SMART & COLLABORATIVE
PROCUREMENT
RECOMMENDATIONS
 
  

 
  
 
  
 
  

For Public Works Government Services Canada
(PWGSC) and Shared Services Canada (SSC)

Release Date:

 
  
 
  
 
  

June 5, 2015

  
  

As Canada’s national ICT business association, the Information Technology Association of Canada
(ITAC) champions the development of a robust and sustainable digital economy in Canada. A vital
connection between business and government, we provide our members with the advocacy,
networking and professional development services that help them to thrive nationally and compete
globally. A prominent advocate for the expansion of Canada’s innovative capacity, ITAC
encourages technology adoption to capitalize on productivity and performance opportunities across
all sectors. A member-driven not-for-profit, ITAC has served as the authoritative national voice of
the $150 billion ICT industry for 60 years. More than 33,500 Canadian ICT firms create and supply
goods and services that contribute to a more productive, competitive, and innovative society. The
ICT sector generates one million jobs directly and indirectly and invests $4.8 billion annually in
R&D, more than any other private sector performer.

© 2015 Information Technology Association of Canada

 The development of smart1 and collaborative2 procurement approaches illustrates the
Government of Canada’s ongoing commitment to modernize and transform how it operates.
ITAC shares the Government’s belief that procurement is more than simply about buying and
selling goods and services.
The sheer size of what Government buys has the ability to shift markets, fuel partnerships,
launch businesses, employ Canadians, and innovate public service delivery. Thus government
procurement is a powerful instrument of public policy – both economic and social.
For example, government procurement can: springboard a promising young company with an
innovative new solution into success in domestic and global markets; help determine where
private sector investments are made to create employment; advance the progress of underrepresented groups in Canada; accelerate innovation throughout the Canadian technology
ecosystem; and, by being a model user of technology, promote and encourage the broader use
of technology throughout the whole economy. For the nation, procurement is important, and
getting procurement done in a smart and collaborative manner is imperative.

The Information Communications Technology (ICT) industry plays a key role in government
procurement. Public sector procurement accounts for the largest single share of all ICT
procurement in the Canadian economy. The Government’s buying power thus has a profound
impact on the overall prosperity, productivity and investment decisions in our industry.
We have a large stake in the evolution of procurement. We have been active participants in the
fine work Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) has done to advance its
Smart Procurement initiative and also with Shared Services Canada and its Collaborative
Procurement initiative. ITAC is appreciative of the invitation to offer observations about these
initiatives’ progress to date and recommendations for improvements going forward.

1

Smart Procurement allows Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) to meet shifting expectations
both from our Government of Canada clients and industry. It allows procurement to be about more than just buying
goods and services. The four elements of the Smart Procurement approach are: Early Engagement, Effective
Governance, Independent Advice, and Benefits for Canadians. Read about these elements in the About Smart
Procurement page.
2
Collaborative Procurement allows Shared Services Canada (SSC) to maintain public procurement values of
transparency, openness and fairness. Objectives are to have engagement with industry early in the procurement
process (pre-RFP) to co-develop requirements definition, increase efficiency and effectiveness of procurement
process, and to ensure optimal solutions so that SSC can deliver on its mandate. A Review of the Collaborative
Procurement Process can be found here: http://www.ssc-spc.gc.ca/pages/itir-triti/pdf/Collaborative-ProcurementProcess-EN.pdf

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Smart & Collaborative Procurement
Recommendations

 In summary form, these recommendations are:
1. Improve business processes and rules of engagement by ensuring a robust dialogue, twoway communication, quality feedback, and disclosure right up until an RFP is issued.
2. Accelerate transparency measures so that appropriate time is given to respond.
3. Align Government practices with broader commercial practices seen across the globe.
4. Improve evaluation procedures and selection methods to maintain quality, mitigate risk, avoid
gaming, and achieve desired outcomes.
5. Improve security processing by reviewing the business processes to address the multiple
concerns raised by industry.
6. Incorporate appropriate strategies for fostering SME growth now so Canadian businesses
can remain a participant in the federal IM/IT procurement framework.
7. Improve the design of service delivery frameworks, metrics, options evaluated for outcomes
for Canadians.
8. Accelerate public access to suppliers to fairness monitors to help ensure a fairer
marketplace.
ITAC believes that the adoption of these recommendations will deliver solid benefits to
Government:
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It will ensure robust competition to meet government requirements.
It will ensure the Government achieves its business objectives for citizens.
It will help to ensure that vendors make a reasonable return on their investments in their
engagement in the Smart Procurement and Collaborative Procurement Process.

