De-siloing procurement: Empowering purchasing with new data and perspectives

While private sector companies leverage community, partnerships and knowledge sharing to drive growth, their ability to do so is limited by the competitive landscape. The number and scope of their partnerships are limited by the need to maintain competitive advantage. For governments, and specifically procurement departments, the rising tide of shared perspectives—and ideally information—lifts all boats.

Many procurement professionals recognize this fact—that community can be a huge driver for procurement success. There is an inherent connection between people in the procurement industry based on shared experiences, good or bad, and shared industry knowledge on everything from sustainability, to supply chain issues, to supplier performance management. When procurement professionals have a chance to come together to share their knowledge and experiences, everyone in the community benefits. Starting to “de-silo” the procurement experience across departments, agencies and around the country, provides a boost for everyone.

Much of this knowledge sharing comes in the form of professional services organizations and conferences—all extremely valuable tools. But with modern technology, procurement leaders have opportunities for more, and deeper empowerment.

Leveraging community knowledge for best practices

The broader public procurement community has access—via associations, local chapters, personnel organizations and even service providers—to many virtual and in-person networking events that let procurement personnel congregate and learn from one another. In terms of empowerment, these events and conferences are particularly good venues for sharing best practices. Industry professionals have the chance to hear from colleagues in similar roles and discover new methodologies, tactics and techniques to get the most value out of purchasing operations. For procurement professionals going to these events, the goal should always be to discover these new methods and insights to bring them back to their offices and serve their constituents.

These peer-networking events, however, only provide this opportunity on a limited basis. First, not every agency can afford to send staff to these events, so there are distinct barriers to entry. They may only happen once or twice a year, and in an industry like procurement where change is persistent, more consistent community feedback and networking is essential to ensure a procurement office has the most relevant knowledge needed to succeed.

Empower procurement networks through virtual communities

Establishing virtual communities can help procurement professionals to make growth and improvement more persistent. In a 2021 GovLab report, “The Power of Virtual Communities,” one of the key findings is that online communities help build a strong sense of unity and trust and they can help reach those community members who may not always be heard. The appetite for this was evident in the rapid adoption of virtual events during the height of the pandemic. NIGP’s 2020 Virtual Forum, set up not long after the COVID crisis began, attracted more than 1,600 purchasing professionals. But still, these aren’t “always-on” channels for collaboration.

On social media, LinkedIn has become a place where procurement professionals have an avenue to form persistent communities and remain informed in current procurement practices and technologies. Social media helps procurement stay connected with each other on a continuous basis, instead of just meeting once or twice a year. Keeping up with these communities on a consistent basis can help procurement professionals stay current on new trends in the procurement arena and help keep their offices ahead of the curve when it comes to modern procurement. Still, this avenue mostly helps with promoting best practices rather than creating direct, shared value.

Uphold supplier responsibility and understand supplier performance with peer insights

If events and virtual communities are just one piece of the puzzle towards empowering the purchasing community, then technology and data sharing is the other piece. This is an area that has experienced massive growth in the private sector where data and data-derived insights have been broadly commoditized. While public sector agencies have more considerations around data usage, the proliferation of data science expertise makes this an area where governments will soon find significant value.

Shared data and insights, such as continuous and objective feedback on, and recommendations for suppliers, can play a huge role in reducing cost and risk in the procurement process. New technologies beyond social networks have been developed to help procurement professionals find and track this feedback to help improve their supplier performance management.

Platforms for sharing peer insights are a game-changer for procurement. They allow procurement professionals to connect with their community on a regular basis to learn not only from members of their own organizations but also from their peers across the country. Peer insights allow procurement professionals to reach beyond their immediate resources to tap into new knowledge. Procurated is an example of a platform that supports this kind of peer-to-peer information sharing. Procurated is a ratings and review platform built specifically for the public sector. It offers procurement professionals the ability to crowdsource their reference process during the contract award stage, or rapidly gather feedback from their contract end users during the contract management process. By sharing their experiences with one another, procurement professionals can remain informed about supplier performance at every stage of the procurement process.

With access to thousands of real-time reviews of suppliers, public procurement professionals now have an unparalleled level of insight into supplier past performance. This helps buyers make informed and responsible decisions during the procurement process. They also allow procurement professionals within the same organization to share meaningful insights as to how a supplier is performing which can help mitigate any issues before they cost the organization. Shared insights in the form of ratings and review data let procurement professionals use this national network of peers not just to improve practices but drive results.

Putting the puzzle together and breaking down silos

Procurement professionals can empower their purchasing through persistent use of both networking and modern technology tools. While events, whether in-person or virtual, can provide professionals the knowledge and resources to benefit their offices, there is a need for a more consistent community engagement so that procurement professionals can keep up with a faster procurement environment. Online communities provide procurement professionals with continuous ways to gain new perspectives and information from their peers and industry leaders. In turn, this helps improve their processes and implement best practices. Platforms that crowdsource supplier performance data can provide procurement professionals with a community-led solution to continuous supplier performance management. By leveraging these tools on a consistent basis, procurement professionals can help keep their organizations moving forward through times of change.

Amanda Valdivieso is a community engagement manager at Procurated. As part of the community engagement team, she is dedicated to helping public procurement officials across state and local governments harness new technologies and tools to improve their vendor performance management in their organizations. Prior to joining Procurated, Valdivieso worked with state procurement officials as the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) on the professional development team and worked for more than four years in worked in federal government procurement for the Army National Guard. She obtained her MBA from Bellevue University and Bachelor of Arts in English from Temple University.

This article originally appeared in the June 2022 issue of Government Procurement.