e. That VicRoads consider further outsourcing to the 
maximum amount whilst still maintaining in-house 
skills etc. This would only be considered after 
observation of the results of the initial outsourcing; 
. That regions should continue to outsource at the 
current levels, i.e. about 35% of local work; 
© That all increases in outsourcing would be carried 
out by LIS Department, who would also be 
responsible for the resultant redeployment of staff; 
e. That ongoing discussions take place with the Office 
of the Surveyor General (formerly Survey Mapping 
Victoria), on increasing co-operation; 
e. That opportunities for partnerships with the private 
sector be identified and explored. 
7. THE PROCESS 
As a result of these recommendations the following steps were 
taken: 
e. all staff were advised of the Department's and 
VicRoads' intentions; 
. the private survey and photogrammetry industry 
asked to submit expressions of interest and capability 
statements. This information included staff resumes, 
lists of the type of equipment used and who would 
use it, hourly rates for various survey and 
photogrammetry tasks, and overall costs based on the 
relevant guide for fees. These guides were those as 
set out by the Association of Consulting Surveyors 
Victoria (ACSV) and the Association of Aerial 
Surveyors (AASA); 
e. firms were required to bring their insurances, such as 
professional indemnity insurance, X Workcover 
(workers compensation) and Occupational Health and 
Safety requirements up to the requirements set by 
VicRoads; 
. all firms were required to prepare a Quality Plan for 
VicRoads' work and to give details as to the status of 
their overall quality system; 
. the VicRoads standard consultant briefs were revised 
and brought up to date to match current standards; 
° after perusal of the capability statements, a set of six 
test jobs were to be given to a panel of no more than 
18 firms; 
performance was assessed on quality, time and cost; 
each individual job was to be quoted separately each 
time. 
8. THE OUTCOMES 
8.1 Award of a period contract for twelve months 
After a period of using consultancy agreements on the basis of 
obtaining three quotations for each job, VicRoads decided to 
award a formal twelve-month contract to one or more firms in 
each geographical region, the maximum number of firms per 
region three to cover the metropolitan regions. This contract 
had an option for a twelve month extension. Overall, six firms 
were selected to provide survey services, and two for the 
provision of state-wide photogrammetry services. 
96 
8.2 The use of Lotus Notes to facilitate outsourcing 
arrangements 
Initially a paper-based recording system was put in place to 
keep track of each job for each firm in each region. This 
required a lot of involvement and input from a co-ordinator in 
Head Office to keep up to date. 
A Lotus Notes database was developed to replace this paper 
based system. Each job, or separable part had to have a 
unique contract assignment number, and the database gave the 
means to automatically generate this number based on the 
particular firm being used (each firm had a contract number), 
the business area paying for the job, and the region the job was 
located in. 
Information about each job was entered via a form, with most 
information selected from keyword lists, such as Local 
government area, Contractor, etc. The performance section 
was set up using check buttons to determine an overall 'score' 
of performance. 
The data were displayed in various ways or 'views', with a 
separate view for each firm, geographical region and project, 
and special views for such things as overdue jobs. 
The advantages of this system were: 
. it provided a computerised means of allocating 
contract assignment numbers for each job; 
° it could keep track of individual contractors and their 
performance; 
e. it provided means for regional and project staff to 
have more control over the jobs they were managing, 
whilst allowing Head Office staff to monitor the 
overall contract; 
e. it provided a means of reporting to the Director and 
the Corporate Management Group on both individual 
jobs and the overall contract performance, simply by 
printing various database views. 
8.3 A special module of PARMS 
A special module was written for VicRoads' payroll and 
resource management system (PARMS) to handle the invoicing 
and payment of individual contract assignments. 
8.4 MicroStation and InRoads software modules 
Additional customised software modules for MicroStation and 
InRoads developed by VicRoads staff were made available for 
purchase by any of the contractors. These programs made 
presentation of the data to VicRoads standard presentation 
guidelines easier by semi-automating many of the processes. 
These have subsequently been improved with newer versions 
of MicroStation which incorporate such things as custom 
linestyles, allowing special linestyles for vegetation, title 
boundaries, and services information such as 
telecommunications and utilities. 
This was in addition to some basic non-standard MicroStation 
modules such as additional font libraries and cell libraries that 
were given to each contractor as part of the contract. 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B6. Vienna 1996 
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