How Mesa Public Schools Adopted a Fully Digital Purchasing Workflow

Mesa Public Schools serves approximately 64,000 students at 82 schools, including 55 elementary schools, nine junior high schools, six comprehensive high schools, and several alternative schools.

From In-Person and On-Paper to Virtual

When the pandemic first hit, the largest school district in Arizona did what most organizations did — sent everyone home to work remotely for the foreseeable future.

Mesa Public School District’s purchasing team manages a high volume of bids every month and it is not uncommon for their bids to attract 80+ responses. Michelle Hamilton, the district’s purchasing director, knew they needed to go digital but internal capacity and costs were major concerns to her.

“I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and I have never worked with a company like OpenGov. It has made a world of difference in how we do our daily work. It’s changed my professional life.”

Michelle Hamilton, Purchasing Director, Mesa Public Schools

Ease of Use Imperative for Purchasing 

Mesa Public Schools decided to try out OpenGov Procurement, and the impact was immediately clear. After their first solicitation using the new system, the District’s Assistant Superintendent, who served as an evaluator, called OpenGov Procurement the “easiest software I’ve ever used.” 

Mesa Public Schools was able to implement OpenGov across the District with minimal friction because of the simplicity of the suite. “I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and I have never worked with a company like OpenGov. It has made a world of difference in how we do our daily work. It’s changed my professional life,” says Michelle Hamilton, Purchasing Director for Mesa Public Schools.

Rolling out the suite to the entire team proved painless with simple templates for guiding people through the process of setting up a bid enabled full adoption without mishaps. The team reported that most users were able to figure out how to use the system on their own with limited support, but they did add that OpenGov Support was critical to easing concern over adoption.

Finally, OpenGov Procurement made it easier for the teams to be more strategic and focus on analytics and outcomes, and the team noted that one important attribute is the ability to be more objective by creating a consistent process and questionnaire for the team and the vendors they work with. 

Population
499,720

Agency Type
School District

Annual Budget
$474M

Role
Procurement

Region
Southwest

Solution
Procurement