2019 goes down for DAS Procurement as a year of continuous improvement with a significant focus on the future state of improved, effective technology solutions to support our work, leaner processes and increased customer outreach.
The DAS Procurement Briefing Book is an annual report highlighting DAS Procurement’s strategy and successes for 2019, as well as the strategic business plan for 2020.
Some highlights include:
2019 Municipal and State Procurement Summit in September 2019 - Partnering for Change! The event was completely paperless and utilized innovative technology to share the agenda, presenter bio’s, interactions, event challenges and event photos. Attendance exceeded expectations with 700+ attendees. Breakout sessions focused on pertinent procurement topics and related topics of interest and the event also included a Supplier Expo.
Rolled-out Amazon Business Services in conjunction with the General Letter 71 changes (non-contract spend), creating cost savings opportunities of 10-20%, efficiencies through automation and providing more visibility to the non-contract spend.
Teamed with the OPM STARs data analytics team to roll out a complete set of procurement business intelligence tools to our contracting staff, enabling DAS Procurement staff to have more visibility into the usage of state contracts and position us to better leverage our buying/negotiating power and create new cost savings opportunities.
DAS Procurement partnered with the DAS Digital Transformation Team to initiate and execute “Business One Stop” contracts by conducting the procurement processes in an agile manner. This new approach reduced the state's typical 12-18-month timeline for large IT procurements to only 4 months. Additionally, the goal of these contracts is to build the technology to make the process of opening a business in the state easy for all - from the most experienced business owner to the first-time entrepreneur.
Other highlights to the Briefing book include a customer satisfaction survey and the Strategic Business Plan for 2020.
Some statistics in the briefing book include:
DAS Procurement hosted 9 reverse auctions. An online bidding scenario where contractors compete online in a competitive effort to outbid one another and drive down prices. An IT reverse auction saved the State of Connecticut $1.4 million or 52% compared to the last time this bid went out to the public.
Each year the State of Connecticut receives a rebate from JP Morgan Chase Bank based on the annual charge volume generated by the State Purchasing Card (P-Card) Program contract. Users consist of state agencies, higher education, municipalities, municipal schools, and non-profits, all using this credit card program to make business purchases and ultimately earn money back in the form of a rebate. This year’s rebate check was for $1.4 million.
The Procurement staff aggressively pursue cost savings opportunities and have achieved significant cost reductions in their executed contracts over the past years through strategic approaches to each procurement.
DAS Procurement Director Carol Wilson said, “2019 was a year of challenge and changes, and we will continue to face new challenges in the year ahead. With the introduction of new sourcing tools and technologies, new strategic approaches to our work, and other initiatives to make our processes more efficient, we anticipate more great results to support Connecticut’s growth and drive innovation.”
