Inside Public Procurement: Heroic Stories from the Frontlines

Latest Episodes:

Why Vendor Diversity is a Smart Business Strategy Jul 05, 2022

Show notes

How can we build more relationships with small, diverse and historically underutilized organizations? It’s a question many procurement teams are acting on as they realize that supplier diversity isn’t just a social responsibility — it’s a smart business strategy.

Whether you’re launching a vendor diversity program, already have one, or don’t know where to start, this is one episode you don’t want to miss.

In a pre-recorded session with Robert Tatum of the Cayman Islands Government and Sheena Fain of the City of Akron, in conversation with Bonfire’s Director of Client Experience, Rachel Friesen, you’ll discover how both procurement pros launched their own small supplier programs and what they learned along the way, including how to:

Eliminate barriers to entry for small and diverse suppliers
Create a process that gives more time back to small business owners (and why that’s the most important currency of all)
Educate internal stakeholders about vendor diversity
Conduct outreach that builds trust and taps into the small supplier ecosystem
Get feedback that helps you move the needle on the things small suppliers care about
Use Bonfire to support your vendor diversity efforts

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

Busting the Myth of the "Boring Procurement Job" Jun 21, 2022

Show notes

Purpose and priorities. They’re two things employees got serious about during the pandemic. Millions walked away from jobs that didn’t reflect their core values and, as the Great Resignation grinds on, employers are still feeling the pinch — procurement included.

With a growing appetite for purpose-driven work — and so many myths about careers in procurement — how can under-resourced teams attract the best talent?

According to Chris Sheel, Manager of Procurement for the City of Vernon, public procurement has exactly what it takes to win the war. In this episode he sits down with Bonfire CEO Omar Salaymeh for some real talk on the state of recruitment in public sector procurement today.

Chris and Omar discuss:

The power of core values in public procurement
How organizations can attract purpose-driven talent
Why the public sector is uniquely positioned to compete for millennial and Gen Z hearts and minds
How procurement can meet the needs of internal clients and employees
The secret to engaged and empathetic leadership
How eProcurement supports your recruitment strategy

Connect with Chris on LinkedIn.

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

Leveraging ARPA to Transform Your Community Jun 07, 2022

Show notes

If you’re responsible for managing and allocating federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), you know it’s an incredible opportunity for communities — and also a massive burden for under-resourced procurement departments.

Between the funding structure, the timelines, and the stringent reporting requirements attached to the money, there’s a lot to juggle. And yet, our latest guests say there are plenty of worthwhile reasons to leverage ARPA funding.

Joel Neaveill and Ken Hillebrand of the Louisville Metro Government have each played a key role in managing Louisville’s $388 million in ARPA funding over the last year. In this previously recorded session, they sit down with Bonfire host Anthony Berry to share some firsthand advice and answer all your questions about ARPA, including:

Understanding the funding and how it works
Assembling the right team
Accessing and managing the money effectively
Using ARPA funds to support strategic goals
Preparing for the great project flood
Meeting compliance and reporting requirements

Connect with Joel and Ken on LinkedIn.

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

Why You Need Strong Vendor Relationships—and How to Build Them May 24, 2022

Show notes

“You can’t make a sandwich without going to the grocery store,” says Latanya Figueroa. And if you want it to be especially delicious, you need to know where to find the best ingredients.

That’s something procurement professionals do really well. And while sandwiches may be low on their priority list, collectively, public procurement teams source hundreds of thousands of goods and services for their communities. Finding solutions that deliver the best value for taxpayers takes a special set of skills — and chief among them is relationship building.

In this episode, Latanya, who is the Purchasing Manager at Clover Park School District, joins Bonfire host Tuong La to share her philosophy on vendor partnerships — why they matter and how to build stronger relationships with the businesses that help keep your organization running.

Drawing on 25 years of experience in procurement, Latanya dives into these topics and more:

Why strong partnerships matter
How getting aligned on mission helps both sides be successful
Strategies for staying open and improving communication
The impact of vendor relationships on risk management, pricing, quality, support and transparency

Connect with Latanya on LinkedIn.

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

The Value of Procurement That Thinks Outside the Box May 10, 2022

Show notes

Every day at University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto, some of the most innovative patient care and health research in the world happens. While researchers and clinicians make history, procurement professionals work tirelessly behind the scenes to make it all possible.

Juli Smyth, Senior Strategic Sourcing Specialist at UHN, is one of those people. Her innovative approach to procurement supports cutting-edge healthcare and research — and that’s no easy feat in a space that tends to play it safe.

In this episode of Inside Public Procurement, she joins Bonfire host Tuong La for a deep dive into some of the initiatives she’s spearheaded at UHN, from the use of integrated project delivery (IPD) contract formats to competitive dialogue (CD) with vendors in the procurement process.

Given the challenges of the last two years, Juli also shares the highs and lows of healthcare procurement during the pandemic – including the surprising power of the cold call and the generosity that keeps her going.

Connect with Juli on LinkedIn.

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

Fostering Internal Collaboration and Public Trust in Procurement Apr 26, 2022

Show notes

A tale as old as time in public agencies: stunted communication between departments, barriers to collaboration, and a lack of transparency.

