The location on a gravel ridge helps Hyvinkää, but technical and procurement know-how is also needed for the economy, streets and pipes to last. Hyvinkää emphasizes the balanced utilization of local companies and the city's own expertise.
Text: Vesa Tompuri and Anu Ginström
The majority of municipalities have outsourced part of their infrastructure functions and kept their own organization or parts of it. Which model is the best way to manage municipal technical assets?
One factor that unites successful people is long-term infrastructure maintenance. In Hyvinkää, this can be seen, for example, in the fact that pavement repairs are not limited to rut patching.
"When it is necessary to repair, it is repaired sufficiently thoroughly. This has been our principle for a long time and is now reflected in the fact that our repair debt is very small. Only a few million euros in a city with more than 50 inhabitants does not make more than a few dozen per inhabitant", director of the technical center Jouni Mattsson says.
In a geotechnical sense, Hyvinkää is the lucky one among Kuuma municipalities. It also helps to minimize the repair debt that you don't have to worry about frost or load-bearing problems near and on top of the gravel ridge.
No favoritism, but a functioning market is needed
Hyvinkää, which turns one hundred years old this year, has moderately outsourced its infrastructure activities. However, the need for outsourcing has gradually increased, as new ones are often not hired to replace those who have retired. The trend will continue.
Jouni Mattsson likes local companies doing well in tenders.
"The city needs a functioning infrastructure market in order to get skilled operators interested in their requests for tenders. The Procurement Act does not allow favoring locality, but of course if you come from far enough away, travel and accommodation costs will arise, and then you will easily fall out of the top places in the contract competition," Mattsson reflects.
In the revised Procurement Act, the increase in threshold values is essential; in construction contracts, the mandatory tender limit is now 150 euros. "This is a sensible change that simplifies procurement and facilitates cooperation with contractors," Mattsson estimates.
"I emphasize that our own procurement expertise and thorough knowledge of procurement law is still an important part of our operations. Interpreting the Procurement Act requires special expertise, which can be compared to using a cad drawing program: you know that you have to draw a line with a machine, but it takes practice to know how to do it."
Outsource and save?
CEO of Hyvinkääläinen RTA-Yhtiöt Nina Lindström according to, for example, regional contracts for private operators Outsourced municipalities have achieved clear savings.
"When the public and private sectors are measured with the same quality and financial metrics, municipalities can also develop their own procurement activities and make even more successful procurements in the future."
The unit prices of the treatment contracts concluded in Hyvinkää are also affordable, which supports the balancing of the city's economy.
"Transparency of costs and the productization of care work are also important factors in developing and making your own work more efficient," says Jouni Mattsson.
Lindström considers Hyvinkää to be an excellent example of a city that develops procurement. The dialogue has been open and the city takes entrepreneurs into excellent consideration when developing its operations.
Pick up the best ideas from Hyvinkää!
Hyvinkää gets a lot out of companies by anticipating and actively trusting the market. How does it do that?
The city's business manager Annukka Lehtonen says that the city presents its pending acquisitions twice a year at entrepreneur events. At the same time, feedback is collected for their development. As the tendering phase approaches, requests for information and project presentation invitations are sent to companies in advance.
About half of the procurements are already tendered during the previous year thanks to the anticipatory clause in the request for tenders: the procurement will take place if the council grants the necessary allocation at the end of the year.
Information about their wishes is also collected from the companies using a systematically standardized set of questions. The company letter reaches all companies in the region. The city also visits companies of different sizes twenty times a year with the help of councilors, other entrepreneurs and civil servants.
A common think tank
According to Annukka Lehtonen, the city's proactive approach reduces the rush in the minds of officials and service providers and improves the final result of the tender. There is also a bigger goal behind it.
"We want new innovations in service procurement. Our officials are a smart bunch, but we always get something new from entrepreneurs. In the dialogue, the buyer's idea is also refined."
Read the whole story in the Infra magazine published on February 24.2.2017, XNUMX!
In the municipal story series, greetings from Oulu, Varkaus, Joensuu, Imatra and Hyvinkää have been brought.
More success recipes for municipalities: Infra.fi/Resepti