Latest Blogs

Creating Excellence Learning Lab Series: Teams, Lateral Leadership, and Continuous Improvement

By Richard Pennington posted 08-02-2020
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NIGP: The Institute for Public Procurement has built a 10-part Learning Labs series around the 10 chapters in  Seeing Excellence: Learning from Great Procurement Teams.   Each participant will receive an ePub copy of the book as part of the registration.  Each Lab’s registration page (links provided below) includes the book’s Introduction and first chapter as a preview.      The 10 2-hour labs are held monthly. They are "stand alone"; registration for the whole series is not required. There are recurring themes, of course, lateral leadership among them. One of the motivations for the book was the fact that many professionals spend much of their careers in ...
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A Short Tour of Legal Aspects of Public Procurement, 3rd Edition

By Richard Pennington posted 05-23-2020
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NIGP: The Institute for Public Procurement has announced the release of their new edition of Legal Aspects of Public Procurement . (A PDF preview of chapter 1 is available through the Taylor & Francis e-book ink; the EPUB format e-book is available from VitalSource.com ,)      I am a co-author and summarize here the most significant changes from the 2nd edition. The overall structure was retained—Michael Flynn and Kirk Buffington’s book has stood the test of time in NIGP classes—with two new chapters added about legal issues in competitive sealed proposals (e.g. requests for proposals) and the legal context of contract administration.      The book ...
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State Police Uniforms Invitation to Bid Specs?

By Kay Brown posted 02-17-2020
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Hi, Looking for a great quality State Police Uniforms ITB.  Has anyone ever done a brand-name specific solicitation?  Or an RFP just to improve quality??
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Cost Per Unit

By Maiyo Lara posted 02-03-2020
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Hi all, I was assigned the task to research other states and county's cost per unit of service analysis for procurement activities (i.e. create purchase orders and contracts), payment service activities (accounts payable and receivable), and for inventory management activities. If any one could shed some light on these topics that would be very helpful. Any information would be greatly appreciated
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Let's Share the Cool Things

By Michael Thornton posted 09-27-2019
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Last week I was preparing to present on my agencies implementation of our e-procurement system. With this implementation we now issue Solicitations and receive all responses 100% electronic.  No paper. During my preparation I came to realize Public Procurement Professionals are really, really bad at two things. The first is asking for what we need to do our job better and more efficiently. The majority of us do not ask for the tools, professional tools, needed to better serve our agency and suppliers. I guess the positive side of that is we are really, really good at getting by with what we have. We get by with using Excel, Word and creating PDF's. We are the ...
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PUBLIC PROCUREMENT SHOULD BE LIKE A HURRICANE - FORECAST

By Michael Thornton posted 09-13-2019
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Public Procurement Professionals MUST use their education, training, knowledge, experience, and tools in providing the best outcome for stakeholders, the agency and citizens. Modern day meteorologists have all these same things available to them to monitor and forecast weather conditions. With their information and resources they inform the public, making the best outcome possible on the other side of what can be a catastrophic event. Proactive, rather than reactive, decisions and actions can be executed. Much different from the long ago past when they merely recapped the day’s temperatures. They have moved from being weather people to meteorologists. Public ...
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Master Continuing Consultant Contract RFQ

By Bethany Owen posted 07-19-2019
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​​Looking for input from those of you who have recently issued an RFQ for Master Continuing Contracts for Consultants (CCNA).  How did you go about it, would you share a copy of your RFQ, any advice to share?
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Consortium and Joint Venture

By Aman Bhatti posted 12-18-2018
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How to evaluate firms when they participate as a joint venture or consortium in bid process? What is the main different between consortium and joint venture? Are both of the above terms (joint venture or consortium) are referred under legal dictionary; if yes, then source please?
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Reflections on Forum, 2018

By Rey Palma posted 08-27-2018
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Reflections on Forum 2018   I have been attending Forums for quite a while. I am not an every year attendee for various reasons usually associated with workloads and personnel support. Nonetheless, I try to attend as much as I am able and have never failed to come away from them without learning something of value. Even as I begin the sunset of my career, I find gems of wisdom and personal fulfillment in what I experience. It is amazing to see the evolution of the Forum itself from a mostly volunteer event to one having so many professional support elements to it.  Meeting and feeling the enthusiasm of so many young professionals is energizing. A large ...
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insites future technologies in long term projects

By Lawrence Waxman posted 08-16-2018
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​ The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is currently working to improve its acquisition of future technologies in long term projects, and is seeking insights into how other agencies approach this matter. For example, how do you ensure that at the end of a 15-year construction project the most modern technologies (which may not currently exist) were acquired and incorporated into the final product.  How does your agency ensure that up to date technology is incorporated in long term construction projects? Does your agency have any best practices to ensure the latest technology is included? Any contractual provisions implemented? Any specific ...
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Asset Management Proposal - Compliance to CCNA

