BCM procurement collaboration

Collaboration forums

We invite BCM procurement leaders from across government to attend a regional collaboration forum to discuss:

  • BCM procurement objectives and category management principles
  • industry feedback and how we can improve
  • collaboration opportunities and case studies of best practice
  • how to deliver value in our category
  • strategies to maximise economic and social outcomes
  • how to support local content and employee retention
  • how to lift regional capacity and capability.

Email bcmsecretariat@epw.qld.gov.au to get involved and join our mailing list.

Collaboration achievements

Collaboration across the Queensland Government is essential for unlocking procurement benefits and streamlining operations.

In the 2024–2025 financial year, as a result of the BCM Trade Contractor Working Group, the Public Works Division of the Department of Housing and Public Works successfully trialled asset clusters on the Gold Coast (SEQ) for Plumbing Works.

This initiative was a collaborative effort between the BCM Category and QBuild, leveraging QBuild’s in-house field staff, to optimise the scheduling of planned and reactive maintenance across Housing Services assets.

Asset clusters, which group geographically or functionally related assets, have proven to be an effective strategy for enhancing maintenance efficiency and service delivery.

By combining BCM category and QBuild expertise with a collaborative delivery model, maintenance activities were consolidated based on location or asset type. This approach improved resource allocation, minimised unnecessary travel or call-outs and delivered significant cost savings.

Key outcomes of the Gold Coast trial include:

  • Cost savings: Data collected up to December 2024 revealed that, of the 1,382 work orders completed in the region, the average work order cost was approximately 35% lower compared with the previous delivery methodology. A like-for-like comparison identified savings of approximately 10–20%, demonstrating that reduced travel and call-out fees reduced the overall cost of delivery.
  • Improved efficiency: Response times within the designated areas have become faster, ensuring timely and reliable service delivery.
  • Local economic benefits: Maintenance staff supported local businesses by purchasing goods and services in the local area while performing maintenance activities, contributing to the local economy.
  • Community engagement: The program strengthened community relationships by ensuring consistent and familiar personnel worked on assets, fostering trust and rapport with residents.
  • Enhanced data insights: The trial generated valuable data on plumbing maintenance, providing a foundation for deeper analysis and the potential to expand the program to other trades and regions.

This initiative underscores the transformative potential of asset clusters in maintenance works. By fostering collaboration across teams, the program has delivered cost-effective, community-focused, and scalable solutions that can be replicated across Queensland.

As a result of the success from the Gold Coast trial, a second asset cluster trial has recently commenced within the Inala (SEQ) region along with additional potential cluster locations under assessment across the state.

Toowoomba collaboration forum video

Watch
00:03:18

Amy McDonald

The most important thing that I've taken away today for my area is about how we can better collaborate in the planning phases, get a better pipeline of work and improve some social outcome.

Harry Venmans

From a BCM perspective is really about how the Queensland Procurement Policy focuses in on buying local. So there's a real emphasis on purchasing local, engaging with local companies and building their capability to deliver, and it's about the state working with them and then that helps to get money into the regional economies which then helps Queensland prosper.

Brad Thompson

We employ Australian people at Australian rates of pay in the industry. I've spoken about this a couple of times, that a collaboration's about how two parties are trying to achieve a goal, and that's really important as it's touched on through that procurement phase. Procurement is the first step in collaboration, it sets the environment for how a project could be delivered.

Tecola Carter

Working at SEQ Water, we've got a high focus on our community and the residents around that infrastructure and dam, so I think that social enterprise methodology has really hit home on how we need to plan more and incorporate that a little bit better within our major capital space.

Jon Thompson

By far the primary focus for procurement in this region and I'd argue that it'd be similar across regional Queensland more broadly, is about having a whole of government oversight and visibility on our customers' programs so we can maximize dollar spend in regional Queensland.

Harry Venmans

One of the most frustrating things we see with construction jobs is that poorly planned jobs ends up with contractors moving all over the state, whereas if we can do better planning through pre-delivery meetings and the likes, where we get agencies to collaborate and talk together, we end up with a better outcome of projects being better scheduled so that we don't end up overcooking the market. So we end up getting a better result and a better outcome from an economic perspective both for those regional communities and a better result for the state.

Luke Terry

We really need your help to get across these goals. One of those is to use social enterprise in Queensland to be able to create 5,000 jobs by 2025 and we really genuinely think we can do that. We need large-scale contract opportunities, we really need early engagement, and we need a desire to purchase for impact. You can choose that impact, it doesn't necessarily have to be a department's impact, but there are social enterprise opportunities for Indigenous impact, or safer communities around reduced recidivism, or mental health, or youth at risk. You guys get the great opportunity to be able to go, "I want to make impact in this area." And if you've got a contract opportunity and you want to make impact in an area, come and see me and we can definitely help you make that work.

Previous collaboration forum reports

Contact

BCM Category Management
Department of Housing and Public Works
Phone: (07) 3215 3645
Email: bcmsecretariat@epw.qld.gov.au

Last updated:
9 July 2025