Case Study: Digitalising APKO to combine compliance, expertise and efficiency

Demand

Managing a mandatory but time-consuming procurement process

In public procurement, the Algemeen prijs- en kostenonderzoek (APKO) is a legally required evaluation step. Its purpose is to identify prices or costs that deviate significantly from market benchmarks and determine whether additional justification from bidders is needed.

Although essential for transparency and compliance, APKO analyses were traditionally handled through:

• Excel-based calculations
• manual comparisons with historical data
• repetitive expert work

With 50 to 100 APKO analyses per year, each taking between one hour and half a day, the process became increasingly heavy, inconsistent and difficult to scale.

The challenge was to: embed expert methodology into a digital process without losing legal robustness or transparency.

Design

Translating expert judgment into a structured digital workflow

we+ designed a digital APKO solution that captures expert logic and applies it consistently.

The objective was not to replace expertise, but to:

• standardize calculations
• reuse historical data
• highlight deviations clearly
• support expert interpretation
• identify the correct analysis scenario based on contract characteristics
• compare submitted prices with historical benchmarks
• calculate deviation percentages at both unit and total levels
• apply predefined thresholds to flag significant deviations
• visualize results clearly for fast and accurate decision-making

The tool was designed to:

All steps are integrated into a single, auditable workflow.

Deliver

From Excel-heavy work to a scalable digital process

Before digitalisation, every APKO analysis required manual preparation, calculations and checks - repeated dozens of times per year.

With the new solution:

• repetitive calculations are automated
• historical pricing data is reused intelligently
• results are standardized and traceable
• experts focus on interpretation rather than number crunching

The tool ensures consistency across all APKO cases while remaining flexible enough to handle complex scenarios.

Drive

Efficiency, consistency and legal confidence at scale

The digital APKO solution delivers clear and measurable benefits:

• Time savings of 1 hour to half a day per analysis
• 50–100 analyses per year benefiting from increased efficiency
• Reduced risk of calculation errors and inconsistencies
• Consistent application of APKO methodology
• Clear documentation supporting audits and legal compliance

Beyond immediate gains, the solution creates a future-ready foundation, with opportunities to expand historical datasets, refine thresholds and extend the approach to other procurement analyses.