Overview
Procurement and infrastructure delivery are most effective when their outcomes are clearly linked to measurable benefits. This research applies a structured benefits management approach to ensure that improvements are not only identified but also sustained over time.
The benefits focus on reducing insolvency among contractors, increasing the adoption of collaborative contract forms, and enabling flexible procurement policies. Each benefit directly addresses systemic challenges in New Zealand’s construction sector.
By aligning with international best practice frameworks such as ISO 31000 and the Treasury’s Better Business Cases, the research ensures that benefits create lasting value for organisations and communities.
Top Three Benefits
The selection of top measures in benefits management should not be arbitrary; it must be directly aligned with an organisation’s strategic objectives and the value expected by stakeholders. Benefits measurement is most effective when it demonstrates not only that projects deliver outputs but also that these outputs translate into meaningful outcomes. According to the Office of Government Commerce (2011), applying the SMART criteria—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound—provides the necessary discipline to keep benefits tracking both realistic and useful. By applying SMART thinking, organisations can avoid vague indicators and instead establish measures that guide decision-making and demonstrate accountability.
In the New Zealand context, The Treasury (2024) reinforces that top measures should go beyond immediate project delivery to capture sustained organisational and community value. This means selecting indicators that can be monitored consistently over time and that align with broader public value objectives, such as improved service efficiency, financial sustainability, and community wellbeing. In practice, this requires balancing tangible measures, like reductions in procurement cycle time or litigation costs, with intangible measures, such as stakeholder trust and collaboration. Focusing on a limited set of high-impact measures ensures clarity for governance bodies, reduces administrative burden, and supports long-term performance monitoring. Ultimately, well-chosen measures provide a clear line of sight between project activities, organisational strategy, and community outcomes, ensuring that benefits remain both visible and relevant long after initial project implementation.
In the context of procurement and infrastructure delivery, the application of these principles translates into three priority measures:
Reduced Company Insolvency
Increased adoption of best-practice collaborative contract forms
Enabled flexible procurement policies matched to project scale and capacity
Reduced insolvency among contractors strengthens market stability and ensures continuity of service delivery. Financially resilient companies are better positioned to meet contractual obligations, invest in quality, and manage risks effectively, which ultimately lowers project disruptions and reduces costs for clients.
Adopting collaborative contract forms strengthens partnerships, promotes fair risk allocation, and reduces disputes. This approach improves cost and time certainty, fosters innovation, and delivers better project outcomes while building long-term trust across the supply chain.
Flexible procurement ensures approaches are proportionate to project size and capacity, reducing administrative burden, improving efficiency, and supporting better outcomes.
Together, these three measures capture the balance of financial efficiency, operational effectiveness, and relational quality that defines successful infrastructure procurement. Their selection demonstrates a direct line of sight between strategic objectives, benefits articulation, and practical benefits realisation.
