The Challenge 

Bert started his work at Veenendaal by mapping out the application landscape. This process gained momentum when he was asked by management in late 2022 to conduct a complete inventory of the municipality’s current software and SaaS contracts.  

As a government agency, software contracts above a certain amount must be purchased through procurement processes. However much of the municipality’s used software is being sold as SaaS products and services. This has made the use of specialized applications and the renewal of existing subscriptions increasingly hard to manage. The organization has lost track of the different types of contracts and the relevant procurement processes for those renewals.  

"There is, as a public organization, a critical need to regain control over this process," says Van Dam. "Therefore, I was given the task of launching a major study into the current contracts of the entire software and application landscape, taking stock of this, and drawing up a plan to get the future procurement process in order."  

Several components had to be mapped to create a plan. "The most important information is the end date of existing software contracts," Van Dam says. "At that point we have to have a legally valid contract again, replacing the existing contract if we wish to continue using the software. We also looked at the impact of the tender, the impact of implementation, and the level of user satisfaction with the current solution." 

Bert: "The municipality was already using BlueDolphin before I joined the team, so useful information was already available. But not nearly enough. Some of the applications were in view, but the necessary data was still missing. It was necessary to gather a lot of data in a short period of time about the applications to be tendered within a few years. Both on a national, and on a European level."  

How do tenders work? 

As a municipality, you cannot simply purchase and start using a specific software package or SaaS tool. There are legal requirements for procurement. These are the three forms:  

- 1-to-1 procurement: purchasing directly from a supplier. This is allowed if the total amount is less than €50,000 (this limit is set by the municipality itself). 

- Multiple negotiated tender: contains requirements and wishes to several suppliers. 

The reasons why a vendor is chosen above the rest must be transparent and substantiated. This is mandatory if the total amount is greater than the amount in the 1-to-1 purchase and less than €215,000. 

- European tender: publish requirements and wishes, after which any supplier can bid. Again, the final choice must be transparent and substantiated.