A data visualization tool to benchmark government tendering process: Insights from two public enterprises

PurposeGovernment e-Procurement systems are generating tender-level process event data which are not being analyzed much. The purpose of this paper is to present a data visualization tool to benchmark the government tendering process. This tool collects, collates and presents e-Procurement process data in a meaningful way that enables comparisons and benchmarking leading to insights for process improvements and identification of the best practices. This tool is accessible on the website of South Asia’s first public procurement observatory (www.procurementobservatoryup.com) founded by the authors.Design/methodology/approachThe authors started with an initial set of key performance indicators (KPIs) based on extant literature and existing practices. The authors got them verified by various relevant stakeholders through a series of formal and informal discussions. Some of them were dropped due to observed variations or their inability to offer insights to arrive at the final set of KPIs. In this paper, the authors use actual process-level data. Government of India’s National Informatics Center has implemented e-Procurement portals in various states and public enterprises (PEs) in India which provide tender-wise detailed e-tendering process data. The authors designed a web crawler that collects these data in a tabular format, which allows an easy analysis and comparison to measure and compare government tendering process performance for the last five years for the two large PEs. The authors also engaged in discussions with the procurement executives of the two PSEs to derive meaningful managerial insights from the results obtained.FindingsUsing the public procurement data visualization tool, the authors compare the procurement process of two of the largest Indian PEs, Coal India Limited and Indian Oil Corporation on the developed KPIs and draw insights. The results show significant difference in their procurement process performance due to different practices followed by them. Through interaction with the procurement managers of these two organizations, the authors identify few good procurement practices that can be applied to improve public procurement process.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper uses actual process-level data which can be used not just to identify improvement opportunities but also to gauge the impact of any process-level change. It presents a data visualization tool to generate insights from data generated by a procurement/tendering