Hansel’s services in great demand

Growth was a key characteristic of Hansel’s year 2017. With the addition of procurement development, there were now three services instead of the usual two, and the volume for all services increased during the year. As a result of business development, the size of the organisation also increased, and the number of new employees rose to 28.

Central procurement

The total value of central acquisitions in 2017 was €830 million (€770 million in 2016). The number of tendering projects carried out was 24, and the number of procurement decisions made during those projects amounted to 60. Framework agreements were adapted to meet needs to an increased extent, and by customers’ request, preliminary analyses were carried out even for entirely new product groups, such as cultural and recreational vouchers and laboratory equipment. The decisions on how to proceed with these projects will be made in 2018. There were several development projects underway. From the perspective of category management, the most important of these was the preparation of simplified tendering processes through the Hanki service, the implementation of which will take place in 2018. Another important project was the preparation and piloting of the dynamic purchasing system. The dynamic purchasing system (DPS) is a fully electronic procurement process that is open to all eligible tenderers throughout its duration. Investments were also made in service centre collaboration. At the end of the year, there were 17 categories, since vehicle and transport services were divided into two new categories: vehicle services, and transportation and logistics services. The number of framework agreements for these was 80 in total.

Procurement expert services

Sales of expert services rose to €1.5 million (€1.3 million in 2016). Expert services were offered for a total of 196 customer-specific tendering processes and procurement-related development projects (162 projects in 2016). The turnover for the tendering services was €1.26 million. The total value of customer-specific tendering processes was approximately €500 million (€339 million in 2016).

The largest tendering service customers in 2017 were Customs, the State Treasury, the steering group for the Finnish Government Shared Services Centre for Finance and HR (Palkeet), and the Finnish Transport Agency. While the majority of the acquisitions were information systems and other IT-related purchases, they also included other societally significant purchases, such rehabilitation services for veterans with disabilities. Customer feedback on our unit has been positive, with a score of 4.6 on a scale of 1–5 (4.6 in 2016). Systematic collection of information on savings achieved through tendering processes and on other benefits related to purchases was also started in 2017.

Procurement development services

Sales of procurement development services during this first year amounted to €240,000. The number of assignments performed for customers was 19, while the number of different customers was 15. The largest development service customers in 2017 were the Senate Properties, the Ministry of Finance, and the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority. The largest assignments were of the kind in which a development manager from Hansel works in the customer organisation about three days a week for several months. Other assignments are various kinds of development projects, which in 2017 most typically included analyses of current procurement practices, spend analyses, development of the guidance or organisation related to procurement, or trainings.