores rated the workshops very highly
A set of recommendations and common approaches were identified for improving SME procurement.
A DIY procurement improvement kit was developed for SMEs, including the Diagnostic Software Tool along with a Workbook.
Over 4,000 copies of the DIY Toolkit are being distributed to SMEs across Europe.