- Operational Services Division
Sourcing’s Category Management Strategy Introduces New Statewide Contract Categories
The Operational Services Division is committed to maintaining a deep understanding of the various markets and industries that provide the goods and services that the Commonwealth needs to serve its constituents. OSD also is keenly aware that these efforts
must be agile to align with the needs of our buying customers today and in the future.
Introducing Category Management
Category Management is the practice of buying common goods and services as an organized procurement and purchasing enterprise to improve efficiencies and effectiveness. Organizations use category management to purchase smarter. It involves breaking down product ranges into discrete groups (product categories) based on similarities, such as type, value, supplier, or location.
Category Management Strategy
Over the last several months, OSD’s Strategic Sourcing Management team has been reviewing our complement of Statewide Contracts with a wide lens, looking to group Contracts into Categories that best align with one another. We pursued this strategy to facilitate comprehensive management of Contract Categories and to create logical groupings to better serve our customers, expand our offerings to meet future demand, strengthen our expertise, and deliver better experiences to our buyer and vendor customers.
The success and effectiveness of Category Management hinge on the seamless collaboration between OSD’s Category Management Teams, industry experts, and the people who purchase. This synergy ensures that Category strategies not only are innovative, but also
practical, sustainable, and aligned with the overall business objectives of the agency. By combining the knowledge and acumen of the three groups, OSD is able to optimize Category Management processes and achieve superior results for our customers’ experience – tailoring and expanding product selection, identifying opportunities to reduce costs, improve quality, and increase efficiency – collectively bolstering the value of our Statewide Contracts.
New Contract Categories
OSD’s Statewide Contract Category alignment launches July 1, 2024, and, with this change, buyers will notice several new Categories, and Contracts that have shifted to different Category designations. To help customers find Contracts that may have moved to new Categories, OSD developed a Statewide Contract Category Crosswalk which lists all Statewide Contracts alphabetically. As of July 1, this resource will be available on OSD’s Find a Statewide Contract User Guide webpage, on COMMBUYS, and linkable within the Statewide Contract Index.
The July 1 Category realignment not only introduces new Statewide Contract Categories, but new Category prefixes, as well. You may be familiar with prefixes that are part of our Statewide Contract naming convention, such as ENE for our Energy Contracts, ITS for IT Software and Services, and VEH for Vehicles. New prefixes include FIN for Financial Services; MRO for Facility Maintenance, Repair, and Operations; and SFC for Sustainable Facilities Consulting Services, for example. The Crosswalk outlines these changes.
Existing Contract Numbers Not Changing!
Contracts that are shifting to different Categories initially will keep their existing Contract identifier (prefix + number, e.g. FAC126). For this reason, a Contract’s prefix may not necessarily match its Category prefix at the time of transition. An example of this instance is the movement of VEH119 Road Salt to the Facility Landscaping (LND) Category. This Contract will retain the VEH119 identifier until it expires and is rebid, at which time it will adopt the LND prefix.
Category Teams
| Category Group | Category Team |
| Facilities General and Office (FAC, OFF) | Amanda Ferdinand and Tanya Reeves |
| Facilities Landscaping and Waste Reduction (LND, WMR) | Sean Corbin and Kelly Minichello |
| Financial Services (FIN) | Kelly Thompson Clark, Camille Clarke, and Gerry Dawson |
| Grocery, Clothing, and Energy (GRO, CLT, ENE) | Michael Barry and Mark Richards |
| Health, Medical, Lab, and Public Safety (MED, PSE) | Camille Clarke and Sloane Young |
| IT Equipment and Telecommunications (ITE, ITT) | Ryan Johnson and Jennifer Canela |
| IT Software and Services (ITS) | Marge MacEvitt and Joshua Flanagan-Lanier |
| Professional Services and Sustainable Consultation (PRF, SFC) | Hayley Lebert and Gerry Dawson |
| Tradesperson and Facility Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (TRD, MRO) | Raydi Soto and Mark Richards |
| Vehicle Acquisition and Vehicle Fleet Management (VEH, VFM) | Kelly Thompson Clark and Nikki Santana |
If you have questions about the new Category assignments, please contact the OSD Help Desk at 888-MA-State (627-8283).
