Innovative public procurement

Innovative public procurement guide

Barcelona City Council is presenting this guide to public procurement for innovation to help with the strategical channelling of the city’s purchasing power and put it at the service of the public. Using innovative procurement, Barcelona is aiming to help create jobs and growth in the city and boost its social and environmental values while also giving support to innovative undertakings geared towards resolving the public’s problems.

Download the Innovative public procurement guide

Innovating through procurement at Barcelona City Council

The strategy of innovative procurement at Barcelona City Council

The City Council intends to share in the advantages of innovative procurement. To do that it has established as a strategy the implementation of a series of actions, to ensure its procurements foster innovation and, as a result, guarantee and increase people's well-being.

This represents a cultural change and paradigm shift in the organisation’s purchases. It opens the door to a new way of procuring with clear advantages for everyone.

Actions envisaged by the City Council:

Planning purchases
Engaging in a dialogue with the market
Introducing innovation measures into each contract
Introducing technology
Passing on training and knowledge
Identifying new sources of funding

How to make this a reality. Principles and procedures

Public procurement for innovation is not a new procedure for procurement but rather a new way of procuring to meet needs for which no solution has been found in the market.

To make this possible, purchases are structured around four cornerstones:

Cornerstone I

Detecting needs

Identifying challenge and procurements for innovation with a clear and scalable impact.

Cornerstone II

Involving the various players

Identifying the players, preparing work meetings, prior notice of invitations to tender, market consultations and promoting equal treatment.

Cornerstone III

Initiating procurements

Choice of procedure, drafting specifications, establishing selection criteria, risk management, funding processes and joint purchases.

Cornerstone IV

Monitoring and evaluating

Monitoring contract execution and evaluating PPIs.

Barcelona City Council’s Guide to Public Procurement of ICT services

Procurement of ICT services refers to any process of acquiring, maintaining or improving any of the elements associated with communication networks and infrastructures, machinery or physical element for communicating and processing information (computers or terminals), software or digital services. Bearing in mind Barcelona City Council’s wish to transform the current procurement model, this guide aims to provide a comprehensive view of the legal and practical aspects to applying the municipal strategy for purchasing technology. The guide was conceived as a series of cross-cutting measures associated with technology and innovation that strengthen the foundations of social and environmental procurement.

Download the Guide to Public Procurement of ICT services