Collect and Create User-Friendly Data
In the February 2020 issue of the OIG Bulletin, we published the first in a series of articles to help demystify data analytics. This second article of the series discusses how to collect data and provides examples of how procurement officials can use the data.
To use data in decision making, the data must exist in a format that can be analyzed. Some of the data within your organization may already be in an analyzable format. Some information may be in spreadsheets or in existing databases or electronic systems. If the data is not in one of these formats, do not despair! You can transform information from historical and external sources into usable data, and you can create new data.
A helpful starting point is to pull data from current and historical sources and compile it into a more data-friendly format, such as an Excel spreadsheet file. In your role as a procurement official, you may already track bids and price quotations in Excel. If not, many of the bid documents your jurisdiction retains can be used as data sources. For example, information from purchase descriptions, vendor quotations, proposal evaluation forms and invoices contain many data points. These data points include dates, prices, quantities and names that are easy to transfer into an Excel spreadsheet for future analysis.
External sources are another area from which data can be gathered and used in an analysis. For example, you can gather information about product specifications, usage and performance from relevant personnel in your jurisdiction. Then you can compile this information into a data-friendly format, like a spreadsheet.
Historical and external data sources might not provide the complete picture for your analysis. If you determine a need for data that does not already exist, you can also create data.
Surveys are a helpful way to do this. For example, the OIG asks participants in our classes to complete surveys at the end of each class. We then use this data to improve the Massachusetts Certified Public Purchasing Official (MCPPO) program. Conducting a survey can be as simple as sending out an email or using a free online survey tool. The results of the survey can be transferred to a spreadsheet. Some online survey tools even analyze data for you.
Use This Data to Make Public Procurement Decisions
Once the data has been transformed into a user-friendly format, it can be used in a variety of ways to assist with future procurements and other business decisions. For example, you can analyze vendor performance using vendor quotations, proposal evaluations and past invoices. The data from these documents can be combined to help make decisions about the award of future contracts.
Historical data regarding the use of a supply or service can help procurement teams project future procurement needs and build a more effective and accurate budget. Procurement data can also help detect fraud, such as bid splitting and potential bid rigging.
Remember to consider whether your data gives you enough information to help you make decisions. Are you missing any data that would help you monitor utilization? Are there existing sources for that data? Is it something you can collect in the future?
Taking incremental steps and continually finding areas for improvement will create a robust data program and help you make informed, data-driven decisions.
The OIG is developing classes to introduce local officials to specific data analysis techniques. We also plan to give an overview of some of these techniques in the next article on data in an upcoming edition of the OIG Bulletin. In the meantime, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or ideas about data. You can reach us at (617) 722-8838 or 30BHotline@state.ma.us.