Government Agency-wide Procurement and Contracting Systems Training

A major, highly diverse government department sought to improve the compliance, transparency and defensibility of its significant procurement and contracting activities. To this end, a contract was awarded to an IT vendor to provide a state-of-the-art contract management system. After the new system was implemented, adoption rates were very low because staff were resistant to change and perceived the system as too complex and unnecessary. AcademyGlobal appointed several facilitators, highly conversant in public sector procurement and contract management, to deliver an intensive vendor-led training session. From that session, a bespoke training program was developed. It went beyond systems training to bring together agency procurement and contract management policy and procedures and embed the system into the agency’s existing procurement and contract management practices.

This was a complex project due to the merging of two major agencies within state government, which led to a requirement for uniformity across the enterprise resource planning infrastructure. The merger of these agencies brought together distinctly different organisational cultures and operating models. While AcademyGlobal’s role was to support both agencies in their adoption of the new technology, there was a need to acknowledge differences in the stakeholder groups’ knowledge, experience and sophistication in dealing with policies, procedures, systems and processes, and tailor the training accordingly.

The success of this project is demonstrated by a significant increase in the willingness to adopt and use the technology platform, which led to improved governance, risk and compliance outcomes and greater consistency and uniformity across the newly formed department.