Recommendation 1:
Im prove business processes and rules of engagem ent by ensuring a
robust dialogue, tw o-w ay com m unication, quality feedback, and
disclosure right up until an RFP is issued.
Appropriately, one of the key elements of Smart and Collaborative Procurement is early
engagement and ITAC fully supports SSC and PWGSC’s commitment to engage industry early.
We have done our best to be valued partners in this engagement. ITAC members make
significant contributions to SSC and PWGSC industry committees, specifically the Information
Technology Infrastructure Roundtable (ITIR) and its two current sub-committees, the
Architecture Framework Advisory Committee and the Procurement Benchmarking Committee.
Additionally, ITAC members also participate in PWGSC’s Supplier Advisory Committees.
Recognizing that the opportunity to provide advice to Government is both a privilege and
responsibility, ITAC’s members take participation in these committees very seriously. In most
cases, they incur considerable expense to bring their top experts to the table to ensure SSC and
PWGSC have access to world-class counsel. Suppliers who do this voluntarily receive very little

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Smart & Collaborative Procurement
Recommendations

 feedback regarding how the inputs from their participation are used. Ideas fly around the table in
committee but there is an absence of feedback and closure on the ideas and how and why (or
why not) they are used.
Similarly, through Industry Engagements, dialogue is one directional. Suppliers invest time and
resources to support the process and respond to the Request for Information (RFI) and receive
little to no feedback before the Request for Proposal (RFP) or Invitation to Qualify (ITQ) or
otherwise.
Occasionally some RFPs that appear to government as fulfilling a strategic requirement, have
limited engagement, and collaboration. SSCs Strategic Advisory Services – Sourcing and
Benchmarking Solicitation and the DND Defence Renewal Requirement are examples of this. In
the case of the latter, DND issued a major RFI on their renewal program covering their entire
operations including components relating to IM/IT. There was no opportunity for industry to
provide input in the early stage of the process because the first time information industry
received about the project was when the RFI was posted.
Lastly, ensure the information provided during these phases of early engagements is seriously
considered, and further investigation is done if more information is required. More often than
not, the Invitation to Qualify (ITQ) process does not begin with a reasonable set of requirements
or its interconnectivity to other procurements underway is not thought out. This leads to the final
document becoming a drastic departure from its original form, as changes are consistently
made during the Review and Refine Requirements (RRR) phase, and government is forced to
either retract the document for further investigation or restart the process to ensure fairness for
all. The Data Centre Networks (DCN) or Hosted Contact Services (HCS) initiatives are good
examples of this at SSC, as is Defence Resources Information Management System (DRIMS)
at PWGSC.
Industry understands that large complex projects may sometimes require rethinking leading to
delays or cancellations. Government must recognize that engagement, even in the preliminary
stages of the procurement process, can be costly to vendors. While delays and cancellations
are inevitable, communication from Government is essential to ensure Industry understands
what has occurred and can position itself to participate in restarted, revised, or new projects.
ITAC recommends engagement and would like to work directly with Government toward
creating a better consultation process. We believe the hallmarks of a better process would
include:

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Smart & Collaborative Procurement
Recommendations

 •
•
•

Government providing feedback to the industry as to how it is using, or not using,
information and ideas presented in consultation;
Clear communication from Government about the objectives and the challenges that are
driving the specific procurement; and
Government should open and extend the opportunity for dialogue until a formal RFP is
issued.

