Occupational healthcare by three municipalities

When needs are reconciled, a joint minicompetition can save time and achieve a better final result. Three municipalities joined forces and opened up their occupational healthcare services to competition together – successfully.

The municipalities of Konnevesi, Petäjävesi and Toivakka had already arranged a competitive bidding for their occupational healthcare services in the past. As the end of the contract period drew near, it was time to think about the future. As the collaboration had been successful, they decided to continue on a common path, but a decision on the operating method needed to be made. The last time, the municipalities arranged the tendering of the occupational healthcare services themselves, with the help of a consultant. Now time was limited, and they hoped for a simple solution. Helena Vuopionperä-Kovanen, the mayor of Toivakka, told her colleagues about Hansel’s joint procurement, and category manager Jani Mäkinen and procurement support specialist Anne Majalampi of Hansel were invited to present the dynamic purchasing system (DPS) for occupational healthcare services.

“Hansel’s occupational healthcare DPS provided a ready-made template that was easy for us to grasp. In small municipalities, human resources are always limited and any time saved is valuable. Of course, it also took some time this way, but considerably less than when we arranged the tendering process ourselves,” says Mikko Latvala, the mayor of Petäjävesi.

Working together to achieve good results

The customers arranged their own minicompetition within the DPS. Of course, a joint minicompetition for three municipalities also required a common goal.

“The range of occupational healthcare services is very extensive, but the requirements of these particular municipalities were an excellent match. Joint tendering saves resources and naturally increases the attractiveness of the invitation to tender,” says Mäkinen.

During the previous contract period, each municipality had made minor specifications to its own procurement contracts, but no major compromises were necessary in the definition of the new service package.

“Our service level went up a little, but we were happy to make that investment. Good occupational healthcare has a positive impact on wellbeing at work,” says Latvala.

Competition Assistant as the engine for tendering

The project was launched in earnest in the autumn of 2022, with the aim of having the new agreement signed by early 2023. Although the schedule was eventually pushed back by a month, the project was swiftly completed. Latvala and Vuopionperä-Kovanen were responsible for the preparations, and Mika Pasanen, the mayor of Konnevesi, handled the submission of the tendering via Hansel’s Competition Assistant tool.

“We prepared the documents to a certain point and then sent them to Hansel’s procurement support for comments. Based on this feedback, we supplemented and edited the documentation. We also received plenty of assistance with our specific questions,” says Latvala.

Competition Assistant is Hansel’s free tool that allows the customer to carry out an entire minicompetition process from the publication of the invitation to tender to the award decision. It is particularly useful for customers who do not use a commercial tendering system. According to Pasanen, after some initial confusion, Competition Assistant proved easy to use and guided the work.

“The launch of the process and the process itself up to the procurement decision was quick and smooth with Competition Assistant,” Pasanen concludes.

The six-year contract period with the selected supplier started in February 2023.

“We wanted the longest possible contract period so that we could work with the supplier on a long-term basis. Everything looks very good at this point. We are pleased with the tendering process and the final result,” Latvala says.

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