- Operational Services Division
With an eye to improving the customer experience and maximizing efficiencies, the Operational Services Division (OSD) changed the structure of the Strategic Sourcing Services unit to align staff resources with the unit’s main missions: development and launch of new Statewide Contracts; and ongoing contract management and vendor relations. (See our related article: Transforming Strategic Sourcing Services).
In the past, Sourcing Managers were responsible for day-to-day management of their contracts and launching new ones when existing contracts reached their conclusions. As any procurement professional can attest, managing both ends of the procurement process is challenging at best, particularly with large contract portfolios cutting across multiple industries. The new Sourcing unit structure essentially sets up two distinct groups within the unit – one establishing contracts and the other managing them, each working together to ensure consistent transfer of knowledge between the groups. This configuration enables staff to become specialists in their areas of responsibility and affords the time to focus on the nuances associated with each of these critical sourcing components. To our knowledge, OSD is one of a handful of state procurement operations that have a contract management unit.
Tim Kennedy, Director of Strategic Sourcing, notes, “Understanding that the management of contracts and launching new ones are fundamental to our business, it makes sense to allocate staff along these lines. With a narrower focus, we’ll build expertise and maximize resources, with the ultimate goal of creating a better user experience.”
Contract Managers – Ongoing management of contracts and vendor relations
Sourcing Managers – Development of new contracts
The new Sourcing unit configuration assigns a dedicated Contract Manager, in some cases two, to each Statewide Contract category. Given a more refined focus, Contract Managers will develop a broad understanding of what is happening in their industry, drawing on their connections with Statewide Contract Vendors, industry research, and conversations with the buyer community. Contract Managers will stay in close contact with vendors and conduct regular contractor reviews against strong KPIs to keep contract objectives on track.
“Contract Managers will be fully invested in nurturing successful contract outcomes,” asserts Tim. “With procurement activities off the table, managers will have time to focus on areas that historically may not have received the attention that was required.”
Buyers and vendors may identify contract assignments through the Statewide Contract Index and individual Contract User Guides.
Reach out to OSD Contract Managers with questions.
