Procurement's Market Intelligence Partner

The Fairfax County Department of Procurement and Material Management (DPMM) is a full-service department supporting the largest county in Virginia. Procurement staff provide the County Government with overall procurement and material management support and assist Fairfax County Public Schools with contracting, procurement and property management accountability.
 Procurement’s Challenge As a full-service procurement department supporting a large county, the Contracts Division staff can’t be experts in every category they procure. Historically, they have lacked readily available market insights like benchmark pricing, cost structure, market structure and market share.
 Some projects involve categories where competition is scarce or the major vendors are private companies, resulting in a shortage of information. They also encounter certain markets that present unique challenges. For example, the department generally relies on the Consumer Price Index (CPI); however, that is not the ideal indicator for goods and services with unstable prices and the index can be inconsistent with local markets.
 On top of all that, end users often come to procurement with an uninformed view of the goods and services they need. The Contracts Division staff must be able to have objective dialogue about procurement strategies, supported by accurate data, to decide on the best approach.
 Overall, the department strives to provide valuable insight for its stakeholders and is always looking for opportunities to enhance its value proposition by providing solid category information prior to going into a market.
 ProcurementIQ - A Market Intelligence Solution A couple of years ago, the department engaged with ProcurementIQ and was interested in exploring the market intelligence solution. With over <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.procurementiq.com/category-list/" target="_blank">1,000 category reports</a> on nearly every indirect product and service you can imagine, the department had strong expectations on how the team could benefit from a reliable and accurate resource like ProcurementIQ’s <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.procurementiq.com/market-intelligence-united-states/" target="_blank">market intelligence</a>.
 Real World Success Body Cameras The County’s police department was interested in a pilot program for body-worn cameras. They approached the procurement department, where staff quickly realized this was an emerging market and one in which they had no experience. Police department staff communicated to the assigned contract specialist about a single supplier – it seemed they had made their decision prior to approaching procurement. However, using ProcurementIQ’s report on <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.procurementiq.com/market-intelligence-united-states/body-cameras" target="_blank">body cameras</a>, the contract specialist clarified that there are several major players in this space, ensuring the County sought competition as required by law.
 
 
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://content.ibisworld.com/media/wnca4eqe/vendor-table-body-camera.png?width=618.086500655308&amp;height=720" alt="" width="618.086500655308" height="720"> Another key takeaway the contract specialist found in the body cameras report was the fact that they would likely receive promotional pricing from the vendors as incentive to come on board. This makes it difficult to understand the cost and budget impact of a full implementation.
 Beyond that, and perhaps most importantly, the report prompted the contract specialist and the department’s leadership to ask critical questions about total cost of ownership they might not have asked otherwise. They discovered that the bulk of the cost of body camera programs is in data storage, not the actual cameras. Without the ProcurementIQ report, the County could not have projected all cost elements associated with a full implementation.
 While vetting this project, department leadership was involved in meetings with senior County executives.
 
"With the information from the ProcurementIQ report, the County's procurement staff provided value-added support, knowledge and expertise." Public Transit Services Fairfax County DPMM also leveraged ProcurementIQ’s <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.procurementiq.com/custom-research/" target="_blank">custom research services</a> (CustomIQ) on a public transit services project. Transit services is the County’s biggest contract with a lifetime value of over $1B. While the County owns the buses and the maintenance garages, all of the management, operations, drivers and administrative services are provided by contractors. It was important for procurement staff to understand the major vendors that provide public transit services, plus those companies’ cost structure. They were also looking for benchmark prices, pricing trends and key price drivers to help them discover possible areas for negotiation. ProcurementIQ created a custom report, laying out all of these elements and more, so Fairfax County procurement staff could spend taxpayer money efficiently by securing the best contract terms possible.
 
Other ProcurementIQ Benefits
<ol>
<li>The team is consistently pleased with the quality and breadth of ProcurementIQ’s information. They find the reports reliable, comprehensive and current. The ability to pair the ProcurementIQ data with other market research and contract results from other peer jurisdictions positions the County to secure the best pricing, terms and conditions when establishing new contracts.</li>
<li>The department’s ProcurementIQ membership means they can easily share information with program staff outside of the department. For example, it is not unusual to periodically pull reports to send to the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services senior staff to support County environmental initiatives in waste management and recycling.</li>
</ol>
The Fairfax County Department of Procurement and Material Management understands that market intelligence is one way to enhance the department’s value proposition to the County and community and fulfill its role as a strategic partner to its customers. The department’s leadership constantly challenges staff to source smart, understand what they’re buying, realize what’s changed, write the best possible solicitations (meaning: don’t just reissue old ones), and challenge the status quo. Overall, ProcurementIQ has been an important investment for them.

