Successfully completed online seminar on public procurement in Slovenia
Last week, 12/12/2023, we successfully held the webinar "Fundamentals of public procurement of innovations and preparation of the public procurement procedure," which was intended for public clients who want to improve public services in important areas or are already involved in public procurement procedures innovations and want more knowledge and skills on the way to becoming public clients of innovative solutions.
The seminar was lectured by Mr. Denis Premec, who is an expert in this field. Using a practical example, he explained the basic aspect of public procurement of innovations and the process of preparing the procurement process. As an example of good practice, he chose a kindergarten building in Croatia, which was in a very bad condition and whose goal was to be demolished, but the kindergarten was transformed into a modern environment for childcare precisely by public procurement of innovations. An innovative solution was needed that would improve and extend the life of the building instead of demolishing it and building a new kindergarten.
The solution was also applicable for the same or similar buildings in the surrounding area and in the country, which is beneficial for both the client and the provider.
In the present case, a three-step approach was used: needs identification, where the problem was recognized and precisely defined, needs and requirements were defined (desires, market size, market research, constraints, resources, time...). This was followed by market engagement, which includes initial market research, i.e. feeling the market, early and extensive communication with the market or with providers, advertising the need, collecting market responses, analysing the information obtained, open consultation with the market... Finally, there was pro-innovation tendering, where providers were enabled to offer innovative but different solutions under the same conditions (detailed measures and solutions, requirements for cooperation, formal documentation, offers, negotiations, evaluation, criteria, criteria for evaluating offers, innovation specification...).
The lecturer emphasized that the most important thing for solution providers is to upgrade their initial innovation and that it is also applicable elsewhere, not only in one case. The seminar ended with answers to the interesting questions of the participants.
