Article Tools

• Bookmark

Advertisement

Most Popular News

• Accurately measuring pay in the public sector
• Government spending legislation aims to audit GSA each year
• Investigations could lead to tighter controls on agency spending

Know before you buy or sell. Get your truck's value instantly online.

Find Your Truck Now

*To see the actual values, you must purchase a subscription or a single-vehicle lookup.

ProcureAZ has created a true “one-stop shop” for procurement in Arizona with implementation of a statewide gateway that has the potential to centralize public sector purchasing for all of Arizona. The state expects the new software system to generate between 5 and 20 percent in savings on the $6 billion state spend, with savings created at the state and local levels. Statewide implementation of the all-in-one BuySpeed e-procurement system by Periscope Holdings earned Arizona the NIGP 2011 Innovation Award, which is presented to governmental agencies that have a great vision for public service and drive that vision through innovation.

Some 120 Arizona state agencies are mandated to use the new system, and 550 or so local governments in Arizona also access the system via the Internet to find contract information on 20,000 registered state vendors. Local governments also may leverage the full functionality of the system if they choose. “We are marketing it more and more to them,” said Jean A. Clark, Arizona's state procurement administrator. “We are seeing the benefits at the state level, and interest is growing at the local level.” Arizona paid for a statewide license of the BuySpeed eProcurement software, which is available via a hosted website and can be used by any local government in Arizona.

The statewide software license is being paid for by a 1 percent administrative fee embedded in the pricing of any purchases made by local governments through the state. (The $995 yearly fee local governments previously paid to use state contracts was eliminated.) During the the next five years, proceeds of that 1 percent fee will pay for the system (possibly in three years). The state will receive the additional revenue from local governments' use of the system after the software license fee is recouped.

Functionality includes state contract/catalog search and ordering, sourcing and solicitation, vendor management, contract management, requisition and purchase orders, invoice and receipt, and integration into the financial system. The software also enables reverse auctions, which have already saved money for the state. (See “Total Transparency in Real Time,” Go Pro, June/July 2001, page 46). Real-time interface with Arizona's financial system eliminates double data entry, replaces paper W-9 processing, reduces staff needed to manually check budget/account code validation, provides immediate notification of errors in accounting transactions, and makes real-time accounting and financial information available for all users.

For local governments, the system provides one site for them to view state contracts and vendors, and they can also use it for vendor registration and solicitation. Counties, cities, universities and school districts may access the program. The advent of the new system has increased the number of local governments participating in state contracts by about 44 percent.

The new system increases procurement transparency in that any citizen can log in and see how much money statewide has been spent with any vendor (fiscal year-to-date). State procurement managers can look at the system to see all the solicitations and quotes being issued for Arizona. “I get visibility into all my spend, my agency contracts and my statewide spend,” said Clark. She can also identify on-contract and off-contract expenditures (to analyze compliance), track processing times from requisition to purchase order, and access other performance metrics. She can see, for example, if a single consultant is being paid two different rates under different contracts for basically the same work.

The system brings opportunities to light to aggregate spend among multiple agencies for greater service. Procurement managers can easily report on commodity spend using NIGP five-digit codes. Full transparency allows procurement to analyze spend patterns strategically and target opportunities for sourcing. The business intelligence module creates standard reports and offers ad hoc capabilities, internally and externally, to allow the state procurement office to respond to legislative and executive requests more easily.

To supply the system, Periscope Holdings partnered with CGI Group, which helped to implement the system, hosts the outsourced software, and provided consultants to help with the transition.