This Procurement Council Work Group consists of the previous members of the New York State Forum’s Committee to Streamline IT Procurement which was created in December 2001 and designated as the Procurement Council’s IT Work Group at the Council’s May 2001 Meeting. The strategies for improving IT procurements included in the Procurement Council’s Strategic Plan for this objective were developed by The Forum’s committee and were derived from numerous suggestions made by the Forum’s Executive Committee membership.
Gregory M. Benson, Jr., NYS Forum, Work Group Chair
Walter Bikowitz, OGS
Gail Croteau, OMRDD, Representing state agencies
William Cunningham, CGI, Representing The Forum’s IT Corporate Roundtable
Jerry Lipfeld, OSC
Ginny Miller, DOB
Paula Moskowitz, OGS
Suzanne Nelson, OGS
Joan Sullivan, OSC
Deirdre Taylor, DOB
Ruth Walters, OSC
Susan Zeronda, OFT
The following represents key notations of progress made on each of the strategies identified in the Procurement Council’s Strategic Plan under Objective III:
Streamline and consolidate IT non-service contract guidelines to build consistency across the variety of existing contracts.
Lead Work Group Member Reporting Progress: Walter Bikowitz, OGS
BACKGROUND:
Beginning in early Spring 2002, OGS and OSC, under the auspices of the Forum's IT Procurement Workgroup, began a study of the various contract usage guidelines for OGS Technology Contracts, with a goal of simplifying the guidelines and making them more consistent wherever possible.
Summary of Progress to Date:
OSC and OGS reached conceptual agreement on new guidelines in time for the Purchasing Forum in May 2002.
In August 2002, a formal announcement of the new guidelines was distributed by the Forum, ICEDP and through the OGS Purchaser Notification System using various e-mail distribution lists.
The following changes have been made to the guidelines:
a. One set of guidelines was developed for six technology areas. They include Microcomputers (PCs), Printers, Software, Networking Hardware and Software, Interactive Voice Response Systems (IVR) and Video Conferencing Systems. The new guidelines were based on the Microcomputer contracts.
b. OSC prior approval of agency purchases for the above contracts has been removed (this step had already been accomplished for PCs and printers). Agencies are required to have a procurement record for purchases over $50,000 and OSC will conduct a post audit of all purchases over $50,000.
c. For contracts where the 20% rule applies (i.e.: contracts where the purchase of services, without competitive bidding, is limited to 20% of the initial total order price of product and first year's maintenance), services above the 20% may be purchased under the OGS contract for single or sole source procurements only, provided prior OSC approval is obtained. Agencies are no longer required to do a separate agreement or obtain a Contract Reporter exemption, since the purchase is made under the OGS contract. Agencies are encouraged to add additional terms to the OGS contract, if necessary, to address specific performance standards, etc. Services above 20% that are not single or sole source can and should be competitively procured through the OGS IT Services contracts.
d. Currently, purchasing guidelines for each contract are found in the individual Contract Award Notices (CAN). As guidelines evolve over time, they are implemented in new contracts prospectively moving forward. This has often resulted in confusion as to why some contracts for the same technology (e.g. printers) have different sets of guidelines. OGS plans to have Contract Award Notice "How to Use this Contract" instructions point to these new guidelines. What this means is that in the future, when OGS updates contract usage guidelines, contracts will automatically be updated with the new guidelines, since the CAN will point to the new master guideline instead of each CAN having its own individual guideline.
CURRENT STATUS:
1. The new guidelines are on the OGS web-site effective October 2002.
2. All Contract Award Notices for PCs, Printers, Software, Networking Hardware and Software, Interactive Voice Response Systems (IVR) and Video Conferencing Systems point to the new guidelines.
3. The simplicity of pointing to one set of guidelines has already proven itself since several edits have been completed already.
NEXT STEPS:
1. Obtain feedback on the new guidelines.
2. Make improvements where possible.
3. Update and integrate Key Systems, Digital Centrex, Systems and Peripherals, Telecommunications Services and, finally, PBX and IT Services over the next 6 months.
BACKGROUND:
As an initial effort of The Forum’s Committee to Streamline IT Procurement, work related to this strategy commenced in early 2001. The key objectives of this initiative are to:
· Implement a Standby Agreements procurement option under the IT Services backdrop contracts
· Implement the ability for customers to process single/source source requirements against the backdrop contracts
Summary of Progress to Date:
Numerous meetings and documents have been developed and exchanged hands over recent months in an attempt to develop procedures that would result in achieving the two objectives. The work has focused on developing guidelines that address the objectives and on developing a project template to be completed by agencies. It is now intended to use one example (that being pursued by DOT) as a “test case” for the guidelines and procedures that have been developed to date.
CURRENT STATUS:
The following documents have been drafted:
NEXT STEPS:
Develop alternative models to the current “design/build”
approach for large systems acquisition
Lead Work Group Members Reporting Progress: Susan Zeronda, OFT and Joan Sullivan, OSC
BACKGROUND:
This initiative also commenced in early 2001. Efforts are designed to address the convergence of the “stovepipe” approach to better reflect overall agency business management and service delivery. This convergence has led to situations where the acquisition of large IT systems design, implementation and maintenance services has become more common. The objective of this strategy is to develop a more comprehensive approach to large system acquisition. An approach that entails the vision of the entire process. At present, section 163A of the State Finance Law prohibits downstream involvement by design contractors.
Summary of Progress to Date:
A number of models have been reviewed and work of this sub-group included a teleconference call with the CIO of the State of Georgia. Georgia has a process that does enable continued involvement of a design contractor in the role of maintaining quality assurance and benchmarking.
