Roz Ingram. Edited By Ryan Burke. State and Local. Chief Procurement Officer, State of Florida

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1 20 Contract Management May 2016

2 Roz Ingram State and Local Contracting Profile: Chief Procurement Officer, State of Florida We recently had a chat with Roz Ingram, chief procurement officer (CPO), State of Florida, to discuss procurement within a major state purchasing agency, as well as the importance of training and networking to state and local contracting professionals. Edited By Ryan Burke Contract Management May

3 Contract Management: The Florida State Government consists of numerous state and local agencies, each with their own core missions and each requiring business operational support, and that s where Florida s Division of State Purchasing comes in. As the director of state purchasing and the CPO of the State of Florida, please tell us a little about yourself. Roz Ingram: My public service career began over 27 years ago, where I served in operational areas before coming to procurement. Prior to becoming the CPO for Florida, I was the chief of procurement for the third largest prison system in the United States Florida s Department of Corrections. I am a Project Management Professional, Certified Public Manager, and Certified Negotiator. I am also a member of NASPO, NIGP, and FAPPO. I have also instructed the Florida Certified Negotiator class on several occasions to better prepare procurement professionals for what they may face during the solicitation process. What is your scope of responsibility? What does Florida s Division of State Purchasing provide? The Division of State Purchasing has statutory authority over purchasing within the state government system in Florida. We create and manage state term contracts that serve all state agencies and promote greater leveraged buying power. We created and maintain an online procurement system, a robust training environment, and significant interaction with other political subdivisions such as cities, counties, schools, and universities who are also able to purchase from our contracts. We are also the rule-making arm of procurement and implement procurement policy for the state. The Division of State Purchasing provides advice on this policy that allows other agencies to better fulfill their missions. What are your key initiatives to support customer efficiencies, mission changes, and procurement policy? Over the past year, we have implemented a number of changes to strengthen and better communicate best practices in procurement. We are reviewing and updating our rules to more clearly state the practices that agencies should follow in their procurements. Internally, we have produced a comprehensive roadmap illustrating the state term contract procurement process with a specific eye for key decision points. This new resource allows us to integrate new purchasing professionals into our mission more efficiently. It also ensures that, as a division, we are providing uniform services to our sister agencies. We have recently completed an internal reorganization to better align the services we provide with our leadership s goals for aggressive contract management. Previously, our procurement and contract management areas were merged. Today, our contract monitors have the opportunity to work side-by-side with our procurement staff as solicitations are developed, but their most significant work is focused on contract management. They monitor for best practices and for successes and failures, with the goal of driving greater accountability among the state s vendors. On the solicitation development side, we ve put a greater focus on what needs to happen before a procurement is launched. More so than ever before, we spend a great deal of time and effort working to understand what our agencies need and what the marketplace has to offer. We study multiple resources to gain a comprehensive view of how and what sister states are buying and we collect this information using an established methodology and consistent format. This process provides our decision-makers with valuable information, and it also gives us a historical record for use in contract management and future procurements. I cannot over-stress the value that this research brings. The quality of our procurements and contracts is greatly improved because we are making fully informed decisions and providing our customers with options they might not have the time or resources to acquire on their own. What previous experience have you been able to leverage and bring forward into your current position? How did your previous roles prepare you for your current leadership position? What a great question! I believe that my previous experience has been critical to my ability to succeed in the CPO role. Over my years in government service, I have been both a buyer and a customer. I think that my experiences as a customer of goods and services have given me a better perspective for implementing procurement rules and 22 Contract Management May 2016

