Interested in Becoming a Lead Partner
Potential Lead Partners are asked to review their planned expenditures over the next six to twelve month period of time. This spending can be the result of capital projects, normal procurement cycles, or upcoming contract expirations that must be renewed or re-bid. Lead Partners provide to Sourcing Office a short list of planned expenditures that meet the following criteria:
-
Large dollar volume
– minimum of $500,000 in Lead Partner annual spend -
Near term procurement
– the procurement process must need to be completed within six to nine months -
Broad applicability
– this spending category is common across multiple entities (either within your immediate peer group or across the public sector)
Sourcing Office will review the Lead Partner opportunities to determine the additional value that aggregation can deliver and evaluate the applicability to other organizations. Souring Office will present its findings with the potential Lead Partner; if both organizations agree to move forward, the following process begins:
| Lead Partner | Procurement Activity | Sourcing Office |
| 30% | Recruit additional participants. | 70% |
| | Develop surveys to distribute to participants. | X |
| | Distribute surveys to participants. | X |
| | Collect and analyze survey results. | X |
| | Identify and hire subject matter expert. | X |
| | Conduct in-depth surveys and interviews to understand Lead Partner and participant needs. | X |
| | Identify and interview potential suppliers. | X |
| | Develop best-in-class specifications. | X |
| | Create RFP package. | X |
| X | Review RFP package and specifications. | |
| | Conduct RFP process. | X |
| X* | Review and score proposals. | X |
| X* | Determine winning supplier. | X |
| | Finalize contract terms with supplier. | X |
| | Develop implementation strategy for initial participants. | X |
| | Oversee program implementation. | X |
| | Develop strategy for growing program participation with municipalities, counties, K-12 districts (public and private), colleges and universities (public and private), and not-for-profit entities across the country. | X |
| | Work with supplier and remaining Sourcing Office participants to implement growth strategy. | X |
| | Manage ongoing customer service issues. | X |
| | Conduct quarterly reviews of supplier performance. | X |
| | Review monthly spending and savings reports and report results back to Lead Partner and participants. | X |
* Lead Partners can be as involved in the process as they choose to be. Sourcing Office Lead Partners have spent as little as 5-6 hours or have been fully involved in every step of the process.