Procurement communities and champions to convene in Philly
WORKSHOP TOPICS
The following is a preview of this year’s workshops:
A Better Way to Negotiate.
How do you establish prices with suppliers when bidding is not an option? A hard question to answer because finding ways to exert pricing pressure on suppliers, without the benefit of competitive forces, is no easy task! Learn about the growing phenomenon of cost transparency, and how it makes it easier to take control of negotiations and exert pricing pressure on suppliers – even when bidding is not an option.
Best Value is the Practice of Responsible Procurement.
The future is now! The Best Value (BV) approach marks a paradigm shift in delivery systems and can lead your organization to sustainability and savings. The best value approach is logical, simple, and minimizes the cost of government and private sector owners by 10 to 30 percent. Find out how traditional contracting processes that direct suppliers and attempt to control the level of service and quality through a contract are attempting the illogical, the impossible and are destroying the expertise of the experts. Learn what it takes to create a sustainable procurement system that utilizes expertise. This is the model of the future for procurement agents.
Controlling Maverick Spending.
What is maverick spending and why does it occur? How might your organizational structure be contributing to maverick spending? This session addresses these and related topics such as how maverick spending impacts your agency and how to ensure that the steps you take to minimize or eliminate this type of spending are successful. Ask questions and share experiences, thoughts and ideas.
Five Steps to Communicating the Value of Procurement.
We all know that procurement teams bring value to their organization, but how do you communicate that value in a meaningful way? While the physical act of recording savings and efficiencies isn’t complicated, how do you determine what calculation(s) you will use? What kinds of savings do you focus on? Does every saving have to have a cash value associated with it? Who is going to do the recording and when? How do you present the information to put procurement in the best light? These questions and more are answered as we present the specific steps Multnomah County went through to articulate the value of procurement. At the end of this session, a roadmap is provided to plan your own recording and reporting of the value of procurement.
History Doesn’t Have to Repeat Itself.
We all have disaster stories that can be humorous in the retelling, and your storyteller — an adept raconteur with 35 years of major personal procurement blunders — is up to the task. However, the foundations for these stories are far more serious and real. What can you learn from these calamities to help ensure smooth sailing in the future? Not simply a witty and engaging recount of actual procurement mishaps, this highly-interactive session covers procedural issues, specific procurement processes and practices, as well as actual procurement theory and principles involved in making major procurement decisions. Benefit from discussions on what was done to correct erroneous conclusions or problematic procurements, and how to apply the lesson learned to minimize such occurrences in the future.
How We Saved $12 million by Delivering Cost Savings Through Value Analysis.
How did the Maricopa Integrated Health System involve their entire organization to save $12 million before the Affordable Health Care Act was in effect? How can you bring value to your organization with less effort while maintaining your current solicitation process? This session demonstrates the seven steps involved in Value Analysis, a methodology for selecting the “highest-valued” supplies and services, from identifying an opportunity to implementation and monitoring. You learn how to set simple benchmarks, how to document and track savings with a simple Microsoft Excel file, and how to engage staff and stakeholders to identify an opportunity that may save money or time by using Opportunity Identification Worksheets (OIWs).
Metrics Matter! – Leveraging Data to Become a High Performance Procurement Organization.
What does it mean to be a data-driven organization? How can data enhance your ability to make informed procurement decisions? Or, additionally, how can data assist in driving the overall management and policy direction of procurement for your organization? This session will explore the various types of standard procurement data and tools available, as well as demonstrate how they are being applied today by forward-looking organizations in the execution and management of their procurement functions.
Procurement’s Role with Energy Commodities.
How has the change over the last 15 years from regulated to deregulated energy commodities impacted procurement departments? What is the relationship of procurement’s role to the level of interaction with and oversight of the energy procurement process? What are the best, most up-to-date methods available in energy commodity procurement? This session provides an overview of the historical role procurement has played in buying energy and offers best practices and methods for procurement to collaborate with facilities and finance departments. We encourage you to share practices on energy procurement and thoughts on coordination with other departments.
Taking the Mystery Out of CPI/PPI Indices.
Are you ready to take some of the mystery out of CPI and PPI Indices? In this perfect storm of economic uncertainty, procurement professionals have been challenged with understanding escalation clauses that protect the agency from unstable markets. More importantly, you have been tasked with understanding how to best apply the different tools available for calculating increases. This session includes small group collaboration to calculate price increases based on escalation clauses in sample contracts while differentiating the calculation methods for CPI and PPI Indices applications. The groups also review sample specification language to recognize potential risks for the agency.
The Road to Victory: Building a Championship Procurement Organization. How do you bring out the champion that lies within your procurement organization?
Creating a champion requires training, instilling core values, assembling the right team and executing a plan. Whether you are a new procurement professional or a seasoned veteran, you have an opportunity to build a championship procurement organization. From entry level staff to top executives, from organizational structure to staffing to business operation, this session identifies the core functions of an effective, high performing procurement operation.
Then, it applies concepts learned to develop a roadmap that can build your championship procurement operation.