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5 policies, and in creating solicitations that serve the customers and provide them with what they actually need, not what I think they need. The other perspective that probably assists more than I can say is my experience as a procurement leader from one of the agencies I now serve. When I arrived here a year ago, I was determined to engage my customer agencies, and I have endeavored to do that and will continue to do so. To me, leadership is communicating the mission, structure, and culture and then getting out of the way to watch great things happen! It is also knowing what you don t know. I started this position with meetand-greet sessions with agency customers on their turf to show my respect for what they do and to allow them to advise me on what we can do better to serve them. These meetings were so successful that they will become a regular occurrence, allowing me to temperature-check our contracts and services as we go. This engagement has produced greater participation and partnership among our sister agencies. The Division of State Purchasing recently instituted a roundtable meeting among agency customers focused on creating a forum for them to talk to us and to each other. The first one was a resounding success. We asked one of our agencies to share their solution to a problem they were all facing. That is the core of growing leaders. Allow them the opportunity to transfer knowledge in a setting that promotes innovation. It is exciting stuff and there is never a dull moment! How does the Division of State Purchasing measure the effectiveness and efficiency of procurement? Are there metrics or tools you use to assess and measure customer satisfaction? How do you engage with your stakeholders and know if your team, and the Division overall, is performing well? We measure performance through established key performance indicators that are checked quarterly and reevaluated annually. We are currently measuring how well we compete with other comparable states on similar goods and services. We also measure the discount off reference pricing to determine how well our solicitations have done in comparison to the marketplace. We also survey our customers to gauge their satisfaction and measure our response time to customer inquiries. An extremely valuable measure of customer service is our end of life survey, which asks our user agencies what they would like changed about a current contract to better serve them. This tool has given us critical information to move forward with subsequent solicitations. We often ask our customers to serve on solicitation evaluation and negotiation teams. One thing that sets Florida apart is our Vendor Performance Tracking (VPT) system, which allows agency customers to communicate vendor performance on a transaction level. Vendor scores are calculated using a five-year average. VPT provides useful vendor performance history to facilitate informed decision-making when negotiating agreements and selecting vendors, while providing constructive feedback to vendors to use for future improvement of goods and/ or services. We ve heard that Florida has a pretty robust eprocurement system. What can you share with us about that? In 2002, Florida looked to drive statewide efficiencies and increase cost savings through the implementation of an eprocurement system. The MyFloridaMarketPlace (MFMP) system was established in 2003 as a centralized procurement solution, streamlining interactions between vendors and state government entities and providing the tools to support world-class procurement for the State of Florida. 1 The MFMP system automates the state s solicitations, orders, approvals, invoices, and payment approval processes, making the procurement cycle more cost-effective and time-efficient than a traditional paper-based system. Key system features include online catalog shopping, online quoting, commodity receiving, and enterprise reporting. Four applications were deployed to support this system: The Vendor Information Portal This application provides vendors with the ability to self-register and connects active vendors to state agencies. 2 During the registration process, vendors 24 Contract Management May 2016

6 map their account to United Nation Standard Products and Services Codes (UNSPSC), select desired Certified Minority Business Enterprise codes, and establish multiple locations to define their business. After registering, vendors have access to online solicitation opportunities, and the ability to receive electronic purchase orders and provide paperless invoices. MFMP Sourcing This is our electronic solicitation application. It allows for the creation of informal and competitive solicitations, and distributes notifications to registered vendors by UNSPSC commodity code match. We use standardized templates for electronic solicitations. Agencies have the ability to copy previously created solicitations and vendors have the ability to respond online. 3 MFMP Buyer This is our procure-topay application. It provides agencies with access to over 60 catalog purchasing options and prevents rouge spending through the use of interagency approval flows. MFMP Buyer also provides a complete audit trail, from procurement to payment, which improves management controls and uses automated two- and three-way matching that ties invoices to purchase orders and receipts, allowing for fewer mistakes and faster payment processing. Another great feature is the realtime interface with Florida s financial system, which improves budgetary controls. MFMP Buyer captures 94 percent of spend under management and has reduced average requisition to purchase order cycle time by 40 percent and average invoice to check cycle time by over 45 percent. 4 MFMP Analysis This application provides agencies with access to over 35 standard reports and allows for agencies to create fully customizable reports from an easy-to-use dashboard. This provides complete visibility into Florida s purchasing power! We are quite proud of these accomplishments and continue to implement improvements to improve statewide utilization of MFMP and increase efficiency. Workforce training is often highlighted as an area of concern and solution to real or perceived problems in today s procurement system. What are your thoughts on the importance of training? I am so glad you asked that. Continual professional development is vital to keeping up with the rapid changes in today s procurement and business environments. Just a few years ago, the Florida legislature recognized a need for more skilled contract managers throughout all our state agencies and subsequently passed legislation requiring most agencies contract managers to become Florida Certified Contract Managers (FCCM). 5 Our professional development team is responsible for the development, delivery, and administration of the FCCM program, and they completely revised this course in late It is a blended-learning format, combining eight online modules with a twoday instructor-led session. We partnered with the Florida Department of Financial Services for the training in order to effectively address the significance of payment accountability. Participants must pass a final assessment to become certified. In the last 15 months, the team has certified over 1,800 individuals, and has done so while providing exceptional quality. The program has been so successful that FCCM is currently featured as a case study within NASPO s new Procurement University toolkit. 6 We collaborated with NASPO to review our development process and share successes and lessons learned. Honestly, we have been humbled by the positive reception this class has received. Additionally, we administer the Florida Certified Contract Negotiator (FCCN) program. The course combines informing participants of the requirements of Florida law for contract negotiation with practical skill application to improve negotiation outcomes. We have been through the pilot stage of development and the FCCN course is currently being enhanced. We anticipate release in the very near future. Also, later this spring, we will begin offering a basics of procurement class. Its current iteration is a four-day instructor-led program that provides in-depth knowledge and skill development for employees who are new to the procurement world. We are very excited to bring this much-needed opportunity to our sister agencies. To go back to your original question though, the training world has changed significantly in the past few years. These foundational face-to-face sessions are essential, but we really want to expand on traditional classroom learning. There are so many more options to innovate learning experiences for procurement professionals. Though we are still in the planning and discussion phase of many of these, some of our next ventures are just in time learning through short, hyper-focused online modules or videos; a quarterly invitation to learn e-newsletter that lets employees drive their own learning needs; and emphasizing performance improvement through enhancements in job aids, reference guides, informal peer learning, and many other items. Really, I think that is the heart of it for us we are just tremendously excited to push procurement learning into the 21st century and deliver faster and more effective services to our customers. What are your future goals for the Division of State Purchasing, and what would you like for your legacy to be after you re gone? My goals for the Division have not really changed. I believe that servant leadership is key to government service at its highest level. To do that, we must continue to engage our customers, establish innovative prac- Contract Management May

