Tom Blaine, CPPO, FCPM, FCPA
Senior Research Associate
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Dennis Wholey
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH
THE EXPERIENCE OF MANY
YEARS
How many ‘F’s are in the sentence?
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH
THE EXPERIENCE OF MANY
YEARS
Your Experiences
As a small business what has
been you experience in
dealing with the government
procurement process?
It’s not your fault!
Not all the rules of the game
are written down.
Private vs. Public Sector Purchasing
-Similarities and Differences
Private Sector Purchasing
 Cost Evaluation
 Strategic Partnerships, long term relationships
 Small group of Vendors
 Select Business Partners via closed process
 Can do anything that is not illegal
 Accountable to Management
Private vs. Public Sector Purchasing
-Similarities and Differences
Public Sector Purchasing
 Price Evaluation
 Vendors are adversaries-Arms length relationship
 Large group of Potential Bidders
 Most of the process is in the public
 Competition is the preferred method of purchase
 Can only do what the rules/laws allowed
Current Trends in Public
Procurement
 Green Purchasing
 Green Building Standards and Remodeling
 Energy Saving Products
 Recycled/Recyclable Products
 Find a product or service the government
wants that the large companies are not
selling
 Spend Analysis
 Strategic Partnerships
Perspective of the Players
Requisitioner /Specifier
 Wants something that works
 Doesn’t want a hassle
 Prefers long working relationships with suppliers
 If a product or service works well, wants to keep it
Perspective of the Players
Departmental Managers
 Don’t want the rules broken
 Don’t want productivity of department affected
Perspective of the Players
Procurement Staff
Multiple stakeholders- administration, elected
officials, citizens, news media, vendor community
Disinterested third party –Don’t care who gets the
award
Perspective depends on the type of the
organization
 Clerical, Bureaucratic, Professional
Perspective of the Players
Clerical
 Typically are clerks, push the paper
 May issue the bid, send results to
department for decision
 Processes the PO after the decisions are
made by the department
 May be organized to look like one of the
other types, but no decision authority
Perspective of the Players
Bureaucratic
 Bureaucratic and Professional Purchasing
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organizations-may be hard to distinguish
Impediment to introducing and maintaining
efficient government
Tends to focus on control processes
Know all the rules, regulations and laws pertaining
to procurement
Process over results
Concerned with transparency
Perspective of the Players
Bureaucratic
 Typically makes award decision
 A majority of the organizations have certified staff
and managers
 Majority of purchasing organizations
Perspective of the Players
Professional
 Highly educated multi-disciplinary staff
 Concerned with adding and documenting value to the
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government
Significant scrutiny over specifications
Focus on knowledge and information
Conducts market research
Documents vendor performance
Eliminates poor performing vendors
Concerned with transparency and value
May over-exhibit professionalism
Perspective of the Players
Elected and Appointed Officials
 Don’t want scandals
 May become overactive in the procurement process
to assist a constituent
 Prefer to keep the purchases local
 Do not have significant knowledge of process and
my be influenced by lobbying form those they trust
Who is the decision maker?
 Centralized vs. decentralized
 Centralized-Procurement makes /recommends
the important decisions
 Decentralized- Departments make the important
decisions
 Need to determine who makes what decisions
 Need to do some research