Speakers are still being sought for the twelfth IT Procurement Conference until 1oth February . The Institute Public Sector Transformation at the BFH and the University of Bern are inviting experts from the administration and from public companies, from the university environment and from the private sector to submit proposals for the programme.The IT Procurement Conference will take place on 22 August and is aimed at purchasers, project managers, consultants, lawyers and other experts who deal with information and communication technologies (ICT) in the context of public procurement.

This year, for the first time, speakers will have the opportunity to publish an article in an anthology of the conference. Contributions from women, representatives of the public sector and persons who would like to publish a contribution in the anthology are particularly welcome.

Selection of possible topics
The list of topics serves as an illustration of possible topics. Your own suggestions for topics and, in particular, examples from practice are, of course, possible and very welcome.

A) Topics around IT procurement

• Procurement of cloud solutions
• Information security and data protection in ICT tenders: Standards, requirements, criteria, public cloud etc.
• Requirements for the procurement of AI solutions
• Reduce dependencies on ICT vendors: Recurring maintenance contracts, avoidance of “exception freeholders”, procurement of open source software, etc.
• Life cycle management: life cycle of IT systems, prejudice of subsequent procurements, issues at the end of life of a system
• Drafting and negotiating IT contracts: Software development, maintenance, support, etc.
• Sourcing of ICT solutions: Strategies, make-or-buy decisions, multi-sourcing, etc.
• New technology trends: Industry 4.0, Smart Construction, Smart Home, Internet of Things, robotics etc.

B) Quality, innovation, sustainability of procurements

• Weighting and evaluation of price: price vs. quality, price evaluation models, life cycle costs
• Innovation content as a new award criterion according to Art. 29 BoES, first experiences
• Sustainable procurement models (renting, leasing, product-as-a-service, subscription models, etc.)
• Formulation and weighting of sustainable award criteria or technical specifications
• Labels and certifications: Curse or blessing?
• Sustainability in IT procurement (hardware and/or software)
• Social sustainability, diversity etc.
• Supply chain management in procurement Ensuring sustainability throughout the supply chain (e.g. manufacturing methods, commitment to subcontractors, avoidance of child labour, etc.).
• Guidelines and strategies for public procurement as a commitment to the new procurement culture
• Monitoring with a focus on whether something is changing in practice

C) General issues in public procurement

• New procurement instruments: Dialogue, framework contracts, electronic auction, etc.
• Functional and performance-based tendering
• Agility: procurement of projects that are implemented agilely, agile contracts, etc.
• Carrying out market clarifications
• Instate, inhouse and quasi-inhouse procurements
• Joint/collective procurements: several offices, cantons or cities together, etc.
• Interaction with suppliers: negotiation techniques, debriefing, dialogue procedures, RFI etc.
• Current case law: appeal procedures, decisions of national and cantonal courts etc.

Call for Speakers (PDF, 295 KB)

Paper submission IT Procurement Conference 2023 (DOCX, 42 KB)

Event website

Contact

Prof. Dr. Matthias Stürmer, Institute Director and Lara Biehl, Research Assistant