Procurement Analysis & Reporting Tools John M. Finney, C.P.M., County of Sacramento, Department of General Services, Contract & Purchasing Services Division

21 st Century Landscape Budgets getting tighter Efficiency/Necessity Reviews Procurement as a Central Cost Control Best Value Purchasing

Reporting Tools Requisitions Assigned Formal Bids Released Purchase Orders/Contracts Created Percentage of Contract Spend vs. Purchase Orders Cost Savings: – How Much Money Have You Saved? – What Tools are Being Used to Save Money?

Bid Analysis Tools Best Price Life-Cycle Costing Specification-Driven Evaluation Multi-Phased Analysis Pass/Fail Criteria

Advantages of Best Price Bids (“Low Bid”) Good comparison of “off the shelf” items Fast and Efficient Satisfies department urgency

Disadvantages of Best Price Bids (“Low Bid”) Does not measure quality of product or service Public bidding – MUST award to low bidder Difficult to reject “like” bids Problems with department over good vs. bad vendors Department “standardization”

Scenario #1 IT Storage Infrastructure Proposal – Pass/Fail Criteria – Specification-Driven Analysis – Multi-Phased Evaluation

IT Storage Infrastructure Office of Communication and Information Technology (OCIT) is requesting proposals to replace its mid-range storage system. The current system is quickly running out of space for expansion and is not expected to meet our future resource needs.

Building the Profile Department participants Write specs Ethics policy Evaluation team rules of conduct Conflict of interest Evaluation criteria (Methodology)

Bidding Requirements Open period for questions Pre-bid conference Written Addendum – answers and any spec changes Deadline & Public Bid Opening

Basis of Award

Document, Document, Document Release Bid to department without pricing Receive copies of evaluations and notes Enter into spreadsheet with pricing Obtain final department buy-in Release Intent to Award Letter Deal with protests

Award, With a Wrinkle....

Semi-Protest Nexus mentioned that on 8/31 the pricing for the County Storage Bid was: Nexus - EMC - $ 1,546,285 Quest - EMC - $1,480,762 Applied Computer Solutions - NetApp - $1,244,836 In the Intent to Award document it shows: ProposerTotal Evaluation ScoreTotal Proposal Price ACS-NetApp862.2$1,518, Quest788.8$1,480, Nexus780.3$1,546, The pricing for Net App is different from the 8/31 pricing.Did Net App provide a different bid?

Scenario #2 Sacramento County Copier Rental RFP – Life-Cycle Costing – Pass/Fail Elements – Multi-Phased Analysis

Copier Life Cycle Costing 3 year rental of copiers for Sacramento County Divided into “segments” based on # of copies per month 1. 3, , , , , , , ,000

Basis for Award Phase 1: Mandatory Requirements (Pass/Fail) – Completed proposal package including signed cover sheet and all items marked as “mandatory”. – Manufacturers letter of authorization. – Completed Company Profile, with information requested. – Copy of valid Business License

Basis for Award Phase 2: Price Evaluation – Cost per copy pricing (per segment) – Copier options pricing (based on lowest average pricing per segment) – Fees associated with delivery, removal, and/or relocation. Vendors that do not provide complete pricing information for segments 1 through 5 and/or segments 6 through 8 will be disqualified.

Basis for Award Phase 3: Quality Analysis – Vendor Questionnaire Response Evaluation – References – Vendor’s customer reference check must score between satisfactory and very good all categories

Basis for Award 5 points Very good -- Bidder always meets or exceeds expectations 3 points Satisfactory -- Vendor usually meets or exceeds expectations 1 points Poor -- Vendor almost never meets or exceeds expectations Note: Final bidder score will be an average of the total score (total divided by 3). Decimals will be rounded down.

Bid Results

Sacramento County E-Procurement Project Specification-Driven Analysis Pass/Fail Criteria Multi-Phased Analysis – Mandatory Requirements – Vendor Demonstration – Live System “Stress” Testing

The Right Tool For the Right Job Makes All the Difference Analysis Tools: – Empower Departments – Develop Vendors Reporting Tools – Accurately Report Procurement Activity – Record Vendor Participation – Track Cost Savings – Control Spending

Questions?? Ask me for any: templated document Bid analysis or award Department-created specification Information at all