By Gina Lanzilotta posted 07-19-2018
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​  Good Morning, I'm searching for Proposals in the State of Florida for Asset Management and the need of use of the CCNA  (FSS 287.055) in the evaluation process. If anyone can shed light on this, please let me know.  Thank you.
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Tools for the Profession

By Michael Thornton posted 06-20-2018
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Professional chefs place incredible value in having a quality set of knives that are their own.  It is a requirement. A mechanics life blood are their tools.  They rely on their tools for their livelihood, recognizing quality tools and the right tools are essential.  Having the right tool can save them significant time yielding more money in their pocket. I consider myself a professional Do-It-Yourselfer.  I haven’t found much I can’t do, or at least try.  I don’t like to pay others to do what I can do.  My son and I built his first car!  While I cannot afford all the tools I would like to have; I do know that when I do buy a tool I buy quality.  I have ...
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RFP FOR SD-WAN

By Denise Whitten posted 06-06-2018
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​Good afternoon, Has anyone done a solicitation for SD-Wan solution, if so please share.
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RFP for Real Estate Appraisal Services

By Janette Velardi posted 05-21-2018
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I am looking for an RFP for Real Estate Appraisal Services. anyone want to share your document with me?
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Point to Ponder - 80/20 Rule

By Michael Thornton posted 03-22-2018
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I have been giving procurement systems some thought lately and have this observation. Most, I’ll say all, e-procurement systems focus on ‘bids’, more accurately formal bids, and ‘suppliers’. I believe it is safe to apply the Pareto principal to procurement transactions. 20% of the dollars are spent with 80% of the transactions. 80% of the dollars are spent with 20% of the transactions. 20% of the procurements are done through formal bid and 80% are done through small purchase methods such as POs, p-cards, and off contracts. There are many software companies that provide software that only address 20% of our procurement transactions.  It seems ...
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The Power of Testimonials

By Kristy Varda posted 03-09-2018
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​ “Investing time to learn something in your professional make you RICH in your KNOWLEDGE, if you are not then it will make you POOR in your PERFORMANCE.” ― Sivaprakash Sidhu In our profession we all know the strength of numbers, the strength of collaboration, and the strength of sharing knowledge, but did you ever consider the strength of testimonials? How many times are you asked, "So what is it you do"? Does your "boss" or leader really know what it is you do for your organization?  How about what you do for other organizations such as your local chapter or NIGP?   This is where the power of the Testimonial can come ...
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Certification - How has it helped you in your career?

By Catherine Patin posted 01-10-2018
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January is Cert Prep Month! Time to get serious and buckle down to prepare for the May exams. Our 2015 Research Report explores the  Value of Procurement Certification and we see some powerful takeaways -  71% of managers say certified individuals know what is required to perform their jobs better, 74% recognize certified individuals as experts and 85% say certification validates specialized knowledge. I'd love to start a dialog on the what you see as the value of certification. How has it impacted your career? Look forward to your thoughts. Cathie
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Keeping up with the trends

By Kristy Varda posted 09-21-2017
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​ Hello everyone!!! It's been awhile since I last posted but I want to keep this brainchild alive for longer than a few months.   So how do we as procurement professionals keep up with the current procurement trends? Personally I have found sitting in on webinars is a useful tool to keep up.  In fact I am listening to a webinar presented by the esteemed Tammy Rimes, current Director of the National Cooperative Procurement Partners!! As a professional it is important that we do not discount free webinars from sources other that our state or national professional organizations.  Many times other organizations related to procurement can help with keeping us ...
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Fiscal Year End Madness!!!

By Kristy Varda posted 05-25-2017
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It's that time of year again when the madness of the impending end of the fiscal year begins.  Ours for some reason started at the beginning of the month of May.   The finance department is diligently working to see what is open that can be closed, where money can be freed up to assist with last minute purchases and looking towards when to open up the next fiscal year so that business can continue as the calendar year proceeds.  End users are scrambling to used all the money they can, working with vendors to get goods and services delivered before the June 30 deadline, and hoping that nothing slows down the processes to get them delivered.  For Purchasing ...
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Transparency and the FOIA Request

By Kristy Varda posted 04-24-2017
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Every profession has its own acronyms and language.  In ours we have "FOIAble"  As members of the public society and as taxpayers having documents or information that can be obtained via polite request or formal FOIA requests is a part of our daily lives and in most instances understandable.  In fact, as procurement professionals sometimes even we need to FOIA someone to get information in order to complete our work.  Transparency can be both good and bad.  So the reason for this subject is the irresponsible, uninformed, not the full story FOIA request.  The ones that are just to data gather without true knowledge of what they are obtaining.  While I am not ...
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