Fairfield City Council has been conducting procurement workshops for local businesses since 2013. The workshops were developed to increase small business awareness of council processes and legislative requirements for procurement. They were also set up to equip local business to take advantage of council tender opportunities. Council worked in collaboration with local business chambers to promote and develop the initiative.
Background
Fairfield City Council has one of Sydney’s most culturally diverse populations, with more than 35% of the population speaking a language other than English. Council’s Procurement team recognised that low levels of English proficiency was one of the barriers preventing local businesses participating in local procurement opportunities. When local businesses urged council to help turn things around, they did just that. Council’s Procurement and Economic Development unit developed a workshop program to boost accessibility to procurement opportunities for local businesses, which included translated versions of procurement information.
Implementation
Workshops provided information to local businesses about:
- Council’s requirements to conduct open tenders for procurement of material, services and goods with a value greater than $150,000
- Council processes on advertising or the notification of procurement opportunities
- Meeting requirements of tenders including: WHS statements, insurance and risk statements
- Where to access tender documents and procurement opportunities
- Ethical standards and regulatory requirements councils must follow
Working with local chambers of commerce, Council developed a workshop format to be delivered at breakfast information sessions twice a year for businesses interested in supplying to council.
Council also used Australian Business Register (ABR) data to invite potential local suppliers from particular industries.
Outputs
More than 250 businesses registered for these workshops in the three years to 2016. In 2017 council expanded the sessions to all industries and began delivering the sessions in the evening, to capture those businesses unable to attend during daytime hours. Local industry sectors which have attended the workshops include the manufacturing, construction, panel beaters, IT, agricultural, retail, fashion, food and beverage suppliers, cleaning contractors, marketing and promotion, and other professional services.
Outcomes and results
Feedback from local businesses has been extremely positive, with most of those attending agreeing the workshops clearly explained the process and requirements for responding to council tenders. Outcomes achieved by this initiative include:
- Improved engagement with local businesses
- Greater knowledge and awareness of council’s procurement opportunities by local business
- Development of a database of local businesses by industry sector
- Development of a culturally diverse approach to tender notification and alerts including advertising in non-English speaking newspapers and translation of tender releases
- Chambers of commerce have partnered with council to display upcoming tenders on their websites, increasing the exposure of council tender opportunities to locally based businesses
- Increased number of local businesses registering with systems such as tender panel and tender link to access tenders
- Local business has a greater understanding of tender requirements and how they could meet requirements.
Costs and funding
The workshops were funded by operational budgets and met community strategic plan objectives.
Key learnings
Understanding and listening to local business issues enables councils to develop tailored responses to local issues. This provides businesses with important information which can enhance their ability to secure local procurement opportunities and grow their operations. There are also broader flow-on community benefits in boosting local employment rates and community capacity building. Working in collaboration with external stakeholders, such as chambers of commerce, also gives council a greater understanding of local business issues and can assist in securing council’s reputation as a customer-focused organisation. Council is now developing additional resources to enable local business to access procurement opportunities.
Council Details
Population size: 198,817
LGA size: 102 km2
State Electorate: Fairfield
Federal Electorate: McMahon