Informative

Is it best to mention a budget? How do you define a quality standard? What you include or exclude from your specification can directly impact the outcome of a request. Check out our comprehensive guide on how to write specifications that get the best results, and visit the insights page on our website for more […]

The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 was a historically transformative event disrupting the global economy. It impacted our lives in many ways; we stayed home, we worked from home, we could not socialise or connect in person with others. We engaged with others using VOIP, mobile phones, facetime, messenger, zoom, Microsoft teams and video conferencing platform

We’ve mentioned in earlier articles, the need to do a proper risk assessment to determine the appropriate level of insurance cover. If for some reason you can’t effectively do that, it weakens your position should a tenderer indicate your required insurance cover is unreasonable. You may find that one or more respondents will seek to

The concept of insurance dates back many centuries and is believed to have its roots in early China. Merchants ferrying goods down the Yangtze River faced strong rapids at certain points. Some boats would inevitably be overturned, and cargo lost. As a means of reducing risk, merchants would often agree to distribute their loads into

Professional indemnity insurance (PI) has come to our attention again. Councils are concerned as to appropriate levels required of their consultants. On the other hand, consultants feel that the levels required by councils (together with liability and indemnity requirements) are often not that reasonable. Further, Local Government Procurement (LGP) has learnt that insurers are becoming

Whether you’re brushing up on the basics or working on high-level strategy, VendorPanel is here to help. We’ve created a procurement toolkit with all the resources you need to make a difference in your council. Click here to check it out. For more educational resources, including the latest perspectives from industry experts, visit our insights

Here we are again in December. Another year coming to a close. As we reflect on 2022, the team discusses all the things that have happened this year, personally, professionally, locally, and globally. COVID no longer a pandemic, is here to stay. Global sanctions are impacting fuel and energy. The floods just keeping coming. We

As 2022 draws to a close we want to hear from you if one of your new year resolutions is to streamline your procurement or contract management processes in 2023. We continue to focus and enhance our core offering while building new solutions to help make procurement simple, fair and a force for good. We’d

Downer’s new resource recovery facility is the benchmark in landfill avoidance, recovering valuable material from local councils to be processed and used in roads all over Sydney. Downer Reconomy offers a resource recovery processing solution that turns a stream of usually landfill material into valuable products and materials to be used in asphalt production. We

Blackwoods Safety Spotlight Magazine Blackwoods has just released the fourth edition of Safety Spotlight, a bi-annual magazine that explores topics and solutions that are critical to keeping your team safe on the worksite. Safety Spotlight features articles from Blackwoods own Technical Safety Specialists as well as leading brands and experts in the world of safety.

Over the years I’ve been involved in arranging leasing for vehicles, office equipment and IT.  During that time, I picked up on many ‘tricks of the trade’. Some of the challenges start with fully understanding things like balloon payments, end of lease return conditions, extended term clauses, per diem payments and ascertaining the real impact

Please be informed that the Office of Local Government (OLG) has increased the tender threshold to $500,000 in limited circumstances. This limit applies to “contracts entered into by councils for the purpose of responding to, or recovering from, a declared natural disaster within 12 months of the declaration of the natural disaster.” (*) The OLG

Why Upgrading your VendorPanel Platform Makes Sense! As a local government entity, you may have used VendorPanel for your shared panel arrangements or whole-of-government contracts. But, did you know that VendorPanel is so much more than just a simple sourcing tool? It has loads of powerful features and modules available if you upgrade to a

People-Centred Procurement Event: Watch the Highlights In September we hosted an interactive virtual event discussing People-Centred Procurement: Powerful Solutions for Positive Impact. We explored how putting your people at the centre of your procurement function enables governance, efficiency and positive impact. If you didn’t attend the live event, you can watch some of our key

Drafting that final confidential report to Council can be onerous. There are lots of things to include, lots of things to consider and lots of time involved in drafting it. It’s timely to reflect on what you can do to make the task more efficient and what are the basics you need to cover. Firstly,

New Product Now Available Freedom of Information Management! Available now, VendorPanel’s Freedom of Information Management module. This solution is an online case management platform that automates and digitises the process, offering an adaptable approach to managing Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. To learn more about the benefits of this new solution, click here.

Some months back, I wrote about Dealing with Inflation. Amongst the concepts was an “Allocated stock agreement with suppliers to hold a certain quantity of stock kept solely for you, then delivered and invoiced as you need it (also known as ‘Consignment Stock’ depending on where the goods are located).” I’ll expand on this and