Federal Procurement Reform

Non-Informatics Professional Services (NIPS) - Formerly Non-IT Task and Solutions Based Professional Services (TSBPS)

As part of its Procurement Transformation Initiatives, the Acquisitions Branch of Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) has been looking for better ways to obtain Task and Solutions Based Professional Services (TBPS). The ultimate objective is to issue a Request for Standing Offer/Supply Arrangement (RFSO/SA) for the provision of both task and solutions based non-IT professional services to the federal departments, Crown corporations and agencies that fall within PWGSC's procurement mandate.

On Friday, April 11, 2008 PWGSC issued a formal RFI through MERX. That RFI announced a stakeholder consultation process that PWGSC intends to follow during this stage of its planning and development process.

To simplify the consultation process, PWGSC is channeling the stakeholder consultations through recognized industry associations. CMC-Canada (under the name Canadian Association of Management Consultants) has been designated as one of the nine industry associations.

CMC-Canada's current initiatives (led by Dorothy Milburn-Smith, CMC) include:

Participating in the Working Groups on behalf of membership;
Establishing two communities of interest (representing large firms and independents, small- and medium-sized firms) to provide input into the Working Group; and
Establishing a Steering Committee as a subcommittee of the CMC-Canada National Board to coordinate all facets of the response to the RFI.

The groups are currently participating in government consultation sessions, meeting with senior officials, and preparing communication pieces on their concerns related to procurement reform.