Recommendation 2:
Enhance transparency by ensuring substantive business issues are
defined during the Invitation to Q ualify (ITQ ) stage so that Industry
has a reasonable tim e fram e to react accordingly.
Our members observe that substantive business elements in procurement are solidified so late
in the process as to hamper collaboration and a robust bid response. For example, if finalization
of Limitation of Liability requirements occurs at the same time as the release of the final RFP
and is circulated to only a short list of bidders, this reflects badly on the transparency of the
process.
When it comes to critical contractual requirements like liability, penalty structures, and supplier
evaluation criteria, Government needs to share information earlier and more fully to support its
response time requirements.
The PWGSC Request for Proposal (RFP) for Canada Student Loans is a good example of the
need for this, along with SSC’s Data Centre Server and Storage Infrastructure (DCSSI) project,
and Secure Internet Connections (SIC) tender.
ITAC recommends that the hallmarks of optimum transparency should include:
•
•
•
•
•

Consistent engagement and communication;
Engagement over a time period appropriate to the size and significance of the
procurement and its impact on the ICT supply chain;
Active listening from both parties and sharing more information earlier;
Government demonstrates an approach to better weigh and assess the diverse inputs it
receives from industry; and
Business fundamentals, particularly those capable of ‘show-stopping’ such as Limitation
of Liability are identified early in the process.

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Smart & Collaborative Procurement
Recommendations

 Recommendation 3:
Align term s and conditions for governm ent procurem ent w ith
com m ercial term s and conditions.
There is a misalignment of the terms and conditions required for government procurements with
accepted commercial business practices in use in the wider ICT marketplace. For example,
Limitation of Liability requirements for government projects frequently exceed levels that
vendors accept when contracting with large commercial clients of comparable stature. This
approach increases complexity and cost in public sector procurements and is considered a
showstopper for some members.
There is also an absence of alternative approaches to joint risk management, which are also
commonly found in commercial procurements. These alternatives present other ways for
industry and government to jointly manage risk without having the impact on prices those higher
LOL thresholds do.
The solutions industry puts forward to Government in response to a dramatically high Limitation
of Liability (LOL) may be quite different than a solution presented for a more reasonable LOL.
An inappropriate LOL may also prompt some suppliers to decide not to bid, which narrows the
competitive field and ultimately reduces selection options.
Similarly, penalties and service level agreements that are misaligned with more widespread
commercial terms and conditions can lead to a no-bid decision and thus a restriction of
competition. And requesting fixed prices for work where there is too much risk for suppliers to
be able to offer fixed prices will also limit competition and lead to higher prices.
Additionally, when terms and conditions do not contain guarantees of revenue or volume
metrics, it becomes impossible for bidders to assess the business case or for officers in bidding
companies to approve a competitive bid price. This, too, leads to higher prices and reduced
competition.
ITAC has raised concerns about better alignment of government terms and conditions with
appropriate commercial practices for some years now. And we generally encounter a
willingness and even commitment from Government to address this but there has been little
progress made to date. The LOL within SSC’s High Performance Computing (HPC) initiative is
an example of this point.
ITAC recommends a more appropriate, and in our view, optimum approach:
•
•

Government sharing risk assessments with short-listed companies;
Government’s willingness to work with short-listed companies to identify alternative
strategies within the project framework to address risk;

5

Smart & Collaborative Procurement
Recommendations

 •
•
•
•
•

•
•

•

A general review outside of each procurement opportunity that could establish general
principles that would apply to different types of procurements;
Meaningful dialogue about limitation of liability levels;
Earlier identification of limitation of liability thresholds so that firms can make decisions
about bids before significant resources are invested in the process;
A framework where liability levels are set at those commensurate with large commercial
clients of comparable stature;
Large business transformation projects which have unusually heavy ICT enablement
should have terms and conditions comparable with those used for traditional IM/IT
projects;
Government service level agreements and associated penalties should be aligned with
commercial industry standards for operations of comparable scale and scope;
The procurement process should reflect a willingness to work with suppliers to ensure
that the basis of payment aligns with the business risk and that there is congruence
between the basis of payment and the statement of work; and
Discussions about guarantee of revenue and business volumes to be awarded should
be discussed early in the process and clearly stated in the RFP.

