Digital solution for the Department of Transport and Main Roads delivers social impact for people with disability
The Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) are using the services of Social Traders’ certified social enterprise, Jigsaw to transform their paper-based records to digital and generate jobs for people with disabilities.
Jigsaw trains and transitions people with disability into award wage employment.
The opportunity
Recognising the business benefits of digitising their historic paper plans, survey field and level books, TMR sought an opportunity to deliver on the Queensland Procurement Policy 2023 (QPP) commitment to increase spend with a genuine, quality social enterprise.
By engaging with a capable social enterprise that provides jobs for disadvantaged Queenslanders, TMR is also supporting the Queensland Government to advance its social objectives.
The solution
To meet the QPP’s social enterprise commitment, TMR initially trialled the services of Jigsaw and then invited Jigsaw to participate in a Request for Quote (RfQ) process.
Jigsaw were awarded the contract as they were able to demonstrate value for money, whilst delivering positive social impact for people with disability.
The outcome
With Jigsaw’s commercial offering, high quality work and great customer service, TMR acknowledge Jigsaw’s ability to positively transform people’s lives and the benefits of using their document digitisation services.
Zac, who is legally blind, is just one of the many Jigsaw employees that have benefited from their work with TMR.
Recognising that people prepare best for work, through work, Jigsaw placed Zac in their revolutionary pathway to open employment program, which embeds a comprehensive, skills-based training program within their business operations.
Zac is gaining confidence and a stronger sense of purpose, knowing that he is helping to preserve important information about Queensland’s road network, whilst providing efficiencies on storage, reducing the retrieval time for TMR records and making documents easier to search.
Zac is a proud member of the Jigsaw team, having graduated from their training academy, he is now adept at 20 transferable work competencies (including problem-solving, accountability and teamwork), which will help him fulfil his dream of a job in management.
The outcomes of this procurement process reinforce that social enterprises, like any other supplier, can deliver on contractual commitments and produce high quality, value for money products alongside social outcomes.
The experience gained through successfully quoting and contracting with government enables social enterprises like Jigsaw to show their capability in future quotes for both public and private sector clients and build their capacity to generate even more jobs for disadvantaged Queenslanders.
More information
To find out more about Queensland Government social targets and commitments and social procurement, visit our websites: