Digital Day recap: How the public sector can simplify procurement and fuel collaboration with Docusign

The inaugural APAC Digital Day 2022 is done and dusted. Here’s a recap of our session on how local councils are transforming their contracting and procurement processes – with the goal of providing the very best customer service to citizens.

Government procurement is a complex process. From acquiring services and solutions for public works, to supporting employees with new technology, the purchase pathway for government assets is littered with obstacles and rules. Sure, these rules are designed to help protect taxpayers’ money, but they can make life difficult for procurement and legal teams. 

In fact, it’s common for procurement teams to speed weeks – and, often, a small fortune – on getting contracts right. And, when you’re dealing with hundreds of contracts a year, some as long as 2,500 pages (such as the case at Yarra Ranges Council in Victoria), the costs can quickly add up. Particularly if those thousands of pages are paper-based, with teams rifling through reams of print-outs to find problematic clauses and execute changes. 

No wonder local councils are crying out for a simpler, faster way to support procurement teams. And, if the great cross-section of government agencies in attendance at last week’s Digital Day event was anything to go by, they’re ready for action.

If you missed our session on public sector procurement, you can watch the webinar on-demand now. Below is a quick summary of what Glenn Powell, Industry Lead - ANZ Public Sector, Docusign, and David de Beer, Senior Solutions Engineer, Docusign, covered.

Streamlining the process of government procurement

To help reduce complexity and mitigate risk, Docusign CLM has powerful workflows, checks and balances in place for all aspects of contracting – from creation right through to completion and ongoing management. Docusign CLM is simple for agencies to configure, with an intuitive interface to suit government organisations of all sizes.

“We take an organisational view of derisking procurements. As we saw during the Covid pandemic, supply chains were strained, and contracting relief was sought by buyers and sellers – with many contract variations issued. The ability to search contracts and quickly ascertain your department’s risk position is invaluable,” said Glenn. 

“Add in complexities around critical infrastructure procurements, data sovereignty procurements and more, and contracts need to be readily available and searchable to ensure they comply with policy changes.”

To show how Docusign CLM streamlines and expedites the process of government procurement, David walked attendees through an example of a Queensland agency that wants to buy a bunch of laptops, and must adhere to the State Government’s QITC Framework. 

As David explained, it’s possible to use Docusign CLM workflow rules to create and send a contract in a matter of minutes, not hours or days. “A procurement officer can easily and electronically generate an ICT procurement contract by completing an intuitive form, which gathers the necessary data for the contract. Once complete, Docusign CLM automatically initiates a contract workflow to route the contract appropriately, before being electronically signed by both parties,” he said.

Here’s how simple it is.

1. Create a new procurement agreement by opening the Docusign CLM dashboard and going to Actions > Create Procurement agreement

2. Fill out the form, which includes all required fields, as well as handy pop-ups explaining exactly what’s needed

3. Generate the contract, with Docusign CLM inserting all data into the contract in the appropriate locations

4. Initiate the workflow for capturing signatures and executing the contract

It really is that easy. And, with the ability to add enforceable business rules to the workflow – such as extra approvals for contracts over a certain dollar value – organisations have the peace of mind that appropriate guardrails are in place so all employees can accurately generate contracts. 

Powerful collaboration expedites contract changes

If changes to contracts are required, it’s easy for teams to collaborate. For example, instead of delivering 50 laptops in one hit, the government agency wants a staggered delivery.   

A legal assistant can quickly and easily make the changes. She opens it in Docusign Edit, which converts the document to Microsoft Word, which includes an integration with Docusign Analyzer. Analyzer includes all pre-approved clauses in a clause library, so the assistant can quickly find appropriate wording to add to the contract. 

Once the changes are made and the document’s saved, it’s automatically uploaded to Docusign CLM as a new version.

It’s all about speed and simplicity

As David’s demonstrations showed, Docusign CLM helps procurement teams save time and  money during the contract preparation and negotiation stages, while providing a water-tight audit trail. 

To see the demonstrations in full, watch the 20-minute webinar now. Or, to learn how Docusign CLM can simplify more complex procurement workflows, get in touch for a one-on-one consultation with a Docusign specialist.