Read about real word success from the Fairfax County Department of Procurement and Material Management, which used ProcurementIQ's Body Cameras report and custom research services.

Boosting Procurement’s Value Proposition with Market Intelligence

"The RFP templates make our process incredibly efficient. I'm an enormous fan of this tool and my stakeholders often comment about the improvement in our process."
 
Jake Alverson, the district’s Director of Procurement, came on board in the fall of 2017, succeeding someone who’d been in the position for 15 years. As Jake started assessing the systems and tools in place for his procurement staff, one of the first things he looked at was the department’s RFPs process. Procurement’s Challenge Jake discovered that the District’s RFP process was inefficient, as is common in many organizations. His staff would receive an email or a Word document from an internal client and procurement would do their best to build that information into an RFP template that was created years before. Since they were using a template, the RFPs had a uniform look, but because the information they received from the stakeholder was not standardized, the resulting RFPs didn’t necessarily capture all of the required information. On top of that, some of Jake’s largest internal customers (departments like Facilities, Technology and Food Service) issued their own RFPs and had done so for years. An RFP Solution Jake knew he had to centralize the RFP process within his department. While it was critical for the stakeholders to be involved in the solicitations, Jake needed his team to be the ultimate driver. So, he signed on with ProcurementIQ to use our web-based collection of RFP Templates\, designed to make RFP writing simple and repeatable. Implementation Was Jake able to pull off this restructuring of the District’s RFP process? The answer is a resounding YES. In the beginning, Jake encountered some minor pushback, but he was able to convince his internal clients to participate in the reorganization of the RFP process.
 With the new resource in place, stakeholders contact Jake and his staff to propose a project. Fortunately, the district’s department leads are experts in their fields, who truly stay up to date on their knowledge. So, Jake and his team collaborate with them to get their general scope of work and to understand how they’d like to evaluate the responses. The end result is comprehensive information that Jake plugs directly into the <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.procurementiq.com/rfp-templates" target="_blank">RFP Templates</a>. The result is a complete document, which Jake formats and sends to the user for review and approval. Results Jake and his internal stakeholders are big fans of the new process that has been facilitated by the RFP Templates collection and they all agree it’s much better than what they used to do. Jake loves that the RFP Templates provide a repeatable standard for all of the District’s RFPs. With the collection of templates, assuming his client gives him everything he needs, he can create an RFP in an hour, which is incredibly efficient. Plus, having that standardized, repeatable result clearly demonstrates that procurement is an advanced and highly professional department.
 It’s not only the District’s staff that benefit from the standardized and comprehensive RFPs. Because the RFP Templates help create RFPs that sequentially lay out exactly what the suppliers need to provide, there is very little room for error. This makes it easier for suppliers to respond appropriately and allows for more efficient evaluation of the responses.
 Overall, Jake and his team at Green Bay Area Public School District have found great success in implementing the RFP Templates and getting procurement staff and internal clients and stakeholders on board. With a passionate ambassador like Jake, it’s no surprise that his department is humming along like a well-oiled machine. We’re excited to hear about his continued achievements.

Green Bay Area Public School District needed to centralize the RFP process, so they signed on with ProcurementIQ for access to 1,000+ RFP templates.

Green Bay Area Public School District & RFP Templates

"The comfortable architecture of ProcurementIQ and the huge number of reports that our students can access across a range of classes means that we've provided a tool with great applicability." –Dennis Flanders, Electronic Resources Librarian at Suffolk University
 
How Students Use ProcurementIQ Students at Suffolk University’s Sawyer School of Business find in-class and real-world applications of ProcurementIQ in a variety of courses, including Marketing, Consumer Insights &amp; Decision Making, Globalization and Entrepreneurship.
 
