I was pleased to read Kablenet’s piece on OGC ‘open[ing] the door for feedback’.

The government’s procurement standards body, the OGC, has launched a supplier feedback service ‘invit[ing] suppliers of public sector goods and services to comment on contentious issues and poor practice in public sector procurement, with the aim of helping the government become a better customer’.

Excellent. Putting aside for a moment the fact that the service’s online facility (a contact form) is far from brilliant, I’m encouraged that feedback is being advocated as a mechanism for improving services. I’ll admit that there’s a difference between feedback from suppliers and the general public in that, in a relationship between government and supplier, the supplier is likely to be the expert whereas this is not necessarily the case with the public. However, it’s nice to see acknowledgement of the fact that listening to stakeholders/experts/front-line service deliverers will equip you to improve your processes (this ties in with what I was posting the other day about the advantages of e-participation).

Of course, this is one service that may well be of direct benefit to us, being, as we are, ‘a supplier of public sector goods and services’. I’m sure we’ll have feedback about some of their procurement processes: we could’ve done a much better job with that form, for starters…