An optimistic procurement future: Maine’s Jamie Schorr and the “Perfect Opportunity”

This article originally appeared in the Q4 issue of Government Procurement. 

“The Perfect Storm” is used often by procurement and supply chain professionals to describe the past 19 months. We saw the crisis play out on the national news and in local hospitals: worldwide demand for a finite supply of N95 masks, testing kits and ventilators; delayed distribution channels due to labor shortages; mountains of paperwork and not enough hands or hours in the day to get it all done.

But if you talk to Jaime Schorr, chief procurement officer of the State of Maine and 2022 president-elect of the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO), she might call it “The Perfect Opportunity.”

“In January 2020, the world had this assumption around procurement that we perform transactions. We buy things,” Schorr explains. “As a result of all that has happened the past year and a half, people recognize the importance of procurement to accomplish their goals and initiatives.

“Procurement professionals don’t want to go back to January 2020. We need to maintain that seat at the table so we can help administrations spend taxpayer dollars to best serve constituents.”

Schorr sees NASPO as the national procurement “water cooler,” convening leaders in a series of game changing conversations and ideas. As she describes her vision to elevate the procurement profession through NASPO, it becomes clear it’s the most conducive environment to embrace collaboration, technology, and inclusive purchasing in decades.

Working together to influence the supply chain
Over the last few decades, cooperative contracting has transformed public procurement by enabling public entities to pool their purchasing power. Purchases that might once have required repeating the formal bidding process dozens of times across dozens of jurisdictions have become incredibly efficient and cost-effective. And suppliers have been conditioned to responding to cooperative solicitations and working with organizations piggybacking on the agreements.

But when the world flipped upside down in March 2020, public procurement flipped with it. Whereas cooperation and collaboration had been hallmarks of government procurement pre-COVID, at the height of the pandemic states were competing intensely with each other for essential goods. Talk to any state chief procurement director, and they’ll painfully recall occasions where they had lined up a vital PPE order, only to lose it to another state or more often, the federal government. Sadly, collaborators had become competitors.

The supply chain broke and remains challenged to this day. For example, states that wish to use American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to invest in broadband access are finding major fiber shortages that make project management difficult. We have seen the effects of the supply chain challenges as consumers. For months, buying a new car has been exceedingly difficult due to severe shortages of computer chips.

“With the supply chain not bouncing back as quickly as we’d like it to, there is a level of collaboration that is needed from a local, state, university, nationally, and even globally,” Schorr says. “By working together, we can influence our supply chain to get our constituents what they need.”

To combat this disrupted supply chain, procurement officials must again rise to the occasion and find a new, more collaborative way to purchase essential goods.

Rather than competing with each other for N95 masks, Schorr asks, what if these counties, cities and states worked together during the next crisis, and brought their demand to market in a concerted fashion? Emerging technology tools are making it easier than ever for procurement professionals to collaborate across state lines, comparing notes on common suppliers and finding contracts.

With leading edge education, training and certification processes, Schorr asserts, procurement officials can really influence this complex supply chain for the betterment of government, suppliers and constituents.

The new generation of public sector workers has arrived
Against the backdrop of a disrupted supply chain, emerging technologies and the post-pandemic period is a once-in-a-generation change in the demographics of the procurement workforce. The much discussed “silver tsunami” has crashed ashore in public procurement offices. The Baby Boomer buyer has given way to a younger set of cohorts. The Pew Research estimated in 2016 that 30 to 40 percent of state workers were eligible for retirement. Five years later, the predicted retirement surge has happened. For years, government managers have looked at this shift nervously. But Schorr, ever the optimist and futurist, sees the upside. What better time to welcome a new generation of workers than amidst this seismic shift in how we approach public procurement?

“We have a bunch of young people coming out of college where they’ve studied procurement and supply chain and have these amazing fresh ideas,” Schorr says. “You put them in a room with the folks that have experience and understand risk. The possibilities are endless.”

These forces of technology, collaboration and workforce must work together to be successful. As digital natives, Millennials and Gen Z instinctively look to technology to connect and find solutions with others. Just as they shared pictures, relationship statuses and locations on social media in their formative years, younger purchasing professionals are more comfortable using technology to share contracts, sourcing strategies and supplier reviews with their peers. In the lexicon of Silicon Valley, the Millennial purchaser’s age is a feature, not a bug. And their perspective is invaluable to driving technology adoption forward as the new status quo.

Marrying the energy and enthusiasm of youth with the experience and knowledge and of more tenured purchasers creates a powerful force to drive the right outcomes for constituents.

Shaping a more inclusive future in public purchasing
With greater collaboration, enhanced technology and new perspectives, procurement offices can tackle extraordinary challenges. As the country committed itself again towards a path of greater diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), public procurement professionals were challenged to find new and meaningful ways to expand opportunities for historically underutilized businesses.

DEI in public procurement means bringing more suppliers to the table for an equitable chance to participate in government contracting. For many small businesses, a government contract can provide a huge boost in revenue, stability and credibility. And studies show that minority-owned businesses are more likely to employ a diverse workforce and spend money with other diverse businesses. By making it more accessible for small and minority-owned businesses to win a government contract, state and local government can help create compounding impact on their local economy and community.

Often the barrier is access. There is a learning curve to understand the policies and procedures associated with bidding for a government contract. If there is a language barrier or the requirements and bidding process is too onerous or complex, the chance of success can be slim.

In Maine, Schorr and her team are working to combat these barriers. “First, it is our responsibility as public procurement officials to provide education on how to gain government contracts in our state,” she says. “Business owners that don’t speak English need the opportunity to review procurement documents in the language they feel most comfortable with. Likewise, veteran-owned businesses for example, need to understand how they can maintain a contract with the State of Maine by remaining in compliance with their rules and policies.”

The second piece of this, according to Schorr, is looking critically at your evaluation teams to identify any unconscious bias that may be occurring. Educating your team on inclusive procurement practices and placing checks and balances in place along the way will help keep equity top of mind as they evaluate bids. And recruiting procurement professionals who themselves represent a multitude of backgrounds and experiences can help mitigate some of these issues which unintentionally tilt the playing field.

I remember nearly two decades ago at the start of my public procurement career, our team in Pennsylvania worked incredibly hard to expand opportunities for diverse business. This effort has been waged for years. But as you listen to Schorr, the stars are aligning to bring about elusive advances toward inclusive contracting—increased collaboration, a focus on certification for procurement professionals, emerging technologies, a new generation of buyers and a real commitment from the top in many organizations.

Cultivating the procurement profession
This vision of the procurement profession—one that is increasingly collaborative and technologically driven—cannot happen overnight. This is not a simple policy shift; it is a whole new way of thinking and making decisions.

And this is why Schorr’s “water cooler” analogy for organizations like NASPO is so apt for this moment. Psychological shifts are built by conversations, habits, education and, ultimately, relationships. NASPO is the venue for state procurement leaders to come together and have that open dialogue. And it provides education, training and technology to support that progress in an actionable way.

“The Perfect Storm” of supply chain challenges in 2020 and 2021 has created “The Perfect Opportunity” to bring procurement to the forefront of public sector strategy. Now that procurement has won its seat at the table, the profession needs to make the most of the spotlight. By increasing collaboration across state lines, adopting technology and implementing inclusive purchasing practices, procurement will solidify their seat for the long-term. And the bold vision that Schorr articulates will come to fruition.

David Yarkin is the former chief procurement officer of Pennsylvania and the founder and CEO of Procurated, a supplier ratings platform built for the public sector. Please send David any comments or ideas for future columns to [email protected].