Using our research, business students will learn fundamentals like how to find time and cost savings, how to reduce risk and how to improve their credibility, which are valuable in any business environment. In addition to learning these essentials, there are many other ways that students use ProcurementIQ. Here are some stand-outs:
<ul>
<li>Save research time by accessing a huge amount of information and data in one easy-to-navigate resource. Our tabbed structure and clear table of contents, consistent across reports, allow students to find what they’re looking for quickly.</li>
<li>Students can explore real-world projects and build business plans for ventures that interest them outside of the classroom – after all, many of them are aspiring entrepreneurs!</li>
<li>ProcurementIQ serves as a reliable, trustworthy resource for students. For example, students use our up-to-date market information to suggest consumer targets or recommend advertising packages to enhance marketing presentations. Figures from tables and charts can even be downloaded for use in student work.</li>
<li>Everyone in the business program, even those who aren’t going into sourcing or procurement positions, needs to understand critical factors that our research presents, like total cost of ownership (TCO), market and price movements, how input costs and external demand drivers affect pricing and why.</li>
</ul>
How Faculty Integrates ProcurementIQ Professors and faculty at Suffolk University have a variety of resources available and they rely on librarians’ expertise to find a database that fits their needs. At Suffolk, the academic librarians repeatedly recommend ProcurementIQ. It provides an easy-to-navigate tool that keeps up with changing economic trends and market factors. We provide real-world data and expertise that exists outside of academia, which is valuable when faculty are helping students understand the benefits of what they’re learning beyond their college classes. All of these characteristics result in a resource that students will actually use!
 
Another element that Suffolk faculty are “over the moon” about is ProcurementIQ’s use of Porter’s Five Forces as a backbone of our research. Porter’s teachings are fundamental to business curriculum, yet most resources can’t match our approach to this critical framework. However, each of our reports address those key forces, meaning professors don’t have to manipulate their curriculum or our research to fit into the model – it’s already there!
 
 
Why Academic Librarians Value ProcurementIQ When looking to provide a new resource for students and faculty, librarians must understand why and how that tool will be used. It needs to be relevant across many disciplines and have great applicability. The resource should be unique and fill a gap that isn’t currently served by another option and ideally, it will complement the other resources already on hand. ProcurementIQ checks all of those boxes.
 
The sensible architecture of our online resource means there is a quick ramp-up for staff, faculty and students, so librarians don’t need to spend a lot of time teaching individuals how to use it. The tabbed structure, the descriptive drop-down menus and the consistent layout create a simple but powerful tool that is relevant across the board for business school classes. All of this adds up to a tool that librarians and electronic resources staff at Suffolk University are confident in recommending to professors and faculty.
 
ProcurementIQ at Suffolk University Finding an easy-to-use and relevant resource that students, faculty and librarians are confident in is no small feat. ProcurementIQ has been integrated into the Sawyer School of Business at Suffolk University in ways that accomplish the goals of the university in educating its students and provide valuable application beyond academia for the entrepreneurs and business leaders of the future.

Suffolk University prides itself on preparing students to thrive in the business world by providing them the education and tools to succeed. That's where ProcurementIQ fits in.

Suffolk University & ProcurementIQ

How Market Intelligence helped Save Money, Reduce Risk and Set Strategy
 
"Sourcing turned to the newly-onboarded ProcurementIQ research to shed new light on various aspects of the sourcing process."
 
Procurement’s Challenge Historically, a leading financial services company contracted with multiple security service partners across ten separate locations through labor and services agreements. In 2015, the sourcing team embarked on a project to consolidate these security services. However, they had limited market intelligence in that category, so the RFP process, internal knowledge and formal negotiations drove the selection and results. The company ultimately contracted with a single provider of security services, centralizing the program and realizing a cost reduction across the enterprise – a big win for the sourcing team.
 
Soon after the contract was signed, the financial services company upgraded its market intelligence suite by onboarding ProcurementIQ research. In 2016, when sourcing partnered again with the security team to revisit its services contracts, they had the benefits of fresh eyes, an established partnership with the security management team and the insights of ProcurementIQ’s independent research.
 
Working together, the sourcing and security teams decided they wanted the new agreement to “better align with Security’s strategic direction, including a greater emphasis on accountability, continuous improvement and efficient use of resources.” In other words, they wanted to set strategy, reduce risk and save money in this service area.
 
Solutions &amp; Results With those goals in mind, the groups identified an opportunity to further improve the security services program by filling service gaps in the single-source contract. However, prior to issuing a new RFP, it was critical for sourcing to document and vet specific requirements, including Service Level Agreements (SLAs), to ensure that the resulting contract would meet the needs of the company across all locations.
 
Sourcing turned to the newly-onboarded ProcurementIQ research to shed new light on various aspects of the sourcing process. The team leveraged a ProcurementIQ report that provided multiple insights into the security services industry, including:
<ul>
<li>Validating major players in the market so the company could confirm that the appropriate firms were invited to participate in the RFP opportunity</li>
<li>Ensuring alignment between the award’s decision criteria and industry standards</li>
<li>Confirming that the vendor response weightings were appropriate for the industry and service</li>
<li>Showing trends across the industry and geographic area, so the team could see how the service trended from one location to another. This certified that the company’s environment reflected the same trends across major locations.</li>
</ul>
Based on ProcurementIQ’s accurate data and insight, the sourcing team made an informed buying decision that resulted in a thoughtfully executed contract that included improved SLAs and performance metrics. The multi-year contract locked in pricing, resulting in lower costs and reduced risk for the enterprise.
 