CURRENT STATUS:
Though there is selected pursuance of alternate strategies for addressing the design/build issue, the subcommittee felt that a comprehensive agency approach to the issue is an important first step. Therefore, a paper is being drafted by OFT that walks an agency through a process for defining the existing technical environment, the business processes, the new system functional performance requirements and the new system technical requirements. The paper will also contain a section related to suggested strategies now in place, the nature of agency internal controls and suggested sources of assistance with the process.
NEXT STEPS:
OFT plans to have this paper available in the next several weeks. It will be reviewed by the IT Workgroup and plans developed for making it widely available to state and local agencies.
Create a Directory of existing agency-specific IT
contracts
Lead Work Group Member Reporting Progress: Jerry Lipfeld, OSC
BACKGROUND:
Work Group members felt that sharing information related to IT contracts would facilitate and speed the procurement process for everyone. Moreover, such a directory would provide a way for agencies to pursue information about IT approaches and strategies being deployed by others and could lead to collaborative working relationships and/or cooperative procurement efforts.
Summary of Progress to Date:
A number of approaches to this problem and its beneficial outcomes have been explored, not excluding the possibility of incorporating this effort with larger efforts to organize contractual information.
CURRENT STATUS:
A meeting was held between OFT and OSC Systems in September and as a result:
NEXT STEPS:
Explore more creative ways to include additional IT items and services on state contract.
Work Group Member Reporting Progress: Paula Moskowitz, OGS
BACKGROUND:
More comprehensive IT
items and services on state contract would contribute to the efficiency, ease
of procurement and more easily achieve the benefits of aggregated purchasing.
Summary of Progress to Date:
National surveys have
been reviewed for implications as to how New York might contribute to achieving
this strategy. Most recently, a
teleconference call was held with procurement staff of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts to explore their team approach to the development of IT
procurements.
CURRENT STATUS:
As is the case with other
states, agreements were reached with Massachusetts that projected procurements
would be shared before their launch to enable the two states to explore
cooperative efforts. This addresses
filling IT gaps that may exist and potentially leverages volume pricing
significantly.
NEXT STEPS:
OGS is considering
working with the Western States Contracting Alliance on the development of
their second generation IT hardware contracts.
Such multi-state collaboration will facilitate the development of
comprehensive contracts with the best possible prices, with the advantage of
the workload being spread among many states.
Strategy #6
Establish comprehensive solution-type contract strategies and models with guidelines that help agencies proceed through a procurement decision.
Work Group Member Reporting Progress: William Cunningham, CGI/IT Corporate Roundtable
BACKGROUND:
Business problems nearly
often require a solution that is now governed by multiple contracts and
procedures. IT procurements can be made
more efficient and brought into better alignment with business goals if full “solutions”
can be more easily procured. The
objective of this strategy is to develop guidelines for such a
solution-oriented IT procurement model.
Summary of Progress to Date:
A committee headed by
William Cunningham of CGI has met several times to explore how a
solutions-oriented IT procurement model might be configured and what the key
considerations should be. These meetings
included one with the NYS Office of Mental Health and one with the NYS Division
of Housing and Community Renewal. A
paper reflecting the outcomes of those deliberations has been produced.
CURRENT STATUS:
A conference call on IT procurement issues and strategies was conducted in October with John Kost of Gartner. The purpose of this call was to gain from his particularly broad experience and seek his suggestions related to this strategy and the broader topic of IT procurement practices and systems.
NEXT STEPS:
·
The insight
gained from the conversation with John Kost has led to the Work Group
recommendation that Mr. Kost be invited to specifically address the concerns of
those working on this and related strategies.
The Work Group recommended that this presentation be arranged as soon as
is possible and that the members of the NYS Procurement Council be invited
along with members of The Forum’s Executive Committee, the Council’s IT Work
Group and other interested Work Groups.
A presentation is being arranged and efforts will be made to accommodate
as many persons as would like to hear Mr. Kost. It is intended that the Work
Group will build an enriched discussion and identification of options from the
presentation that Mr. Kost makes and pursue the development of an action plan
that stems from those options.
·
As a result of
the initial discussions with Mr. Kost, the Work Group will be exploring a possible
review of the procurement statutes so as to determine how aligned the
procurement processes are with what is required in law. This potential review will be discussed with
the Albany Law School’s Center for Law and Government in December.
Additional Strategy
Aligned with the NYS Procurement Council’s Objective V-B,
Strategy #2, the IT Work Group has been
pursuing the possibility of basic IT
procurement education materials in multi-media formats. Early work on this strategy included a review
of a sampling of the materials currently
being used by agencies for educating their staff.
More Recently:
·
All
presentations from the May 2002 Procurement Training Forum are now available on
the OGS public web site. In addition,
OGS presentations at the October 2002 IT Symposium are available on the public
web site.
·
OGS
experimented with videotaping a session at the May 2002 Training Forum and
while this format was not determined to be as viable as had been hoped, copies
have been requested by at least one agency.
·
In October
2002, OFT, in collaboration with OGS, held two days of IT contract training, including a focus on negotiation
Next Steps:
·
OGS is
evaluating a procurement training CD developed by Alaska for distance learning
delivery. Alaska has provided detailed
specifications for development of the CD and the feasibility of preparing a
similar CD for New York is being reviewed at present. The Work Group will now develop the
framework, scope and sequence of the content of the material that would be included
on a CD. That discussion will take place
in December.
·
In 2003, OGS
plans to demo a training module provided by the National Institute of
Governmental Procurement (topic to be determined).
·
The May 2003
Procurement Training Forum is being expanded to include, on Day 1, State
contractors. In addition, local
governments will be invited to visit contractors on the afternoon of Day
1. Day 2 will focus on State agency procurement
training and may include, in collaboration with OFT, an IT track.