On this page
- about this approach
- specialist categories
- before you start
- create your opportunity
- review and publish
- while your opportunity is live
- once your opportunity has closed
- create a work order and award the contract
- debriefing sellers
About this approach
A digital specialist opportunity is for government buyers who are looking to hire a person in a specific area of expertise. A digital specialist might be a contractor or a consultant.
You can request multiple specialists if you need more than one person with similar skills. If you need a team with varying skills, please publish an outcome opportunity.
Specialist categories
• Strategy and policy
• User research and design
• Agile delivery and governance
• Software engineering and development
• Business support and operations
• Content and publishing
• Training, learning and development (training marketplace)
• Change and transformation
• Marketing, communications and engagement
• Cyber security
• Data science and management
• Emerging technologies
• Recruitment
Find out more about Marketplace panel categories.
Who can respond?
You can invite as few or as many sellers as you wish, provided they are approved to offer services in the category you have chosen.
Who can view opportunities on the Marketplace?
When you post an opportunity it will be publicly visible on the Digital Marketplace website.
- If you invite specific sellers, only they will be able to respond to your opportunity.
- If you select ‘all qualified sellers’, any seller that has been approved in your chosen category will be able to respond.
How long will it take?
If you have your information ready to input, the online form takes about 30 minutes to complete. The form will save as you progress if you need to return to it later.
You will receive responses from sellers in 1 or 2 weeks.
What will you get back?
Sellers will respond with:
- résumés, availability and daily rates
- answers to your selection criteria (with a limit of 150 words)
Responses can be downloaded in a spreadsheet, from which you can shortlist candidates after the opportunity has closed.
You may also request other formats such as an interview, references, scenario/test and/or a presentation.
Before you start
- check that the Marketplace provides the type of specialist you need
- seek approval from your internal procurement team
- download the the list of questions to develop your request offline before publishing
Create your opportunity
To get started:
- log in to the Digital Marketplace, go to your dashboard and click 'create new request'
- Select the 'Specialist' option
Follow the steps in the form to create your opportunity. Your progress is automatically saved as a draft until you publish.
Description of work
How much can you spend per day? (optional)
Sharing a maximum daily rate is optional. However it can be useful to include to get the most appropriate responses. Adding a budget can help because:
- daily rate limits are a clear signal to recruiters about the level of experience you want in a specialist
- if sellers inflate their price to meet a budget expectation, it’s unlikely that they’ll be competitive with the other responses
Evaluate and shortlist
To get the best responses from sellers you will need to select the category that is most relevant to the specialist role you are looking for. Any sellers you invite to respond must be approved in this category. You can check each sellers’ categories in the seller catalogue.
Evaluation criteria
Add the criteria that you will use to evaluate responses from sellers. Sellers only have 150 words to demonstrate how they meet each criteria, so make sure you are clear and concise with your requirements.
Responses to each selection criteria are downloaded in a spreadsheet once the opportunity closes.
Essential skills and nice-to-have skills
Essential skills are what the seller must show they can deliver. Nice-to-have skills can help you distinguish sellers with similar qualifications.
How will you verify the specialist is right for the role?
All sellers who respond will submit résumés, daily rates, availability and 150 word responses to your selection criteria.
Select any other methods you need for evaluation. You’ll need to request these via email from the sellers you're evaluating after the opportunity has closed.
Who can respond?
We recommend you approach all qualified sellers on the Marketplace. This means that all sellers who are approved under your selected category can provide a response.
This gives you the best chance to:
- maximise competition and receive better value for money.
- remove the need to research sellers prior to approaching the market as only sellers who have the right skills and availability will respond to your opportunity.
- open up the possibility of other sellers you might not have otherwise considered.
How many responses will I get?
The number of responses for 'open to all' opportunities will vary considerably depending on your requirements. Historically, for digital specialists around 15 responses is typical.
Specify a list of sellers or an individual seller
If you choose to specify a list of sellers or an individual seller, you must enter the email address of the contact person. These can be found in the seller catalogue under each seller profile.
Review and publish
Before publishing your opportunity, you will have the chance to review and make any final changes. Make sure to seek internal approval before publishing.
Your opportunity will be published publicly on the Digital Marketplace. However, only those sellers you have selected will be able to respond.
If you have selected specific sellers, an email will also be sent to the sellers' business contacts inviting them to view and respond.
If you require any assistance in creating your opportunity or require sourcing advice, please contact us.
While your opportunity is live
Answering seller questions
While your opportunity is live you’ll need to answer all questions from sellers. You will be notified by email when a seller has submitted a question.
To respond to a question from a seller:
- log in, go to your dashboard and select a live opportunity
- go to ‘Answer seller questions’ on the overview page
Next:
- copy the question from the email we sent you
- paste into the 'supplier question' field
- answer the seller question in the 'your answer' field
Once published, questions and answers will be visible to all sellers on the Digital Marketplace.
If you need to answer a question for someone else:
You can publish answers to questions on any opportunity created by someone in your organisation.
- click on the team brief tab on the dashboard
- the link to answer a question is inline with the relevant live opportunity
Once your opportunity has closed
Downloading responses
When an opportunity closes, you will be able to view and download responses from sellers.
- log in and go to your dashboard and select ‘next steps’. Click on the ‘download responses’ link on your overview page.
The responses will be in a spreadsheet format. It will contain:
- individual resumes
- day rates
- availability
- sellers’ responses to your selection criteria
Use this information to create a shortlist of the sellers that best meet your criteria.
After you have shortlisted your list of sellers, you may request any additional information you asked them to provide in your opportunity (such as an interview, references, scenario or test).
Email shortlisted sellers to organise an interview or request the information you need from them. This is done outside of the Digital Marketplace.
Evaluating responses
This evaluation is currently performed outside of the Digital Marketplace.
Be sure to review and use all the information that was submitted by sellers to make a decision, including any additional information requested from them. Use the weightings you selected when creating your opportunity to evaluate shortlisted sellers.
To standardise your evaluation you can use this evaluation template, or you will receive a customised one when you download the responses.
Create a work order and award the contract
Once you have evaluated seller responses, you can award the winning seller via the Digital Marketplace.
You may prepare the content of your work order offline using the work order template.
To create the work order:
- log in and go to your dashboard
- select the opportunity the work order applies to
- go to the overview page and select 'create work order'
Choose the successful seller
This will automatically pre-fill the work order with information from the awarded seller’s profile. Next, choose whether you would like to complete the work order online or upload the completed work order.
Completing the work order online
- click "edit" to update each section of the work order as needed.
- you may add your own clauses under the “Additional terms and conditions” section.
Once you have finished editing the work order:
- click 'download as a PDF'
- print it, sign and countersign to create a contract with your chosen seller.
If you need multiple work orders against one opportunity, you can edit and print the work order repeatedly.
Varying a work order (contract)
You may need to vary a work order (or contract) from time to time. This may include things like a change to the service type, delivery, timeframes, terms, price etc.
The Digital Marketplace does not currently provide a contract variation template. If you want to vary a work order please use your preferred contract variation template. Work orders don't need to be updated on the Digital Marketplace.
Debriefing sellers
You must contact all unsuccessful sellers to let them know the outcome, with an option of a debrief if requested. This is a requirement of the Commonwealth Procurement Rules.
Debriefs are not currently done through the Digital Marketplace, so please email each seller individually to let them know that they have been unsuccessful.
You may also update sellers on the progress of your opportunity so that they remain interested. For example, if you are taking a while to review sellers' responses you may want to let them know that you are still assessing their submissions. This can also be done outside of the Digital Marketplace through an email.
Need more help?
Contact us to request a demo or seek sourcing advice.