Recommendation 4:

Im prove evaluation criteria and selection m ethods.
The evaluation of suppliers against well designed criteria and using selection methodologies
aligned to both the nature of the requirement and its risk profile is essential to a successful
procurement.
Execution of projects with the size, scope and transformative aspirations of many government
procurements require some of the most highly qualified individuals and skill sets available in
Canada - yet the technical scoring of proposals frequently under-values the scarcity and value
of these resources. This approach instigates a low-ball price mentality, where high-level
resources can be evaluated and given points but the overall value of the technical proposal
ends up so low in comparison that the firm with the lowest price is favoured.
Industry often finds the financial scoring of proposals is not aligned to the expected business
outcomes. Evaluation constructs with odd percentage scores given to different components in
the bid breed gaming activities, whereby suppliers are forced to take advantage of these
oddities, rather than simply pricing to supply. PWGSC’s Permanent Resident Card project is a
case where these challenges are seen by Industry.

6

Smart & Collaborative Procurement
Recommendations

 There are also times when the financial evaluation templates do not lead to sensible results.
Our members have also observed that options are sometimes under-weighted in the financial
scoring grid in comparison to their cost in the total solution. This leads suppliers to load more
costs into the options, which ultimately distorts the process.
For transformative IT projects, suppliers believe they are being too heavily driven by price
without recognition for the inherent risks and complexities characteristic of transformative
solutions. Too much emphasis on price can actually mitigate against the desired transformative
outcomes. The SSC Email Transformation Initiative (ETI) is an excellent example of this.
ITAC recommends key measures to improve evaluation procedures and selection
methodologies that would include:
•
•

Demonstration of the Government’s willingness to place more emphasis on technical
merit and capabilities rather than make price the determining factor; and
Ensure that PWGSC and SSC exercise greater diligence in establishing the financial
scoring of proposals and in the development of financial grids.

Recommendation 5:
Im prove Security Processing
Security concerns are obviously important given the nature of government information and
communications. However, Government, while following its procedures to ensure the security of
the ICT supply chain, needs to understand the implications this practice has on the procurement
process.
Because the criteria for accepting or rejecting a potential supplier are not published, suppliers
are operating without any guidance on security processing. Suppliers submit to security
processing in good faith and their submissions may include many supply chain partners trusted
by the supplier and in other contexts acceptable to the client. Security processing results are
binary and inscrutable – either accepted or rejected. If rejected, no information is provided to
permit the supplier to make adjustments for future bids. And now a “2 Strikes” practice will
punitively disqualify suppliers with two rejections on a specific requirement, even though they
are given no way of knowing what the issue is and remedying it.
The Government ICT Supply Chain process also causes lengthy delays after contracts are
awarded. While suppliers are awaiting clearances of personnel, the key resources bid often
have to accept other work. This can result in the loss of key resources central to the project.
These two factors impair suppliers’ ability to deliver at the very outset of a project.

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Smart & Collaborative Procurement
Recommendations

 In addition, this process increases the burden of compliance for suppliers. The registration
process for Controlled Goods for independent contractors, for example, requires the completion
of two documents and the collection and submission of supporting documentation. Now with the
imposition of a $700 annual fee per person, the burden will further increase. This will be
particularly true for companies in the technical and professional services areas that often need
to establish large teams to undertake project work.
Recognizing that the security requirements for suppliers seeking to be part of the Federal IT
supply chain are important, ITAC asks Government to ensure they do not unduly impair
participation in procurements or produce other negative impacts that might be otherwise
addressed. Therefore, ITAC recommends:
•
•
•
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The development of a methodology for suppliers to be able to verify the acceptability of a
potential subcontractor or secondary supplier for inclusion in their supply chain;
Recognition that without a method to identify or pre-screen vendors’ supply chain
partners, the 2-strike rule is unduly punitive and should be amended or relaxed;
A focus on timelines for file processing. When companies win a contract but cannot start
work due to security processing, those cases should be advanced in priority; and
An overall process review with an aim to ensure that security procedures are not unduly
prejudicing project outcomes.

