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Defining Commissioning Technology Requirements

Commissioning Technology Requirements

Categorising and articulating the functional requirements

Published on May 18, 2022
Brett Petersen, Co-Founder of ZEN Enterprise

In this article we focus on the commissioning lifecycle and the associated technology needs. But before we do that lets recap on the key points from the previous two articles.

In Establishing The Case For Change the key theme was recognition of the current challenges facing PHN’s and the increasing pressure for improvements in outcomes and also in measure and reporting in a accurately and in a timely manner. A recent PWC Survey on Primary Health Networks (PHN’s) found the biggest challenges revolve around the themes of reporting, supplier performance, data integrity and accuracy as result of the need for best in class contract management, internal systems and the commissioning process. 

The second article Commissioning Technology – Be Careful What You Ask For! provided tips when defining commissioning technology needs, including taking an integrated and business process approach to the systems portfolio.

Logically then, this article now takes a technology perspective in practically defining functional requirements as part of a sourcing or planning exercise.

As illustrated in the following view commissioning technology requirements is broken into six categories, with each category representing a fundamental pillar to achieving the optimal value from such an investment.

The first of these categories is Complete Commissioning, which considers all of the steps and processes to the commissioning lifecycle (example view of the lifecycle).

From a functional perspective, technology considerations and requirements should include:

  • Capturing the elements of the commissioning lifecycle steps in one place. This means that data is entered once, is not unnecessarily duplicated and there is a single source of truth for information
  • Providing a full line of sight of costs from funding receipt through to provider spend, which requires fully integrated systems and processes
  • Automating the governance process including approvals and review, through use of visual digital workflows based on roles
  • Holding information on providers and contracts with linkage to commissioned services, through recognising and holding a commissioned service as a discrete activity (like a project) digitally held in a system, and
  • Allowing for flexible reporting solution that provides analytics capabilities and interactive visual displays, through easy to use, pre-populated dashboard and data analytics tools

The following view articulates the requirements from a technology perspective with the functions and features to support the commissioning lifecycle processes. A key message is to see the commissioning process as more than just connectivity between income and expense contracts and to recognise there is the ability to digitally capture all of the steps in the commissioning lifecycle.

From the design activities, there is the ability to hold all artefacts in one place, and with automated visual workflow, ensuring a record of review and approval is held against the activity. This is really important to quickly and easily satisfy audit and governance requirements, and delivers extra value through analytics, reporting and insights previously not possible.

If this article resonates with you or you want to more, please reach out.


Brett Petersen is co-CEO of ZEN Enterprise, providing software solutions and consulting services, and can be contacted at brett.petersen@zenenterprise.com.au

ZEN Enterprise is proud to be an innovative software and solution provider delivering proven tangible benefits, including reduced cost and risk and increased ROI. ZEN Enterprise have a growing number of Australian Government, Not-For-Profit and Health sector clients.

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