Towards a Model for Measuring the Performance of e-Procurement Initiatives in the Australian Public Sector: A Balanced Scorecard Approach

Abstract

Electronic Procurement (e-Procurement) has attracted major attention in recent years and a number of initiatives are already underway as part of e-Government in Australia. However, the challenge of measuring the performance of e-Procurement initiatives has received limited attention in government publications and academic literature. This research proposes a model for measuring the performance of e-Procurement initiatives in the Australian public sector. Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard (BSC) (1996) provides a conceptual foundation for the study, which includes an organisation's e-Procurement objectives and performance measures grouped into four perspectives: Financial, Customer, Internal Business Process and Learning-and-Growth. It also proposes a methodology for the field research in order to formulate e-Procurement objectives and develop a balanced set of performance measures that can assess the success of an e-Procurement initiative of an organisation. The findings will then need to be verified by means of a survey of selected group of public sector agencies that have implemented e-Procurement systems. At a time when there seems to be lack of a satisfying tool to guide the public sector agencies in their efforts to quantify e-Procurement benefits, this model is designed to provide insights to professionals and practitioners to better prepare and plan to develop and implement performance measurement systems for e-Procurement initiatives.