Challenge
One of the areas of work carried out by the Secretaria-Geral do Ministério do Ambiente (SG-MAMB) involves the management, control, and monitoring of needs, goods, and services — not only between SG-MAMB and its partners, such as the Inspeção-Geral da Agricultura, do Mar, do Ambiente e do Ordenamento do Território (IGAMAOT), the Programa Operacional Sustentabilidade e Eficiência no Uso de Recursos (POSEUR), the Direção Geral do Território (DGT), the Instituto da Habitação e da Reabilitação Urbana (IHRU), the Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente (APA), and the Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia (LNEG), but also between its suppliers. Due to the large scale and specific characteristics of this network, the software solutions used until then for this type of management (as well as their integration with one another) were not sufficient to streamline the aggregation of products and services, since many documents and communications were handled in a fragmented way, with no effective control over what was actually being carried out.
Solution and benefits
Using Masterlink technology, the “Central Procurement” application was developed — an online platform that enables the management, control, and monitoring of contracts for goods and services between SG-MAMB and its suppliers and partners. This solution allows all entities involved to act directly within the processes at different stages, ranging from the aggregation of entities’ needs, to the preparation of market consultations, leading to contract award and registration, through to the monitoring and control of contract execution via the requisition process.
One of the major advantages of this application is document dematerialization and the centralization of information, as it enables the integration of all documents and communications from every entity into a single online platform. It also allows for greater scalability in terms of contracts, since the number of users able to participate in the various work processes is unlimited.
The “Central Procurement” application provides all entities involved with greater transparency, which is essential in the context of public service management. With all documents integrated into a single platform, every employee across the network and its partners can access the available information.
With proper training on how Masterlink technology works, employees can also take part, within their respective area of responsibility, in the application’s various work processes, such as product management, contract management, and invoice approval. Since no programming knowledge is required to use this tool, organizations have full autonomy to design and adapt their own processes and activities.
