Finally! A better way to buy
2019 NIGP Austin: technology & public procurement
With a budget of 4.76 trillion for the year 2020, the U.S. Government has an enormous amount of spending power. The people that hold that spending power gathered in Austin for the 2019 NIGP annual forum last month on August 25th-28th. A record breaking 1,600 attendees came to Texas from all over the country to learn from industry experts in courses, network with other procurement professionals and discover new tools during a vendor exhibition.
A universal trend at the conference was the role of technology and the digital transformations sweeping the United States- Procurement departments are finding an increased need to transform workflows through software and technology. Course titles from the conference below speak to the emphasis the forum placed on data and technology in procurement:
- “Achieving Excellence: Using Technology and Performance Metrics to Drive Improvement,”
- “The Human Side of Technology: Transformation and Skills Assessment (It’s the Peeps, Not the Apps!),”
- “From Sourcing to Shopping: MMCAP Infuse Embraces Technology to Better Serve Public Procurement Customers.”
A session that emphasized the importance of procurement technology was taught by the president and founder of Negometrix Inc., Jan Siderius, and the Purchasing manager at the City of Leesburg, Mike Thornton. The session was titled “Valuing Your Community: Ten Takeaways for Best Value in Your Organization” and in it Siderius and Thornton discussed how e-Procurement software makes optimal Best Value Procurement possible. Siderius addressed the importance of Best Value Procurement in optimizing spend, and elaborated on how Negometrix as an e-Procurement solution helps agencies achieve digitized Best Value Procurement. Thornton described how The City of Leesburg uses structured data and the streamlined procurement of Negometrix to enhance purchasing operations.
The City of Leesburg serves as an example of optimized procurement through digital transformation- saving time, money and paper along the way. Negometrix was founded by Jan Siderius in 2000 in his home country of the Netherlands. Now, after 20 years serving as a procurement market leader, 40 billion dollars of solicitations runs through the platform annually. Negometrix streamlines the entirety of the procurement- from intake management through to solicitations and on to contract management. The results that The City of Leesburg has seen in its use of Negometrix make clear that technology can transform purchasing agencies for the better.
Though there are clearly tools like the Negometrix software that could ease workloads and positively impact public purchasers efficiency- there are obstacles to technology adoption. Public agents see the benefits of digital tooling, but often face barriers in adoption. Purchasers face budget constraints, lack of power to make decisions, departments unwilling to stray from age-old systems, and an inability to leave paper behind (see: Barriers to digital change in Public Purchasing & how to overcome them).
Leading thinkers in Public Procurement are beginning to voice the need for data and technology in the public sector- made clear by the 2019 forum’s course offering. An illuminating session on tech in procurement was a course with Randy Bradley, Associate Professor of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management in the Haslam College of Business at The University of Tennessee. Professor Bradley’s class was titled: Digitally Disrupted: How to Prepare for the Digital Supply Chain Transformation. In this session he described the “tsunami of technology” that is hitting the procurement field- both in private and public sectors- and the strategies professionals are taking to deal with a changing market.
Much of Professor Bradley’s course was spent discussing the “Amazon effect” and the large e-commerce shift that is taking place globally. The course material made clear the critical importance that organizations undergo digital transformation to meet the needs of consumers and keep pace with market demands. Bradley noted that those unable to shift digital will suffer financially.
The emphasis of Bradley and many other speakers at the conference identified a need for agencies to take procurement digital. Attendees remarked that there was a larger technology presence at this year’s forum than in years past- a sign of a changing market dynamic. Public Procurement’s appetite for tech is maturing as the benefits of software tooling and the ease of e-Procurement become more and more evident.
E-Procurement and digital contract management are no longer novel in Public Procurement. Agencies ranging from the smallest cities and counties to the largest states are aiming to take purchasing digital and move towards the future that is e-Procurement.
The wave of digital change is not in the distant future, rather in the words of Professor Bradley, there is a “tsunami of technology” sparking global change. The time for agencies to go digital is now and it is imperative that instead of maintaining old methods of purchasing, procurement departments recognize the importance of digitization and adapt accordingly.
More on the importance of digital procurement to come. Stay tuned!
For more information on e-Procurement from an industry leader: https://www.negometrix.com/us/
Sources cited:
- The Balance: https://www.thebalance.com/current-u-s-federal-government-spending-3305763
- Entrepreneur: entrepreneur.com/article/325556
2. NIGP 2019 forum photos: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMIzgf_orCHvwdCVOgTS7uxhWv9mE5FcgM-EqdCtP9adYDwGv3JcqxCuQOEfeT67Q?key=RVQwMzVjdUpzWXBQNE1PWVU5eElCTUhOd3B1d0Vn
3. Procurement Tech: https://medium.com/nx-e-procurement/stories/published
4. Negometrix Inc: https://www.negometrix.com/us/
5. NIGP Annual Forum: https://www.nigp.org/home/attend-events/annual-forum
