Donnacha Phelan, Author at Keystone Procurement

Growth – Building your business strategically

Starting and growing a business is a journey that comes with its challenges. While initiating a business is relatively simple, the real challenge lies in attracting customers, generating profits, and achieving sustainable growth. True success for entrepreneurs comes from building a foundation that can support the growth of their companies…

Donnacha Phelan16th August 2023

Ireland's Government has made Green Procurement and Social Considerations a priority from 2020.

Procurement Strategy

2020 Trends for Irish Tenders – Green Procurement and Social Considerations

New rules for tenders in Ireland: In October 2019, the Irish Government announced new requirements that suppliers to the Public Sector will have to meet. These are 'Social Considerations' and 'Green Procurement'. Until recently, Ireland was behind other countries when it came to including these types of criteria in tenders.…

Donnacha Phelan17th December 2019

Procurement Sourcing

Specification and Selection of IT Systems

Enterprise level IT systems require money and time to deliver. They can also impact how employees do their job. So how can you go about procuring the right IT system? We think a structured approach is best. The first step is system specification and selection. Specification and Selection This is our approach for IT…

Donnacha Phelan14th February 2019

Use tender portals to achieve growth through public procurement

Bid Management

Tender Portals: Find Irish, UK & EU tenders

Public contracts are a great way of achieving growth for a business. If you want to win more public work, then writing great tenders is key. But just as important is knowing where to find requests for tenders! That is where tender portals, or tenders sites, come in. Public sector…

Donnacha Phelan11th February 2019

Small businesses can win local public contracts if they know how the system works.

Bid Management

Small businesses: How to win public contracts

Its not always easy to win local public contracts. Many small businesses are missing out on the chance to win public sector work in their local communities. I wrote an article for LaoisToday about the great opportunities to win public work in my home county of Laois for those who get to…

Donnacha Phelan23rd March 2018

The team behind Sluamor Consortiums and Sluamor.com

Business Growth

Growth through Sluamor Consortiums!

Sluamor Consortiums is a project of ours that we are very excited about. This is because we believe that SMEs can expand and compete through consortiums and networks. It makes sense for businesses, especially small businesses, in so many ways. As a result we built the online platform sluamor.com, which we launched at the…

Donnacha Phelan6th November 2017

Public Procurement

Keystone Column 91 – Risky Procurement Strategy: National Broadband Plan

Last week open-access broadband provider SIRO announced its withdrawal from the Government's National Broadband Plan tender process. SIRO, which is a joint venture between the ESB and Vodafone, said it "cannot develop a competitive business case to justify continued participation" in the tender process. With just two bidders remaining, this raises concerns…

Donnacha Phelan6th October 2017

Public Procurement

Keystone Column 89 – Data Protection & GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into force across the EU on the 25th May 2018, replacing the existing data protection framework. It emphasises transparency, security and accountability by data controllers and processors, while at the same time standardising and strengthening the right of European citizens to data…

Donnacha Phelan22nd September 2017

Public Procurement

Keystone Column 87: Disruption from Natural Disasters

Welcome to this week’s column. This week, disruption from natural disasters - managing the risks to supply chains. We're witnessing the massive damage caused to communities and businesses in Texas and Louisiana by Hurricane Harvey and the deluge of wind and water it brought, while here in Ireland the Innisowen peninsula continues its…

Donnacha Phelan3rd September 2017

Public Procurement

Keystone Column 82 – When not to bid

Welcome to the Keystone Column. This week we look at how to deal with losing bids in a procurement process, and as usual this week's free weekly list of Irish government tenders is included in out e-Tenders report. Dealing with losing bids It can be hard to accept the submission of losing…

Donnacha Phelan4th August 2017