Peak Consulting win ‘Procurement Consultancy Project of the Year’ at CIPS Awards Night 2024

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Published: 28th August 2024

We are thrilled to announce that we have won the ‘Procurement Consultancy Project of the Year’ award at the CIPS Australia & New Zealand Excellence in Procurement Awards, held on July 24th in Sydney.

Brian Jackson, Director Consulting Services and Peter Morichovitis (FCIPS), Principal Advisor, Procurement Office were there to soak up the atmosphere, celebrate with their procurement peers and industry leaders, and accept this respected award.

Thank you to the Peak Services team for their incredible hard work, commitment and enthusiasm.

Submission overview

The Project

Glencore operates Mount Isa Mines, one of the biggest mining operations in Australia, producing copper at Mount Isa for over 90 years. In mid-October 2023, Glencore announced that it will close all copper mining operations in Mount Isa by mid-2025. Mount Isa City Council undertook a priority initiative to accelerate the diversification and transformation of the Mount Isa economy to fight to retain its population base and to prosper into the future. The council partnered with Peak Services on this initiative, to lead complex sourcing processes to secure six dedicated consultancies in a six week timeframe.

The Problem

The closure calls into question the future of Mount Isa's 23,000-strong community, whose economy has been dependent on the large mining supply chain. The closure was estimated to directly result in the loss of 1,200 mining jobs, another 3,600 job losses in the services sector and an estimated halving of Mount Isa’s population.

In response, a Mount Isa Copper Mine Closure Taskforce was set up as a joint initiative between Mount Isa City Council and the Queensland State Government. Mount Isa City Council undertook a priority initiative to accelerate the diversification and transformation of the Mount Isa economy to fight to retain its population base and to allow the region to continue to prosper into the future. The Council engaged Peak Services to partner with it on this initiative. This involved strategy, planning and procurement for strategic pathways to realise investment in Mount Isa for critical areas of economic opportunity.

The approach

Mount Isa City Council chose Peak Services to partner with it on this critical initiative as a result of being confident that Peak Services could deliver the required results in the shortest possible time. Time was of the essence. Glencore’s October 2023 announcement of the mining closures to occur in July 2025, provided a window of less than 2 years for stakeholders to diversify and transform the Mount Isa economy, to save jobs and prosper into the future.

Six areas (pillars) were identified as best opportunity, high impact and actionable projects to contribute to prospering Mount Isa’s future:

Energy,

Tourism,

Resources,

Critical Infrastructure,

Agriculture, and

Small & Medium Business.

The challenge was now to source the smartest and brightest minds on these topic areas in an economic transformation context, to commence almost immediately to maximise the available timeframe before the mining closures.

As the required skill sets were not at hand, procurement planning was led by Peak Services to determine the optimal strategy to source the expertise essential for each pillar. After evaluating various sourcing options with stakeholders, it was determined to go to market with six separate public tenders (one for each pillar). This approach would meet government legislative requirements and also provide the clearest opportunity to engage the best consultancy organisation for each pillar. Peak Services also drafted the six tender specifications for the Council, comprising two phases:

Phase 1: economic and environmental scans and ideas generation to strategise the overall transition of Mount Isa’s economy.

Phase 2: the execution of Phase 1 identified ideas and pathways.

Peak Services managed the end-to-end tender process on behalf of the Council including the strategy and planning, developing the tender documents and specifications, designing the evaluation methodologies, issuing the tenders to market electronically using VendorPanel, leading the evaluations, clarifications, shortlisting, negotiations and drafting the final contracts for execution.

The tight deadlines for completing the six procurement processes required to finalise contracts with the successful consultancies, posed significant challenges for the project. It was only through Peak Services’ expertise navigating through government procurement processes and being able to successfully negotiate mutually beneficial terms with the likes of Mott MacDonald, DeltaPearl Partners and Scyne Advisory; that the time, cost and quality requirements for the project were exceeded.

The Project Challenges

Time was of the essence: Glencore’s October 2023 announcement of the July 2025 mining closures, provided a window of less than 2 years to diversify and transform the Mount Isa economy to save jobs and keep the city alive. Therefore, the greatest challenge for Peak Services was to execute and complete the six procurement processes in record time.

Stakeholder Management: Each pillar had their own set of stakeholders which needed to be managed including Council, Taskforce and prominent community groups and businesses from the region. Each tender had an independent three-member evaluation panel from the stakeholder groups.

It was imperative that the planning workshops, document reviews and tender evaluations involving these stakeholders were rigorously managed by Peak Services to ensure timely cooperation, responses and approvals.

“MICC engaged Peak Services to do a tender arrangement to engage a number of consultants to help the council in response to Glencore Copper mine closure. The announcement was made in October and council quickly engaged Peak Services and the whole process was designed put to market and awarded just prior to Christmas. This process would normally take a period of up to 6 months. The whole process was defensible and met all legislative provisions." Tim Rose, CEO - Mount Isa City Council

The Contract Negotiation

Negotiations were conducted regarding price, and terms and conditions with preferred tenderers. Peak Services were successful in leading these negotiations ensuring fair and balanced terms and conditions for the Council and value for money pricing.

The Project Delivery

Peak Services committed to having the six consultancies commence on 15 January 2024, which meant that tenders would need to be evaluated and contracts negotiated by 22 December 2023.

This timeframe was successfully achieved by Peak Services.

For more information on the Procurement Office support services we can provide your organisation, contact Peter Morichovitis, Principal Advisor - Procurement Office and Professional Advisory pmorichovitis@wearepeak.com.au