City of Constance implements decentralized procurement
From 1414 to 1418, the divided Christendom came together in Constance to resolve the schism between the three popes who held office at the same time. The years-long provisioning of the numerous council visitors and envoys is still considered a logistical masterpiece today.
It is currently being continued in Constance Town Hall - not far from the historic Council building. The procurement platform is used there to handle the logistical processes. It enables just-in-time purchasing of consumables and other materials - directly by the departments and yet controlled by the central purchasing department. This eliminates the need for material warehouses at the individual locations.
Like many authorities, Constance's local government is spread across many locations throughout the city. Until now, there was no procurement solution. As a result, material was often bought locally for stock. Small warehouses were formed at the individual locations. The city wanted to change this. The central purchasing department should be able to use a central platform to set up guidelines for the distributed employees as to which items they can order from which supplier at which price.
Functionality and ergonomics
This is now taking place with the DATAGROUP solution at the Ulm site. DATAGROUP Ulm won a public tender against providers from the municipal software sector. Functionality, ergonomics and ease of use of the procurement platform were the decisive factors. The strategic purchasing department of the city of Constance had taken a close look in advance at how ordering processes can be successfully reorganized.
The platform has the look and feel of an online store. The customer selects office supplies such as colored pencils and paper for the municipal kindergarten from an electronic catalog.
These goods are processed via catalogs supplied by the suppliers or via a cross-supplier catalog that can be maintained by the city administration itself. DATAGROUP's solution offers the option of connecting any supplier - unlike many competitor products, which only allow predefined catalogs/suppliers. As administrations have to put their framework agreements for suppliers out to tender every year, an e-procurement system with hard-wired suppliers is not practicable. The whole thing is rounded off by the mapping of free text requirements that are not linked to catalog goods.
The platform currently has around 100 decentralized users who use it to order consumables. Over time, IT materials and smaller capital goods will also be added. The use of the e-procurement solution enables the city of Constance to procure just-in-time; there are no longer any superfluous warehouses. In this way, the system creates transparency about the procurements made and provides key figures as a basis for future discussions with suppliers.
About the city of Constance
Constance is the largest city on Lake Constance and the county town of the district of Constance. The city administration is divided into three departments, spread across 55 buildings. The three departments are headed by Lord Mayor Uli Burchard, Mayor Dr. Andreas Osner and Mayor Karl Langensteiner-Schönborn. The City of Constance team currently consists of 1,600 employees.