Recommendation 6:
Accelerate the incorporation of appropriate strategies for SM Es
w ithin the Federal IM /IT procurem ent fram ew ork
As discussed on page 1, government procurement is an instrument of public policy.
Government purchasing power can be used to address an array of economic and social policy
priorities. These include fostering economic opportunities and advancement prospects in
specific segments of society such as aboriginal businesses and encouraging the growth of
SMEs.
Government is taking steps to develop strategies to advance the participation of SMEs and
aboriginal companies in the procurement process. But while these strategies are in
development, major procurements are proceeding.
Under current rules, smaller firms face significant barriers to participation. For example,
requirements to provide lengthy past history of deployment of a specific technology or service
effectively prevent young companies from participating. While the broader strategic framework
for aboriginal and SME engagement is being developed, ITAC believes that mechanisms can be
put in place to remove barriers to participate in current processes.

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Smart & Collaborative Procurement
Recommendations

 All major transformation initiatives released by SSC to date do not have set-aside asides
requirement built into the procurement nor a way to motivate suppliers to include small and
medium businesses within its response.
Therefore, ITAC recommends:
•
•
•

The Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business (PSAB) policy be applied to all
appropriate procurements to motivate and grow set-asides across government;
All major transformative initiatives incentivize respondents to leverage small and medium
businesses (i.e. through weighted points in the evaluation criteria); and
Where possible, include mechanisms such as deferment or waivers of prohibitive
elements within existing procurements to ensure engagement of SMEs and Aboriginal
companies.

Recommendation 7:

Im prove the design of service delivery fram ew orks, m etrics and
options evaluated to achieve better outcom es for Canadians
ITAC believes that embracing a total cost of ownership approach to procurements would
achieve better service outcomes for Canadians. This approach is currently under-used and
under-valued. Many of the procurements that have occurred have focused on low prices for the
base hardware, software or applications without considering the cost to install and operate a
solution. Ignoring total cost of ownership has led to unrealistic “make or buy” business cases
which in our view do not serve Canadians well.
While “Total Cost of Ownership” components in a business case may be open to interpretation,
we believe they should become a more frequent discussion in procurements. If Government
were prepared to share business cases with suppliers early in the procurement process,
industry would bring insights that may be helpful in evaluating present and future cases.
ITAC recommends:
•
•
•

PWGSC and SSC ensure that the Total Cost of Ownership is considered with the overall
procurement strategies;
Government should give suppliers access to government business cases in order to
have feedback for improvement; and
Government should move to fully loaded business cases.

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Smart & Collaborative Procurement
Recommendations

 Recommendation 8:
Review the access of suppliers to fairness monitors
The fairness-monitoring program is an important measure for ensuring that PWGSC activities
are conducted in a fair, open and transparent manner. They provide valuable counsel to
Government and enjoy an excellent vantage point on the procurement process.
Suppliers have a large stake in a fair marketplace. Therefore, we believe that fairness monitors
can be an important resource to industry. At present, we do not have immediate access to these
independent advisors. We believe providing industry access to fairness monitors would enable
all parties to work toward a shared understanding of fair principles and standards and ultimately
ensure a fairer marketplace.
ITAC therefore recommends:
•
•

Suppliers have access to fairness monitors to raise concerns and questions about
fairness directly; and
Fairness monitors be empowered to respond to concerns raised by suppliers.

Conclusion:
In the spirit of continuous improvement, ITAC appreciates the opportunity to submit this paper,
to help advance its smart and collaborative procurement initiatives even further. We know that
our members also have a role to play in addressing the identified improvements and we look
forward to continued association.
ITAC welcomes any feedback from PWGSC and SSC and, to that end; we would propose a
session to review the recommendations, as well as discussions in the SSC ITIR and the
PWGSC Supplier Advisory Committees. Our members are committed to continuous
improvement to achieve the most effective smart and collaborative procurement systems
possible.

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Smart & Collaborative Procurement
Recommendations