At the cafeteria of an arbitrary European administration, a purchasing officer and a head facility management are quietly sipping their coffee.

The purchasing officer talks enthusiastically about the new purchasing instructions. “Imagine” he says, “we are ordered to buy from now on only innovative products and services. Because that’s good for society.” The head of facility management is thrilled: “A brilliant idea, in the future I will exclusively buy innovative light bulbs and radiators.”

End of the story. Really? Is this what makes a purchaser tick?

In real life, a purchasers’ prime focus is not on innovation. He can not be enthused if someone orders him to buy “more innovation”. A purchaser cares about getting best value for money and compliance with European regulations, – according to Ditmar Waterman, project manager at PIANOo, a Dutch network organisation for purchasers – public officials generally care foremost about risk-reduction.

But even though innovation is not the top concern for a purchasing officer, it will be in his own interest if the market provides him with innovative products and services.

When a public hospital for instance is going to renew its treatment facilities and a contractor comes up with a completely different approach to construct such a treatment facility which will result in a decrease in waiting periods, better routing and more satisfied patients. Which hospital would reject such an offer?

When a local authority decides to tarmac a road and the contractor has invented a method to do so by using cold prefab-tarmac which will result in less environmental damage, a quicker completion time and fewer complaining residents. Which district council would go for the conservative solution? These are innovations a contracting authority would be most happy to buy. The trigger in these cases was not, however, the purchase of innovation but cost-reduction, the creation of new opportunities, risk-reduction and fewer complaints.

As innovation proves to be good for purchasers the question remains how to introduce this concept in the purchasing process.

According to Ruart Jagt, purchasing coordinator for the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, innovation does not serve well as purchasing criteria. Innovation is not a goal for public purchasers but can serve as a mean to achieve their primary goal: buy good products or services for a good price. Purchasers should – according to Jagt – keep an “open mind” when buying a product or service.

Ditmar Waterman starts from a similar conclusion: Due to the fact that it will be difficult to prescribe innovation as a purchasing criteria the road towards innovating purchasing will be two-fold: on the one hand to convince the political leadership to change the mindset of their purchasers or to ask for results which go beyond the current state of technology; on the other hand to offer practical recommendations which allow purchasers to take innovative solutions into account.

STEPPIN will therefore strive to convince Decision Making Units’s, project managers and the political leadership to promote in their organisations the positive effects innovative products and services have and, on the other hand, to give the purchaser “on the ground” the tools to allow their contractors to come up with these solutions. Functional or performance based standards are such a tool. (See article about performance based standards)

On 14 January 2008, STEPPIN will organise a workshop at which purchasers and other experts are invited to assess a first set of practical recommendations for innovating purchasing.

For further info:

Mr Joep Frijdal, Coordinator of STEPPIN - 'frijdal@belmont.nl'