State Procurement 101
‘A VIEW FROM THE INSIDE’
Tom Blaine, CPPO, FCPM, FCPA
President, Public Sourcing Research &
Consulting, LLC
-
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 business what has been
your 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
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 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
Finding Business Opportunities
On- Line Registration
Federal Vendor Registration
Bid Aggregation Sites
• Web site that searches government bid
posting sites and aggregates all those to one
location.
• Reduces the time needed to search for
bidding opportunities
• Most are a paid subscription
• Some are free for basic services
Bid Aggregation Sites
Free Bid Aggregation Site
www.InstantMarkets.com
Questions?