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The CIPS Australia Procurement Professional Awards 2011
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Bill Aukett, Chair of Judges, offers some tips on how to improve your chances of winning.
It is an honour to be chairing the judging panel for The 5th Annual CIPS Australasia Procurement Professional Awards. I am looking forward to reading this year’s entries, and anticipate continuing high quality submissions from your organisations. The judges would like to take this opportunity to provide you with some tips that should help you prepare your entries for the 2011 Awards. While I cannot guarantee that these tips will ensure success, I am certain that, if followed, they will significantly increase your chances!
Bill Aukett MCIPS, GAICD
• Head of Procurement, University of Adelaide
• Chair of CIPSA Steering Group, 2007-2008
• PP Awards Judge, 2008-2011
• CIPS Leadership Award, 2008
• Chair Australian Universities Procurement Network 2008-2011
• President of AIPMM, 2003-2004
1. Submit completed projects
Do not submit entries where the project is not complete or hasn’t been completed for long enough for the
results to be quantified. Such projects would best be submitted next year.
2. Start early
This will allow you time to collect and collate your supporting data and information. It will also give you
time to have someone outside the submission team read the entry and provide any feedback. The deadline for entries is 29 July 2011 (no extensions).
3. Appoint a leader
The leader should be supported by the rest of the submission team. The person in charge should take
responsibility for planning the entry submission process and allocating responsibilities and due dates for
action.
4. Be honest
Stick to the facts and do not exaggerate, as this could alienate your internal stakeholders and damage your reputation. If you’ve had external help (e.g. from consultants), tell us about it and explain briefly
how you’ve used them. We all need outside support from time to time!
5. Choose a category
Decide which category fits your project/organisation best. You may enter more than one category
however, a new submission will need to be done for each category.
6. Register your entry
Visit www.pponline.com.au to download the category templates and register your entry for a particular
category by 30 June 2011 (entries don’t need to be submitted until 29 July).
7. Keep it relevant
Refer to the judging criteria and category template as you are creating your submission to ensure it stays
relevant. Ensure those reviewing your submission are familiar with the judging criteria.
8. Present it well
The presentation quality of your entry is marked, so ensure it looks professional. Innovation is great, but
don’t make your entry too gimmicky. Whatever the presentation format, ensure it sticks to the overall aims
and the page limit.
9. Structure your submission
Your five page (single sided) entry should follow the template provided by CIPS.
The most important part of your submission is demonstrating the benefits of the project and how
they affected:
• procurement practices and results,
• other departments within the organisation, and
• the profession as a whole (if applicable).
You must demonstrate the relevance of your submission to your chosen category by clearly linking category attributes to the benefits your project achieved.
Supporting material
Use examples and references in your supporting material such as data and input from other departments and key stakeholders, supplier testimonials or further detail of savings calculations. Testimonials from senior personnel (e.g. your CEO) would be beneficial, as would external references. Any appendices to the main submission must be included in the supporting material. However, supporting material must be limited to 5 pages (single sided) so make sure everything supplied is RELEVANT. Do cut and paste relevant information from larger reports (reference) rather than include the complete report.
Supporting material won’t be marked, but they may help to give the judges a better feel for your organisation and the project.
10. Judging Criteria
The main criteria used by the judges to select winners will be the magnitude, importance and clarity of the benefit(s) to the organization arising from the project or initiative submitted. This will be demonstrated by your responses in each section of your submission.
Where the award is for the ‘best’ of something they will be making comparative judgements on the merit of the described projects from amongst the submissions in the given category.
Where the award is for ‘most improved’ judges will be looking for evidence about the scale and impact
of the change from ‘before’ to ‘after’.
Shortlisting
In each category, a short list will be drawn up as a result of the judges’ assessment. The shortlist will be
published prior to the conference on PPonline and all shortlisted candidates contacted via email. The
judges will then select a winner for each category from the short list, with the winners announced at the
Annual Awards Dinner.
