Integrated Team Approach

The integrated team approach is a method for handling emergency procurement requirements. The CanadaBuys Buyer's Guide describes it as using temporary or permanent dedicated personnel who work closely with the client's project team. Instead of passing a requirement along a chain of separate handoffs, the buyer builds one team around the work.

The phrase is descriptive wording used in Government of Canada buyer guidance. It is not a contract clause, a certification or an evaluation criterion. NATO uses a closely related term, the Integrated Project Team (IPT), for the team responsible for executing a capability programme. Both describe the same idea: the people who define the need and the people who deliver the solution work together.

How the CanadaBuys Buyer's Guide uses the integrated team approach

The CanadaBuys guidance on emergency requirements lists "use an integrated team approach" as a consideration for buyers handling urgent needs. The guidance is written for buyers planning a procurement. It does not set out obligations for bidders.

The guidance describes the approach in two parts. The first is dedicated personnel, who may be temporary or permanent. The second is close collaboration between those personnel and the client's project team. The client is the department or organization that needs the goods or services.

Early industry engagement tools linked to the approach

The same CanadaBuys guidance connects the integrated team approach to early industry engagement. It names several pre-solicitation tools a buyer can use where appropriate:

• Request for information (RFI): the buyer asks industry for information before deciding how to proceed.
• Solicitation of interest and qualification (SOIQ): the buyer asks suppliers to express interest and show they qualify.
• Price and availability (P&A) request: the buyer asks suppliers for pricing and availability information.

These tools let a buyer test the market quickly. For an emergency requirement, that early contact supports the same goal as the integrated team: shorter distance between the need and the people who can meet it.

The NATO Integrated Project Team model

NATO's related term is Integrated Project Team. A NATO report uses IPT as a generic term for the integrated team responsible for executing a capability programme. According to that report, the IPT brings together the responsibilities for requirement definition and solution definition. It also brings together the expertise needed to carry out those responsibilities.

The report also addresses scale. A dedicated IPT is necessary for the most complex programmes. Less complex work can be handled through groups that serve multiple programmes.

The CanadaBuys phrase and the NATO term are not interchangeable labels. CanadaBuys applies the integrated team approach to emergency requirements, while NATO's IPT governs capability programmes. They share one principle: requirement and solution expertise sit in the same team.

What the integrated team approach means for a supplier

A supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts will not find "integrated team approach" as a mandatory bidder requirement in the CanadaBuys guidance. What suppliers may meet is the early engagement that goes with it. When a buyer is organizing an integrated team for an emergency requirement, an RFI, SOIQ or P&A request may reach the market before any formal solicitation. The guidance does not make responding to these requests mandatory.

Suppliers can act on this in three ways:

• Watch CanadaBuys for RFI, SOIQ and P&A notices, since they are the first signal of an urgent requirement.
• Keep current information on capabilities, pricing and availability ready, so a short-notice response is possible.
• Prepare to work alongside the client's project team if selected, because the approach rests on close collaboration.