{"id":3046,"date":"2011-03-03T17:21:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-03T17:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/2011\/03\/03\/the-litmus-test-for-spotting-old-school-government-procurement\/"},"modified":"2021-07-01T08:15:29","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T12:15:29","slug":"the-litmus-test-for-spotting-old-school-government-procurement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/the-litmus-test-for-spotting-old-school-government-procurement\/","title":{"rendered":"The Litmus Test For Spotting Old-School Government Procurement"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you may have guessed from previous posts, one of my biggest pet peeves is hearing procurement professionals say things like \u201cThat doesn\u2019t apply to us\u201d or \u201cWe don\u2019t do that here\u201d when discussing procurement best practices. My response is always something like \u201cHow could you adapt it to make it work for your situation?\u201d or \u201cIt\u2019s not a matter of whether you do it, it\u2019s a matter of whether you should<\/em> be doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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One area that I hear a lot of those \u201cdoesn\u2019t apply\u201d or \u201cdon\u2019t do that here\u201d statements is government procurement. While there are certainly some progressive government organizations out there, there are many that are still in the Dark Ages when it comes to modern procurement.<\/p>\n

I was pleased to read an article in the New York Times (hat tip to Dick Locke) where the former deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of General Services called out other states for their poor procurement practices and cited the examples of how Pennsylvania was light years ahead of them in terms of procurement.<\/p>\n

How did Pennsylvania surge ahead?<\/p>\n

They \u201cborrowed an approach used by businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was that approach?<\/p>\n

Strategic sourcing.<\/p>\n

And the results were impressive:<\/p>\n