Procurement Innovation for Cloud Services in Europe

The acquisition of IT services is a key function within any public or private organisation with the advent of cloud computing requiring innovation in the way IT service are procured.

While growing demand for computing power from the scientific community has resulted in initiatives such as Helix Nebula (http://www.helix-nebula.eu), procurement policies, processes and approaches in many research organisations are inadequate for addressing the on-demand model of cloud computing, introducing barriers to procurement of cloud services. Such a barriers have been identified, described and analysed by PICSE (D2.1 and D3.2).

PICSE has published thirteen case studies (D2.2) documenting how public sector organisations worldwide have either carried out a process to procure cloud services, or are considering doing so. The experiences vary in terms of success and offer insights into how the procurement of cloud services is impacting on their current processes.

PICSE has identified and documented best practices in the areas of policy and organisation, processes, staff, tools and cloud service providers (D3.2).

The PICSE case studies are designed to improve the learning experience of European public research organisations in procuring cloud services. Among the key lessons learned from the case studies are the following:

• Having the right skill set is fundamental for managing a successful procurement process.
• Legal aspects and Data Processor Agreements are fundamental for public entities procurement.
• Exit strategies when moving to the cloud should be carefully defined to avoid vendor lock-in.
• Writing an effective tender is of paramount importance: when writing tender specifications it is recommended to have some pre-discussions with potential providers to better understand the solutions they can offer.
• Standard and well-defined specifications work best.
• Marketing the tender is the first step to ensure that at least the minimum number of responses are received.
• Joint procurement actions can reduce the cost of developing specifications & contracts and improve purchasing conditions due to combined capacity.

In addition, at least five wishes shared by all the procurers emerge from the case studies:

1. More transparency in cataloguing services.
2. Catalogues of cloud service providers available for procurers’ consultation.
3. A standalone test that could be used to verify the suitability of the services offered by the suppliers.
4. Sample templates and guiding graphs to write public tenders.
5. Accounting of cloud resources and comparing costs supported by standards.

PICSE has carried out extensive desktop research and has consulted with the main European public research organisations in order to identify the five main steps that characterise the standard process for procuring ICT services for the research sector:

1. Planning & Preparatory phase (including the market consultation).
2. Selection of the most appropriate procurement approach.
3. Implementation of the procurement approach – such as by tender, RFQ[1] or RFP[2]. 
4. Contract Award & Negotiation.

Contract & performance management/monitoring.