Emerging technologies and innovations

Framework providers and clients should use pre-procurement consultation to inform their framework strategy. This will provide insights as to the potential for industry to offer the required or desired solutions, and as to the best means of promoting healthy competition in developing those solutions.

Exploration of emerging technologies and innovations is likely to identify limitations and gaps in the market, and well-structured frameworks can influence these limitations and gaps over the short, medium and long term. The prospect of a place on a significant framework can motivate commitment to new investment by tier 1 suppliers and can also support investment in the strategic tier 2 and 3 supply chain relationships that may be necessary to access specialist expertise.

Attracting and adopting supplier proposals that use emerging technologies and innovations will depend on an outcome-based approach to supplier evaluation and a clear understanding as to the treatment of supplier intellectual property rights in the proposals that they submit.

Gold Standard framework procurement documents and framework contracts state:

■  How supplier proposals form part of the quality criteria that move the evaluation focus away from lowest price and towards a deeper understanding of bidders' capabilities

■  The purpose of seeking competitive supplier proposals, including the processes by which these proposals are reviewed, developed and adopted once a supplier is appointed to the framework, and the basis on which these proposals will then be used to deliver improved client outcomes and Construction Playbook policies

■  How confidentiality and intellectual property rights in supplier proposals will be respected

■  By what process the framework provider, clients, manager and suppliers will seek agreement to share approved supplier proposals with other suppliers on the same framework

■  How the recognition of supplier proposals in framework evaluation, and the success of supplier proposals in delivering improved outcomes, will affect the award of future work.

Specific actions include:

Framework strategy

■  Consider the emerging technologies and innovations that the client or clients want to access through the framework in order to deliver the desired or required project outcomes, identify potential opportunities and limitations in the market and consider how the framework procurement and framework contract could optimise competition and improve market health and capability.

Framework procurement

■  Embody pre-procurement learning and evaluate supplier proposals as to how emerging technologies and innovations will deliver the desired or required strategic and project outcomes.

Framework contract

■  Embody pre-procurement learning and structure the value improvement systems to incentivise and take advantage of emerging technologies and innovations.