Public procurement resource is expanding its tools and offerings to purchasers everywhere

Last September, Canadian technology vendor mdf commerce acquired Periscope Holdings. Periscope provides procurement transformation solutions to the entire procurement ecosystem. “This is great news for local governments,” says Mark Eigenbauer, president of eProcurement at mdf commerce. He explains that key tools, such as eSourcing, eProcurement, shopping and contract lifecycle management (CLM) solutions built specifically for the public sector, can now be found all in one place.

“No matter what your local government size, budget or procurement challenge—Periscope, powered by mdf commerce, has the integrated solution for you,” Eigenbauer tells Co-op Solutions. His firm is also the parent company of other purchasing solutions providers, including BidNet Direct and ASC, which offers contract management software.

Eigenbauer says his crew is accomplishing the task of bringing together the newly acquired teams. “We have been working hard to fuse our people, processes and products. A lot of progress has already been made in just the past few months, including the integration between Periscope CLM (the new brand name for ASC CLM) with Periscope ePro. Our teams of public sector procurement experts are collaborating to identify the best solutions for optimizing supplier participation, increasing efficiency, ensuring compliance and maximizing value at local governments across the U.S.”

Eigenbauer points out that the public sector marketplace is huge and covers a broad range of products. “The government procurement industry represents a spend of U.S. $13 trillion globally every year. This spend involves goods and services that procurement teams constantly buy to run day-to-day operations; they range from basic supplies such as computers, office equipment, medical items, legal services, gas and electricity for everyday needs to more complex construction and infrastructure projects.”

He notes that for many smaller government agencies, the process to procure all these goods and services is still largely manual, generating high levels of complexity and inefficiency. “This not only wastes taxpayer money but also frustrates all parties involved.”

Eigenbauer adds, however, that since the start of the pandemic, the number of organizations embracing electronic sourcing solutions has skyrocketed, as remote work demanded digitization of procurement. But it isn’t just basic e-bidding solutions for smaller organizations that are taking off. “Even those larger government organizations that had electronic sourcing solutions in place are looking for greater, more sophisticated eProcurement technology to help overcome an increasing number of challenges and initiatives facing public procurement.” He says these include the following: supply chain challenges, diversity and inclusion goals, and a shifting workforce.

In 2022 and beyond, Eigenbauer predicts more government agencies will explore ways to improve and digitalize procurement processes to an even greater extent. He believes this trend will accelerate, and that procurement teams will adopt powerful and centralized integrated systems to handle a growing range of procurement activities. His conclusion: “These integrated systems are best suited to provide the most benefits to increase the overall efficiency of public sector procurement and bring more value for taxpayer dollars.”

He notes that these types of procurement solutions are specifically built for the public sector; they are secure, easily audited, and can seamlessly integrate with any other existing technology. “They enable government agencies to track and ensure strict compliance with procurement laws and procedures.” These integrated systems, Eigenbauer adds, can, for instance, “Dictate actionable items and flag vendors who require further vetting. Such tools offer built-in administrative controls that help reduce the risk of non-compliance with government regulations.”

Eigenbauer believes that digitalization of public procurement processes can opens doors to a wider supplier ecosystem. He says that expanding the vendor network has become even more important since the start of the pandemic. “It also helps meet diversity and inclusion goals as the system gathers data about supplier type, solicitation chances and response rates. This provides an equal playing field to local, small, minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses.”

It is Eigenbauer’s view that cooperative agreements can help lean-staffed public procurement teams keep up with their workloads. “Yes, cooperative agreements mean the supplier and goods and services have already been strategically sourced. This removes hours, days, weeks or possibly months of work from procurement departments.”

He also believes cooperative procurement agreements can be used to introduce equity into the buying process for small, women-owned and disadvantaged businesses. “One of the biggest barriers to entry for small, women-owned and disadvantaged businesses is the cost to respond to RFPs. When these supplier types win cooperative contracts, they can continue to promote that same contract to other organizations, rather than having to respond again to multiple RFPs.”

Eigenbauer tells Co-op Solutions that one of the most sought-out eProcurement technologies today is an online shopping tool or marketplace—specific to the public sector. This technology, he adds, should offer a consumer-like functionality and appeal. “This type of marketplace provides a new way for government buyers to search and purchase goods and services, as well as a new way for independent suppliers to reach government buyers. In a matter of minutes, a government buyer can shop across strategically sourced contracts as well as open market catalogs, add them to their cart and check out if their organization allows.”

He adds that a key selling point about this kind of marketplace is that it is set up according to the government organizations’ rules and initiatives. “For example, if the city of A wants to promote local businesses, when a buyer for the city of A logs in and searches for pens, the local suppliers selling pens will come up first. Or say city of B only wants its buyers to purchase from already strategically sourced catalogs, when a buyer for city of B logs in, none of the open market catalogs will appear.”

No question, new equipment and software delivers benefits, Eigenbauer explains. “Today’s eProcurement technology for the public sector buyers allows for the greatest operational efficiency; promotes an open, fair and transparent process; and tracks all spend and supplier types. Another added advantage is that this technology ensures operational continuity for procurement teams. No matter the circumstances they are in or the challenges they are facing, professionals can use these digital tools via any internet-connected device to shop for necessary items.” He adds that all staffers benefit: “This goes for people working in an office, from home or in an emergency operations center.”

It all comes together in one high-tech package, Eigenbauer believes. “Digital offerings such as these will allow governments to fully leverage data and analytics offered by the eProcurement tools and platforms, making it easy for them to consolidate functioning of the various departments as they work cohesively.” He adds that these up-to-date setups also promote traditionally underserved supplier categories. “They bring more value for every taxpayer dollar spent.”

Eigenbauer says lean-staffed government procurement departments are facing bigger workloads nowadays. “Public procurement has always been tasked to do a lot with limited resources, and now with the shifting workforce, many procurement departments are even leaner.” He adds that in 2022-2023, governments will face staffing challenges as a large portion of the existing workforce retires or moves out of public procurement. “This calls for a greater need for efficiency as younger talent assumes office.”

Eigenbauer’s conclusion: “Cooperative purchasing and eProcurement technology can really help in these situations and make a huge impact on productivity.” He notes that these tools will transform the public sector ecosystem; he believes they will help simplify procurement for both suppliers as well as the government agencies.

Michael Keating is senior editor for American City & County. Contact him at [email protected]orma.com.