procurement discussion for state of maine dhhs joshua broder, ceo, tilson
TRANSCRIPT
Procurement Discussion for State of Maine DHHS
Joshua Broder, CEO, Tilson
Agenda
• My prospective and our experience in this area• Where to focus procurement rigor• The team• A productive process
• Sources sought• Request For Information • Request For Qualifications• Request For Proposals
• Some ideas to make this easier
My prospective
• As a junior Army officer, worked to get the job done despite the procurement process
• As a mid-grade Army officer, responsible for procurements through the federal system
• As the CEO of a technology consulting and implementation vendor, responding to solicitations across many federal, state, and local government agencies
• As a consultant, helping state agencies with complex technology procurements
Representative state projects
• For Commonwealth of Massachusetts, managed bids for $54MM network deployment contract and 10 year network operations contract, project management of $91MM project overall
• Consultant on Maine DOL Workforce & Employment Services Information System procurement, recommended contract termination
• Current projects for Maine DHHS, DOL, and OIT, on staff augmentation contract
• For ConnectME Authority, recently won FirstNet consulting bid
• IDIQ with State of Vermont
• HQ in Portland, many in Augusta• Work nation-wide• 100 employees• Work for industry and
government • IT and business system
consulting and implementation • Get it done and get out guys• Veteran owned business
Where to focus procurement rigor
• Specialty needs vs. commodity• Complexity matters• Size matters • Familiarity matters• Everyone is too busy to find more time on procurement so spend less
time on less important procurements to make more time for more important procurements
A productive process
Sources Sought RFI RFQ RFP
Who How Screen Select
Why all of the steps
• Understand the market before buying• Provide maximum transparency and understanding to vendors• Encourage successful teaming amongst vendors
The team
• Executive sponsor• Business unit owner as project
manager• Technical experts- state (DHHS and
OIT) and consultants • Legal experts- state and consultants• Procurement experts- state and
consultants• The outsider- could be state or
consultant, someone who has ‘been there, done that’
Sources Sought
• Market research on vendor capabilities and interest • Telegraph potential for procurement to industry to get them thinking
about the requirement• Instigates teaming
Request For Information
• When you need more information about • Vendor’s capabilities• Existing products• Suggestions on approaches
• Structured• Consider framework for confidentiality• Telegraph potential for procurement to industry to get them thinking
about the requirement• Instigates teaming
Request for Qualifications
• Winnow the field to focus on a narrower group in the RFP phase• Focus on capabilities and characteristics, rather than price or
approach• Structured• Consider framework for confidentiality• Telegraph potential for procurement to industry to get them thinking
about the requirement• Instigates teaming
Request for Proposals
• Required for purchases over 10k in Maine• Be clear about what risk the department is keeping and what is being
passed to the vendor• Be transparent about evaluation criteria • Explain the situation • Explain what success looks like • Encourage teaming• Complexity costs
Contracting
• Don’t lose leverage during negotiation, ok to start negotiation before final award, watch how vendor behaves during this very telling period• Put it on the clock- for all parties and reengage with executive sponsor
to keep momentum up within the State• Keep runner up available in case you can’t get there with first choice• Take this as an opportunity to check for understanding, make
assumptions explicit• Performance standards and penalties
Can we make this easier? • Bid conferences• Teaming match makers• Know procurement rules• Communicate requirements in business terms and resist technology dogma• Indefinite quantity, Indefinite delivery- IDIQ• Consultants under contract before you need them • Small, easily procured pilot project to:
• Learn lessons• Develop a more tightly scoped project• Try out a vendor before going deeper, and help a vendor better understand the
department and project
• General Services Administration (GSA) State and Local Purchase Program
Parting thoughts
• Bigger vendor not always better vendor• What worked in California not
necessarily right sized for Maine• Many small touches in a
procurement beats a big bang! • Start early, when coming up
against a deadline, state has little leverage and beltway bandits are expensive and not always effective
Joshua [email protected]