Decisions That Matter: A Public Procurement Podcast

On this episode of the Decisions that Matter Podcast, we are sharing a conversation between Procurated Founder and CEO David Yarkin and Ken Hess - Deputy Secretary for Procurement for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Together they discuss the trends that procurement professionals should be aware of when purchasing for Fleet!

As part of our recent buyer survey we took a look back at the procurement landscape in 2022. Our respondents shared their biggest challenges, from supply chain disruption to staff turnover. We dove into the issues and some potential solutions for tackling them. Take a look at the full report. This podcast is brought to you by Procurated, the first supplier evaluation and vendor management platform created exclusively for public sector purchasers.

Procurated’s Denitra Gober is joined by Kerry Kirkland, Pennsylvania’s Deputy Secretary for Diversity, Inclusion and Small Business Opportunities for a conversation on the ways that government can better engage the supplier community. The discussion covers ways that agencies can use grassroots organizations, community engagement and sheer determination to overcome obstacles and create a procurement process that is inclusive, expansive and fortified in supporting historically underutilized businesses.

Procurated’s founder and CEO, David Yarkin, sat down with Jack Pitzer, a public procurement legend whose career began in 1966 and spanned more than 40 years, to discuss the evolution of procurement during his tenure, and what it means for the future. Jack worked in two state procurement offices (and was the CPO of IA) and ran procurement for a university and a large local government. He was a leader in National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO), becoming its president in 1984. To understand the future of procurement we must understand the history that has brought us to the point where we are today. Jack provides context and insight into the decisions that have led to our recent transition to a more digital world and an emphasis on technology, collaboration, and communication.

Becca's goal is to elevate the role of public procurement by bringing buyers together on the Procurated platform and making it easy for them to share insights and find great suppliers. She leads the product, design, engineering, marketing, and community functions for the company. Together, her team discovers new ways to solve user problems, builds innovative solutions, and develops creative strategies to drive engagement with the government and supplier communities served by Procurated. Before joining Procurated, Becca led product management at Xometry, a custom manufacturing marketplace. Earlier in her career, she served in technical project management and business development roles at Politico, a leading digital news outlet. Michael Derr joined the Procurated team as Community Engagement Manager in 2021 and is excited to bring to the Procurated Team his 25 plus years of experience and wealth of knowledge to the Procurated Team in supporting the needs of our clientele. Prior to joining Procurated Michael worked as the Contracts/Purchasing Officer for the County of Monterey, where he was directly responsible for the following operations: Contracts/Purchasing, Fleet Operations, Records Management, Mail Operations, as well as the oversight of two Food Service Operations and one Daycare Center. Jenny Doherty joined the team in July 2022 as the Vice President of the Community Engagement team, where her mission is to serve government customers by giving them a voice in the supplier performance process to inform purchasing decisions. Jenny has a broad breadth of public procurement experience in both state government and higher education. As the Chief Procurement Officer for Pennsylvania, she saved over $100 million in year one and implemented technology innovations and private-sector best practices to streamline the RFP process and created transparency and efficiency with a new e-procurement solution (Jaggaer). She also recognized the value of commercial feedback and brought together suppliers and purchasers for the Commonwealth’s first Supplier Forums. As the Director of the Shared Services Procurement group at the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), Jenny was a thought and change leader and transformed the siloed university procurement teams into a unified commodity-based shared services team. In parallel, she implemented SAP Ariba to make PASSHE a leader in higher education. Prior to joining PASSHE, Jenny led Amazon Business’s State Government sector, where she brought together state governments, purchasing cooperatives, and the digital marketplace to drive best-value procurement. Jenny started her procurement career as an entrepreneur with FreeMarkets in Pittsburgh, PA. John Walters joined the Procurated team as Community Engagement Manager in 2022 and is excited to bring to the Procurated Team his 24 plus years of experience in enterprise software and public procurement. Prior to joining Procurated, John was a co-founder of Periscope Holdings, a leading e-procurement solution for state and local governments. At Periscope, he led the development of the BuySpeed product, executing 4 statewide e-procurement implementations. He also led the NIGP Code and NIGP Consulting groups within Periscope. He is an author on procurement topics and a frequent speaker on public procurement best practices.