When it comes to being a part of decisions, the procurement department doesn’t always get a seat at the table. Being left out of those conversations can have a chain reaction of consequences both internally and externally. This coupled with lagging technology can really throw a wrench in dreams of a collaborative, efficient, and transparent public purchasing process.

For Boyd Donavon, Assistant Purchasing Agent for the County of Ventura, being involved in purchasing decisions and planning means more job satisfaction for his peers, open lines of communication with other departments, and building public trust through open and transparent processes.

As a centerpiece to all of these topics, Boyd champions digital transformation in government agencies and sheds light on the County’s efforts to move to eProcurement in 2019, how that affected them during the pandemic, and why others should make the switch.

In this episode of Inside Public Procurement, listen in on this conversation between Boyd and Bonfire CEO Omar Salaymeh and hear about all of these topics—plus how the County of Ventura’s procurement department became heroes during the pandemic.

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

Advancing Health Research with eProcurement Apr 12, 2022

Show notes

We’ve learned a lot over the last two years: for one, that responding to a global public health crisis depends on strong strategic sourcing partners; and on the flipside, that supporting urgent, high-impact projects is next to impossible with a procurement process that lives in filing cabinets and email inboxes.

Procurement teams have had to ask some tough questions and strategize about how to respond faster and stronger to the next big challenge.

In this episode of Inside Public Procurement, we’re bringing you a recorded webinar featuring the story of UT Health San Antonio, a leading research university in South Texas.

Even before the pandemic, UT Health San Antonio knew their ability to deliver valuable real-world solutions would be hampered by old approaches to sourcing and purchasing. Training future generations of healthcare professionals and driving breakthroughs in healthcare would require a strong procurement strategy.

Strategic Sourcing Specialist Christopher C. Januszewski describes the journey to implement a digital procurement system and build a strategic sourcing department from the ground up. You’ll learn how eProcurement helped centralize and streamline sourcing for the busy research university—and how it can help your organization do the same.

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

Why Being Resourceful is Procurement’s Hidden Superpower Mar 29, 2022

Show notes

Every profession has its superpowers and public procurement has more than a few. But there’s one hidden talent that’s especially handy: being resourceful.

It’s part of the reason Gary O. Chavez, Bureau Chief, Chief Procurement Officer in the Human Services Department at the State of New Mexico, has found so much success in his career. 17 years ago, he transitioned from a career in education to what he calls a “second life” in public procurement. In just a few years, he climbed a steep learning curve to head up procurement for the second-largest agency in the State of New Mexico.

In this conversation with Bonfire host Rachel Friesen, Gary shares his advice for early career professionals on how to use curiosity, learning, and resourcefulness to succeed in public procurement. And he lets us in on a little secret: true success in procurement isn’t about knowing everything, but knowing where to find it.

Get in touch with Gary at garyo.chavez@state.nm.us

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

The Secret to Fast, Efficient RFP Creation Mar 15, 2022

Show notes

You’ve seen it happen time and again. Procurement is brought into a project too late. And the timeline is all but impossible. You drop everything to address urgent needs, compromising other project timelines in the process. But more one-off requests keep coming up. Now multiple internal clients, projects, and constituents are negatively impacted, and your team is overburdened by the impossible task of keeping everyone happy. It’s unsustainable and ineffective. So how do you break the cycle?

In this episode, we invite Tony De Sciscio, Manager of Procurement and Contracts for the Toronto Public Library, onto the podcast to find out.

Tony shares how North America’s largest library system nails the art of fast, efficient project planning and RFP creation that delivers value to the community. At TPL, a mix of strategic and collaborative tools and processes help the procurement team work with hundreds of internal clients to meet the needs of constituents across the city.

Our conversation connects to some of the big themes we’re exploring in our brand-new eBook, The Procurement Manager’s Guide to Rapid RFP Creation, including:

The trickle-down effect of poor project planning
Mitigating stops and starts that compromise project timelines
How to improve intake processes
Finding efficiencies during RFP creation
Using procurement data to make better business decisions

Connect with Tony at tdesciscio@tpl.ca

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

How Collaboration Fuels Small-But-Mighty Procurement Teams Mar 01, 2022

Show notes

Strategic procurement has the power to radically transform an organization — especially, says Sandra Nelson, when it involves rubbing elbows with the competition.

As Director of Strategic Procurement at Carleton University and Chair of the Ontario University Professional Procurement Management Association (OUPPMA), Sandra has led impressive strategic transformation initiatives in her organizations.

Through it all, working hand-in-hand with other Ontario universities has been a major strategic advantage, helping her team drive value, purpose, and impact — even with limited resources.

On the podcast, Sandra joins Bonfire host Tuong La to talk strategic transformation and collaboration. Why is it important in procurement? What does it mean to be a good strategist? And how can collaboration supercharge your strategic power?

We dive into these topics and more:

Making the strategic shift from purchasing to procurement
How to plan for an uncertain future
The strategic advantage of co-opetition
OUPPMA’s model for working together and raising the profile of procurement

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

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