Summary After a big win in 2015, the sourcing and security teams knew they could take the achievement even further. With the in-depth knowledge provided by ProcurementIQ and the collaboration of the security management team, sourcing helped security set its strategy for years to come. Ultimately, the leading financial services company successfully executed a multi-year agreement with a top-tier national provider, reinforcing their strategy of maintaining a consolidated service provider across many locations with strict service requirements, saving money and reducing risk.

Based on ProcurementIQ’s accurate data and insight, the sourcing team made buying decisions that led to a thoughtfully executed contract that outlined SLAs and performance metrics.

A Leading Financial Services Company Finds Success with Market Intelligence

"RPI’s Procurement Services Department negotiated lower prices, while improving on many of the specifications of the prior years’ contract, culminating in savings of over $100,000."
 
 
Procurement's Challenge The Procurement Services Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) takes pride in acquiring products and services aimed at delivering the best value to campus. It has a staff of strategic sourcing managers who facilitate the procurement of scientific equipment, professional services, technology and everything in between.
 Department staff facilitate the process of purchasing products and services, but they can’t be experts on everything they’re asked to procure.
 Ron Moraski, Director of Procurement Services at RPI, wanted his team to be able to more effectively assist the campus in achieving its goals. He had used market intelligence in the past, so he understood the benefits, including lowering costs (which positively impacts the Institute’s resources) and reducing procurement cycle times. Since Procurement Services manages all RPI purchases, Ron realized that ProcurementIQ’s unrivaled breadth of coverage would be invaluable. He also appreciated that the data and analysis could be used in every step of the purchasing process. Based on the abundant opportunities and applications, Ron brought ProcurementIQ onboard.
 The Procurement Services team saw an impact almost immediately. With each sourcing project, managers gained significant understanding of market dynamics and conditions for new and existing products and services used by the Institute.
 Solutions &amp; Results Reduce costs of an existing program RPI requires students to have a laptop that meets minimum program specifications for their areas of study, so it offers undergraduates the opportunity to purchase a standardized computer from the school. This is a significant up-front expenditure for the university, with approximately 1,600 new freshmen accepted each year.
 In recent years, the resulting costs of these computers were steadily rising. When the sourcing manager questioned this, the vendors suggested that inflation and technology improvements were forcing the price increases.
 Using ProcurementIQ’s procurement research report on Laptop Computers, RPI discovered that the price of laptops was, in fact, decreasing. This key insight prompted the department to invite multiple sellers to participate in a reverse auction for the laptop contract.
 As a result, RPI’s Procurement Services Department negotiated lower prices on the laptops, while improving on many of the specifications of the prior years’ contract, culminating in savings of over $100,000.
 Save time on new purchasing projects Recently, the Environmental Health and Safety Department asked the Procurement team to investigate options for a new chemical tracking system. The staff had limited knowledge of potential vendors and wanted to be sure they performed their due diligence in exploring all options.
 The ProcurementIQ Chemical Management Services report showed the top vendors plus their 3-year market share performances, total revenues, profit margins and financial risk levels – saving the staff hours in research time.
 The sourcing managers also discovered that the number one supplier was an existing service vendor in another category. Using this information, the department could consider consolidating suppliers and negotiating more favorable terms and pricing. Alternatively, they could put the project out to bid, to increase competitiveness and encourage diversity. No matter which option they select, they’ll be on their way to a successful procurement process for a brand-new project.
 Summary Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has its finger on the pulse of technology, research and innovation. The Procurement Services Department will continue to be tasked with sourcing products and services to help the Institute achieve its vision and mission. With ProcurementIQ Procurement Research at its fingertips, RPI’s sourcing team will be able to save time, comply with guidelines and positively impact the Institute’s resources by saving money.

With ProcurementIQ's procurement research at its fingertips, RPI's sourcing team will be able to save time, comply with guidelines and positively impact the Institute's resources.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

This month, we caught up Jessica Leitgeb, Procurement Specialist - Indirect, at Solenis to find out what’s going on in her world of procurement.
 
ProcurementIQ: What challenge(s) do you and your company or department face right now?
 
