If you can’t change your software, you can change the way it is used.

A Victorian Government Department was beset by trying to manage its extensive procurement processing program with little help from the embedded IT systems. There were three separate software systems plus a few spreadsheets all designed to help the users create a purchase requisition. The business, operational, policy, risk, and Governance rules were required to be adhered to but did not exist in any of the systems – they had to be remembered. Sign-offs were required at different stages, dependent on the size of the purchase amount and also for certain types of purchases (i.e. risk related). Documentation was spread over help screens and in very detailed and hard-to-read hard copy. New staff struggled in this open environment and there was a constant stream of purchasing mistakes.

However, PiWerx made a difference because its intelligence business engine guided users through all of the mandatory and required decision steps – gathering data, documents, and the necessary authorisations. Policy and Governance had been embedded into the process flow to the extent that users were unaware of its presence. Every step, process, document, and decision was logged.
Finally, users had a system that was easy to use and produced a consistent and standard result regardless of what was being purchased. The final purchase requisition was produced in hard copy as well as being interfaced to one of the downstream systems.