Contract Insights

Government supply chain management is a multi-faceted, involved process – including the handling of RFIs, RFPs, and RFQs.  Supply chain RFx management responsibilities may include accumulating vendor proposals, collecting quotes to compare vendors and contractors, establishing a database of vendors and contractors, signing off on approvals before selecting them, managing contracts, and much more.  Handling these different tasks with separate manual processes can make for a disorganized approach that can potentially lead to lost opportunities, supply chain lifecycle bottlenecks, improper vendor and contractor selection, wasted time, and revenue loss.  Luckily, integrated contract management software solutions can help.  Here are three ways to improve government supply chain RFPs.

As the end of the traditional local government fiscal year draws near, city, state, and other public agencies must make sure that they are leveraging their budgets by investing in software tools for streamlined, robust, and transparent contract management, purchasing, and sourcing for current and future needs.  Here are five tools that can be used for simple, user-friendly, and powerfully integrated government contract management, procurement, and sourcing processes.

DBE supplier tracking becomes easier when the right tools are in place.

Whether you’re a local municipality, city, state, or federal agency, chances are you have a goal defined for awarding contracts to disadvantaged business enterprises (DBE). Government agencies operate on “good faith” that they will make the conscious effort to consider these businesses when awarding new contracts. The problem, like managing any other contract, is the work involved to ensure that all criteria is being met and certifications are processed.

Why Communication can Make or Break a Successful Acquisition and Improve Contract Management

Improving Contract Management is not an easy process. There are numerous steps that are involved with the acquisition process. From identifying the initial needs, all the way down to monitoring performance once a contract has been awarded will require multiple people – sometimes from different departments – to get involved. If too many people are contributing to the acquisition process, but aren’t making the effort to communicate with one another internally then the process can be unsuccessful from the start. This creates a communication gap. Not only is effective communication imperative to a successful acquisition process and improving contract management, but an open dialogue with the industry and potential vendors is too.