Tom Blaine, CPPO, FCPM, FCPA Senior Research Associate

- Dennis Wholey

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE- SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIF- IC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF MANY YEARS

How many ‘F’s are in the sentence?

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE- SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIF- IC 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 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