7 tices, and never say we re done. Procurement continues to be a fluid environment, and we must stay on the leading edge to be relevant and provide the best service to the citizens of Florida. I would like for my legacy to be that of a leader who was professional in demeanor, inclusive in style, innovative in approach, and consistent in practice. You have had a successful career in procurement. What advice would you like to share for those just entering this field? Be curious and always embrace the training that is available. Being curious is key to our profession and often overlooked. Being curious can provide any number of positives, but among them is the ability to conduct superior market research regarding your topic as you learn more about the nature of the good or service being procured. It also keeps you from being stagnant. ABOUT ROZ INGRAM ROSALYN INGRAM has more than 25 years of state government experience. She currently serves as the director of Florida s Division of State Purchasing and chief procurement officer of the State of Florida. She is responsible for developing sound procurement practices throughout the state and building strong relationships with fellow state agencies, local governments, and industry leaders. She also oversees the State of Florida s award-winning eprocurement system, MyFloridaMarketPlace, and the Division of State Purchasing s professional development program, which offers public purchasing training and certification for procurement professionals. Previously, she served in Florida s Department of Management Services as the bureau chief of business support services within the Division of Real Estate Development and Management. Prior to that, she served in several roles at the Florida Department of Corrections, including chief of procurement. ABOUT NASPO The National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) is a nonprofit association dedicated to advancing public procurement through leadership, excellence, and integrity. It is made up of the directors of the central purchasing offices in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories of the United States. NASPO is an organization that helps its members achieve success as public procurement leaders through promotion of best practices, education, professional development, research, and innovative procurement strategies. For more information, visit Send comments about this interview to cm@ncmahq.org. Training is paramount to our profession. The profession moves in different directions over time and training will help you stay on top of it. What are your thoughts on the importance of professionalism in contracting, such as outside activities, advanced learning or degrees, etc.? Professionalism within the procurement world is critical to our success. In Florida, transparency is extremely important to us. Citizens want to know how their money is spent and want to be assured that those dispersing it are conducting themselves ethically and professionally. However, the most important aspect of professionalism for procurement is the willingness and ability to serve the customer. Once you enter the profession, there are many outside training and certification opportunities that will hone your ability to further your procurement career, but a passion for customer service is critical to success in this field. CM EDITOR S NOTES 1. Editor s Note: For more information on the MyFloridaMarketPlace system, visit myflorida.com/business_operations/state_ purchasing/myfloridamarketplace. 2. Editor s Note: As of April 2016, the MFMP Vendor Information Portal featured over 80,000 active vendors. 3. Editor s Note: As of April 2016, Florida s Division of State Purchasing had issued over 9,000 successful electronic solicitations through the MFMP Sourcing application. 4. Editor s Note: Last fiscal year, over 208,000 purchase orders were issued using the MFMP Buyer application to more than 17,000 vendors, totaling $1.96 billion in purchase order spend. 5. Editor s Note: For more information on the FCCM designation, visit com/business_operations/state_purchasing/ public_procurement_professional_ development/certifications_for_the_public_ procurement_professional/florida_certified_ contract_manager. 6. Editor s Note: See Procurement-University for more information. Roz Ingram will be speaking on the Defining Innovation in Acquisition executive panel at World Congress 2016, July 24 27, in Orlando, Florida. For more information on NCMA s largest annual education event for contract management, procurement, and acquisition professionals, visit NASPO state, associate, honorary, and life members receive a discount on registration for World Congress 2016! meetings@ ncmahq.org for a special promo code to use when registering. 26 Contract Management May 2016