Darin Matthews is a procurement and supply chain leader with over 3 decades of experience. He has published several books on supply chain management including Effective Supply Management Performance and Public Procurement: A Guide to the Body of Knowledge through Exercises and Case Studies. He is a past President of NIGP and currently serves at the Chief Procurement Officer at CalPoly. On top of her over 4 decades of experience as a Procurement leader with the State of South Carolina, Norma Hall is past president of NIGP, as well as a past president of her local chapter. She has served for 12 years on the board of the Universal Public Procurement Certification Council, she has been recognized with the James H. Barnes Award, Albert H. Hall Award, and the Mazzone Award. To learn more about Procurated's Community Leadership Forum click here.

Procurated's Genna Gold is joined on this live webinar recording by several highly respected education purchasers, including: Jayme Baker,Carol MunroeKevin Walters, The webinar covers a variety of important topics specific to the education market including the unique buying cycles of higher education and K-12, trending goods and services, and more. This podcast is brought to you by Procurated, the first supplier evaluation and vendor management platform created exclusively for public sector purchasers. If you have a supplier that you love, or one that you want to warn other purchases about, you can write a review in 90 seconds at www.Procurated.com/review.

On this episode of Decisions That Matter, Procurated Founder & CEO, David Yarkin, interviews Deltek's Paul Irby to get his thoughts and understand the data behind the biggest trends impacting cooperative purchasing. Paul Irby is a Principal Research Analyst on Deltek’s SLED Market Analysis team. Learn more about how GovWin IQ enables companies to identify early stage opportunities, plan strategically, build relationships and navigate the competitive landscape. This podcast is brought to you by Procurated, the first supplier evaluation and vendor management platform created exclusively for public sector purchasers. If you have a supplier that you love, or one that you want to warn other purchases about, you can write a review in 90 seconds at www.Procurated.com/review.

Throughout his career, Dr. Gordon has worked to increase the contribution of public procurement and contract management to the strategic management of public enterprises at every level of government. He served as CPO to multiple local governments, led NIGP as the National President, received the Institute's two highest individual awards, and has made a huge impact in education and research. Dr. Gordon is focused on helping state and local governments and institutions achieve their enterprise goals by providing guidance, counsel, and training that enables their procurement and contract management functions and team members to contribute strategically. In addition to strategic public procurement and contract management, his specific areas of expertise include performance-based contracting, internal and external collaboration, and leadership, ethics, and accountability. This podcast is brought to you by Procurated, the first supplier evaluation and vendor management platform created exclusively for public sector purchasers. If you have a supplier that you love, or one that you want to warn other purchases about, you can write a review in 90 seconds at www.Procurated.com/review.

This episode of Decisions That Matter features an in-depth interview with IT Software & IT Service procurement expert, James Crenshaw. James has been with the District of Columbia, Office of Contracts since 2019, where he joined after 4+ years with the City of Atlanta in Georgia. He also serves as the Vice-President of NIGP's Washington, DC Chapter. On this episode, you will hear James discuss the 4 Key Elements of Complex Software Procurements: This podcast is brought to you by Procurated, the first supplier evaluation and vendor management platform created exclusively for public sector purchasers. If you have a supplier that you love, or one that you want to warn other purchases about, you can write a review in 90 seconds at www.Procurated.com/review.

We are pleased to bring you the key trends and takeaways from the CAPPO Conference, along with some great stories from our team’s time in California last week. The Procurated team covers a range of topics from the importance of building a strong community and lasting relationships with suppliers, to trends in hiring and technology adoption. This episode includes stories and advice from the following Procurated team members: David YarkinMichael DerrEllen SiglLucas Austin This podcast is brought to you by Procurated, a free, peer-to-peer supplier review website for public procurement practitioners.

This episode of Procurated's Decisions That Matter podcast is brought to you by Gordian. Gordian is revolutionizing the construction industry with data software, and expertise. On this episode, we are joined by: Andrea S. PatruccoAna-Maria Dimand, Ph.D.Randy Horn Together, they share the recent results from a study they completed in tandem with the NIGP: The Institute for Public Procurement. You can access the Full Study here, as well as a slide on JOC Benefits and Time Savings mentioned in the show. Also, be on the lookout at the end of the episode for a short, 7-minute segment with Michael Derr, about his time using Job Order Contracting for the County of Monterey in California.

On this episode of Decisions That Matter, we are joined by several leaders from the DC Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE), including: David EpleyKatie BergfeldNicole Goines This in-depth discussion goes into the agency's overall mission, DOEE's plans for use of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, the creation of a new retrofit accelerator program, and much more. Throughout the conversation, they emphasize the importance of working together as a team, collaborating with other government agencies, and communicating regularly with the end-users that are able to use their programs for to reach a variety of positive outcomes. This podcast is brought to you by Procurated, the first supplier evaluation and vendor management platform created exclusively for public sector purchasers. If you work with a supplier that you love, or one that you want to warn other purchases about, you can write a review in 90 seconds at www.Procurated.com/review.

