Case Study
“With OpenGov Procurement, we’re hearing so much more positive feedback about the system from vendors like how it is easy to use and user friendly… The system walks them through step by step. “ - Jenn Myers, Procurement Manager, City of Tuscon, AZ
Let’s face it; procurement processes are too often subject to criticism. As the City of Tucson’s Procurement Manager, Jenn Myers, puts it, a process described as endless, slow, and daunting by both staff and suppliers can look like “a black hole.”
“Every time I go to a conference, that’s a topic of conversation…‘How do I convince them that we, [procurement professionals], are here for a reason? That we are a partner?’” said, Myers.
Voted NIGP’s Young Professional of the Year in 2020, Myers changed the narrative. With a focus on buyer, customer, and supplier experience, Myers redefined the City’s procurement process as innovative, thoughtful, and efficient.
Myers jumped on an opportunity to invest in procurement processes when the City implemented a new ERP system. The City gave Myers the option to integrate procurement with this new system or seek out a different tool and take the lead on the implementation and training.
While ERP systems historically have worked well for finance departments, Myers knew the City’s new ERP lacked tools specific to public sector procurement.
“As we explored more and did the research, we learned it made the most sense to move forward with the package deal with OpenGov Procurement because it really offered everything that we wanted and everything we need to move forward with efficiencies at the city,”
Jenn Myers, Procurement Manager, City of Tucson, AZ
Myers led the City in implementing OpenGov Procurement: a solution tailored explicitly for public-sector procurement and contract management.
Population
520,116
Agency Type
City
Annual Budget
1,400,300,000.00
Role
Procurement
Region
West
Solution
Contract Management
Procurement
One of the biggest challenges to an efficient procurement process is the number of stakeholders involved.
“It was a lot of back and forth with a Word document,” said Myers. “You just hoped you would catch every change.”
Finger-pointing led to a lack of trust and internal alignment between the procurement department, contractors, and other departments involved in a purchase cycle. But this wasn’t because Myers didn’t communicate; in fact, she created 60+ page manuals with correlating pictures and still faced questions and complaints from internal suppliers.
With OpenGov, the City said goodbye to mile-long email threads, paper-based manuals, and “he said, she said” blaming. With dialog surrounding a purchasing decision consolidated into a single platform, communication is more organized, and stakeholders are held more accountable.
“There was always that lack of communication, and now we can track who it’s with, what it’s waiting on, and be able to see when was the last time somebody logged in and looked at it, or have they logged in and looked at it?” said Myers.
Myers also states her relationship with internal stakeholders is now “positive.” So much so that stakeholders in other departments are going out of their way to complement the new and improved process:
“I wanted to give you (Procurement) huge kudos for this amazing procurement portal. It is clean, nice, easy to navigate, and access to all vendor info.”
Karla Victoria, Staff Assistant
Myers has also seen improvements in onboarding staff. With step-by-step guidance led by a team of former procurement professionals, both staff that migrated from the old system and ones that started in OpenGov quickly became “excellent” at OpenGov Procurement, said Myers.
“They are excellent at the system. [Staff] have been able to help us make even better efficiencies even since we implemented to be able to push this even further along,” said Myers.
Suppliers often deal with a variety of factors when it comes to procurement: unmanageable deadlines, stagnant communications, and fed-ex delays. Myers said she received complaints of submission portal crashes and password reset issues with almost all of her solicitations.
“With OpenGov Procurement, we’re hearing so much more positive feedback about the system from vendors like how it is easy to use and user friendly… The system walks them through step by step,” Myers said.
Myers expects even more improvements derived from positive conversations with stakeholders as she continues to develop the system.
“We are still rolling out many pieces, and everything we have rolled out already has gotten great feedback both internally and externally.”
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