Write innovation challenge guidelines
Clearly present the most important tender information with plan English and visual references
Why use an Innovation Challenge Guidelines document?
Suppliers see many tender opportunities and need to make fast decisions about where to spend their limited time, what to read more closely and what to respond to
Tender documents use technical procurement concepts and legal language. NSW Government accessibility standards state that plain English is preferred in a guidelines document. Sometimes, the information suppliers need to know quickly is not just difficult to understand, but is in different locations throughout tender documents.
Multi-stage innovation approaches are complex and are far less common than standard procurements. Therefore, it's even more important to concisely communicate the key information to the market.
An innovation challenge guideline document gives suppliers the most important information as quickly as possible using plain English and visual references.
Resources
A template for innovation challenge guidelines is available. Samples are also available from projects that have already used guidelines in their market approach. To access these, contact the Test and Buy Innovation advisory team on InnovationProcurement@customerservice.nsw.gov.au. The team will check some project details with you to ensure you're getting the right resources and advice.
Legal considerations
The innovation challenge guidelines present information that is also contained in tender documents, but in a format that is user-friendly and supports quick understanding. The tender document is a legal document and must be unambiguous and comprehensive. It therefore uses relatively complex structures and language. In comparison the guidelines document presents key information that helps suppliers (and stakeholders) understand whether to read further and where to look for more information.
To avoid any conflicts arising between the tender document and the guidelines, teams should ensure:
- Decision-makers and suppliers read the tender document in full and do not rely solely on the guidelines
- Neither the tender document nor the guidelines are open to interpretation
- It is clear to suppliers that, in the event of a conflict, the tender document has precedence over the guidelines
Key document inclusions
The innovation challenge guidelines document should include:
- a description of the business background and objectives
- an overview of the challenge and scope of the opportunity
- a visual graphic of the multi-stage procurement process and key milestones
- an overview of staged deliverables, evaluation criteria and timelines
- an overview of staged contracting arrangements
- an overview of stages and funding arrangements
- a description of the extent of the full opportunity
- a description of potential future opportunity scope if relevant
- a statement about level of commitment to future stages
- a description of the approach to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
- a statement that addresses Probity considerations.
Supporting stakeholder communication
Creating the document with a supplier audience in mind helps align the buying team's understanding of the procurement process and builds a fluency for the team to express complex concepts simply. It helps stakeholders and approvers contribute and feel confident that the procurement approach will stand up to scrutiny. Finally, it creates a single source of truth from which to build other, more detailed and technical, procurement documents.
Suppliers
Suppliers deserve to use their time efficiently and make informed decisions about participating in procurements. Use innovation challenge guidelines to help them decide quickly whether an opportunity is relevant to them and to give them assurance that it will be a fair and transparent process.
A guidelines document makes it easier and faster for suppliers to:
- understand the procurement scope, process, stages, deliverables, timelines and contracting arrangements
- see how they will be evaluated
- know the full extent of the opportunity beyond a trial, and potentially beyond the immediate scope
- know whether they will be compensated for effort, which stages are funded or where there might be funding uncertainty down-track.
Internal stakeholders
The guidelines document makes early consultation with key stakeholders easier. Using the draft of this more accessible and more visual document to brief stakeholders is a great way to socialise and refine the proposed buying approach. It creates an opportunity to identify concerns early, address them and reduce the risk of delays.
This collaborative approach can speed up:
- approvals for a buying strategy
- completion of tender documents
- legal review of contracting provisions and tender documents
- approver confidence that a complex process is being effectively managed and communicated.
Managing iterations
Expand the boxes to read about the expected changes for each stage of the process.
During the Discovery phase, the innovation challenge guidelines document is helpful for capturing the buying team's hypothesis about buying pathways, shortlisting processes, scope, funding and more. It can be a collaboration tool and ensure ideas are clearly articulated and able to be understood by the whole team.
The document would remain in draft status throughout the Discovery phase, although the buying team may agree on document management protocols including access and version control.
During the Plan phase, as things change, the draft guidelines will need to be iterated by the buying team. Document management, including access and version control, should be agreed on early by the project buying team.
During the initial Source phase, once the tender documents have been published, edits to the original guidelines may be required. Updated addendums should be published to buy NSW during the open tender period.
Scenarios where such edits may be required include:
- the published guideline version was not the approved version
- the published guideline document is inaccurate or contains a legal error
- the published guidelines document is not consistent with the published tender documents.
The innovation challenge guidelines document should be updated for subsequent testing stages. The document should include a summary of the tweaked requirements, evaluation criteria, timelines and more.