This week, Angelic Davis joins the show from Mt. San Antonio College in California where she is the Director of Purchasing, Printing and Mail Services, Fiscal Services Department. Angelic shares details about her journey through public procurement, her experience standing up COVID-19 testing in her first days on a new job, and the importance of building a trustworthy network of procurement peers. This podcast is brought to you by Procurated, the first supplier evaluation and vendor management platform created exclusively for public sector purchasers. If you have a supplier that you love, or one that you want to warn other purchases about, you can write a review in 90 seconds at www.Procurated.com/review.

On this episode, we sit down with Shuli Steele to discuss workplace optimization in the public sector, and its implications on employee engagement, retention, efficiency and overall profitability. The workplace has evolved over the years, and there are many reasons for that evolution, but not all have led to positive outcomes or a more productive workforce. Listen to hear Shuli explain how you can adjust your government office or higher ed / k-12 set up to give people the best environment to excel. This podcast is brought to you by Procurated, the first supplier evaluation and vendor management platform created exclusively for public sector purchasers. If you have a supplier that you love, or one that you want to warn other purchases about, you can write a review in 90 seconds at www.Procurated.com/review.

On this episode, we are joined by Alyssa Kenney, the Director of Digital Access for the Public Service Commission (PSC) of Wisconsin. Her mission to bring high-speed broadband internet to the people that need it most, across the state of Wisconsin, is truly inspiring. She discusses the challenges that come with working in both densely populated cities and more spread out rural areas, and she shares details about how they allocate funds to different regions and projects. This podcast is brought to you by Procurated, the first supplier evaluation and vendor management platform created exclusively for public sector purchasers. If you have a supplier that you love, or one that you want to warn other purchases about, you can write a review in 90 seconds at www.Procurated.com/review.

This episode of Decisions that Matter, a Procurated podcast, features a great conversation with Mike Derr about the ins and outs of transforming a fleet division by using data to its fullest capacity. Michael recently joined the Procurated team after running Contracts and Purchasing for over 20 years for the County of Monterey in California. Decisions That Matter is brought to you by Procurated. For a limited time, Procurated will donate $5 to NIGP's Membership Scholarship for every supplier review that our listeners write on Procurated.com, so visit the site today and share your experiences working with local suppliers to help fund NIGP Memberships for at-risk members.

This episode of Decisions that Matter, a Procurated podcast, features an incredibly insightful discussion about transitioning to a green fleet with Mark Stevens and Alison Kerstetter from the City of Sacramento in California. Together, they discuss how Sacramento’s sustainability policy has impacted the city’s push for a green fleet, how they get buy-in from local agencies, how they standardize and build an infrastructure to support green fleet, and finally, how they take full advantage of the cooperative purchasing options at the state and national level. Decisions That Matter is brought to you by Procurated. For a limited time, Procurated will donate $5 to NIGP's Membership Scholarship for every supplier review that our listeners write on Procurated.com, so visit the site today and share your experiences working with local suppliers to help fund NIGP Memberships for at-risk members.

This episode features an interview with Chris Yarbrough from the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT). Chris shares several actionable pieces of advice from his years in procurement about how to effectively create a new, centralized procurement division from scratch, and how to excel by being agile when the plan has to change due to unforeseen events like the 2020 pandemic. Decisions That Matter is brought to you by Procurated. For a limited time, Procurated will donate $5 to NIGP's Membership Scholarship for every supplier review that our listeners write on Procurated.com, so visit the site today and share your experiences working with local suppliers to help fund NIGP memberships for at-risk members. Hope you enjoy this episode, and have a great day.

On this episode of Decisions that Matter, Procurated CEO and Founder, David Yarkin, and co-host Bernadette Launi, sit down with two of the most innovative procurement leaders in Pennsylvania, Jennifer Olzinger, the Assistant Director and Procurement Manager for the City of Pittsburgh, and Trevor Day, the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Philadelphia. They share their experiences working in public procurement in the age of COVID, and they tackle important topics like sustainability, social responsibility, the realities of working in centralized vs. decentralized governments, and much more. Decisions That Matter is brought to you by Procurated. For a limited time, Procurated will donate $5 to NIGP's Membership Scholarship for ANY supplier review written on Procurated.com, and there is no limit to the number of entries, so visit the site today and share your experiences working with suppliers to keep one of your peers from losing their NIGP membership.