The Commercial team came together at an early stage of the programme, prior to the business case in 2015. This included the recruitment of a commercial specialist. All commercial activity for Inland Revenue’s transformation was managed by the programme.
Wherever possible, we’ve gone with Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions. We have implemented around 10 COTS solutions as part of transformation to run various aspects of our business. COTS solutions include our data and analytics platform, content management systems, and the day-to-day systems that support the running of Inland Revenue such as human resources and finance. We relied strongly on out-of-the-box processes to avoid unnecessary configuration or customisation.
Very early on we developed a sourcing strategy for Commercial-off-the-shelf solutions and refined this as our knowledge of COTS grew.
Vendor management
The Programme undertook effective contract management through its monthly account review meetings and partner score-carding to ensure:
- the relationships with programme suppliers were handled professionally
- consultant performance was meeting programme expectations
- all services were provided within an effectual contractual framework and in line with Government policy.
Master services agreements were established for all major suppliers with specific statements of work entered for the delivery of transformation programme services. All projects and initiatives within the Programme had documented contracts covering all external spend whether for goods or services.
Regular forums
Regular partner management forums were established with all contracted suppliers as part of the governance structure of the programme. These forums are managed by the Head of Commercial and Procurement with attendance from Programme Leadership Team member(s).
The Deputy Commissioner for Transformation was accountable for the management of third-party suppliers through the Head of Commercial and Procurement.
Management of suppliers and partners
The Head of Commercial and Procurement was responsible for the management of suppliers and partners on the BT Programme which included the following:
- negotiation of the commercial framework of terms and conditions that suppliers are contractually obligated to deliver within
- management of contractual deliverables
- management of change requests
- performance management of suppliers against the programme scorecard
- milestone deliverables
- managing suppliers to value-add
- management of supplier innovation
- sourcing of suppliers to meet IR’s requirements
- contract management and commercial governance of the suppliers.
The involvement of third-party suppliers was subjected to All of Government (AoG) Rules of sourcing and IR procurement policy and undertaken through the direction of the Head of Commercial and Procurement. Prior approval of the Senior Responsible Officer or Commissioner of Inland Revenue in accordance with the agreed levels of financial delegation was sought for all procurement activities and involvement of a third-party supplier.
Account review meetings
The purpose of the account review meetings was to provide a monthly forum for the management of the programme commercial arrangements and relationships with key service providers.
Meetings were held monthly and include engagement effectiveness, cost management, schedule attainment and delivery performance, scope and change management, team performance, risk and issues management, delivery assurance and administration and compliance. The meetings also reviewed the status of commercial activities (acceptances, change requests and invoicing), budget forecasts and actuals and resource planning and changes.
The account review meetings were chaired by the Head of Commercial and Procurement. The scorecard was shared with the Portfolio Governance Committee as applicable.
Noting that this approach will continue at IR post the BT Programme closure as it has been very effective.