Jessica Leitgeb: Solenis is owned by the private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier, &amp; Rice, so the company’s challenges in procurement center on outdated and disjointed processes that were carried over from a larger company that we were acquired from. Any way we can streamline vendors and find cost-savings opportunities will also help our marketing and pricing strategies to gain more profitability.
 
We are also a global company, so we’re constantly looking for opportunities to onboard a global supplier rather than having multiple vendors doing the same thing in different regions.
 
PIQ: How does/might ProcurementIQ help you overcome this challenge?
 
JL: ProcurementIQ not only understands our organization’s needs when identifying vendors, but their tools are so time saving in that they provide all the research and analytics for us. Instead of spending hours researching potential vendors for upcoming RFPs, a list is provided with marketplace information to us, along with their risk profiles. Then we just have to make a contact with the company and run the RFP!
 
PIQ: What do you foresee happening within the procurement world in the coming year?
 
JL: More corporate alignment. Procurement systems tend to go for the cheapest option in order to be more profitable. However, there’s a long-term risk associated with this and can devalue procurement’s relationship with other business units who do not have cost reduction as their goal. Now, there’s more of a shift in procurement by becoming more collaborative with internal stakeholders and choosing suppliers that add value to the organization. The success in procurement will lie in the ability to network and strategize together to add more value to the organization rather than simply “cut out cost.”
 
PIQ: Tell us something interesting about yourself (hobbies, experiences, travel, etc.)
 
JL: I have heterochromia – one blue eye and one green eye!
 
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Solenis is a leading global specialty chemical supplier and one of three water treatment companies with a truly global footprint. They have 3,700 employees and 37 manufacturing facilities, which span 118 countries and five continents.

We talked with Solenis about the company's challenges in procurement, which largely center on outdated and disjointed processes.

Client Q&A with Solenis

"The useful content and complex research that ProcurementIQ provides in their reports have proven them to be a valuable and reliable research tool."
–Buyer, Santa Clara County
 
When the Procurement Department of Santa Clara County came to ProcurementIQ, it had some pretty clear goals, like reducing sourcing lead times and creating more effective RFPs.
 
The Procurement Department wanted to create <a rel="noopener" href="http://www.procurementiq.com/rfp-templates" target="_blank">stronger RFPs</a> and address past inefficiencies with vendor and client communication. To accomplish these goals, the Procurement Department knew it would need a central source of timely and incisive intelligence on the products and services it was sourcing.
 
Solutions The Procurement Department found just what it was looking for in ProcurementIQ’s <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.procurementiq.com/category-list/" target="_blank">online library of procurement research reports</a>, which provides convenient access to up-to-date, high-value information on 1,000+ different markets. Santa Clara’s Procurement Department could easily compare suppliers using the list of major players in each report. Researchers have also been able to utilize the reports’ market-specific negotiation questions to help guide talks with potential vendors, as well as the buyer power score discussed at the beginning of each report to give them an idea of where they stand in a market prior to entering into negotiations.
Moreover, the Key RFP Elements section of the report has helped the team create more informed and effective solicitations, and users have gained valuable insight into product characteristics, specifically the chapter sections covering Substitute Goods, Product Specialization, Total Cost of Ownership, Regulation and Vendor Management. With the right report available, the Procurement Department’s researchers have saved countless hours that would have otherwise been spent scouring the Internet and corresponding with vendors and clients to obtain the necessary data.
 Results By cutting out the middleman and limiting researchers’ dependence upon lengthy and possibly biased vendor and client communication, ProcurementIQ was able to shorten the Procurement Department’s sourcing lead time by as much as 50% per project. Some users saved weeks of research, while others reported a reduction of as much as seven months in their average 12-month sourcing process.
 
In one instance, a Santa Clara buyer saved $380,000 by incorporating analysis from a ProcurementIQ report into their process. He started by utilizing data on quality control and other product characteristics covered in the report to add more detailed specifications and key performance indicators to his RFP. With these details in mind, vendors were able to offer more accurate price quotes for their services. He also learned from the Supply Chain &amp; Vendors chapter analysis that the Procurement Department’s current supplier controlled the majority of the market share. With this in mind, the buyer made the current vendor aware that the Procurement Department was putting this service out to bid, pressuring its existing provider to lower prices in order to keep their business.
 
The Procurement Department has since incorporated ProcurementIQ reports into a wide range of its procurement activities. One branch of the Procurement Department, the decentralized procurement team, uses the reports in training presentations for anyone outside of the Procurement Department who must create RFPs to demonstrate how to properly conduct market research, giving employees an idea of what they should focus on when starting a sourcing event.
 
One Santa Clara County buyer commented, “The useful content and complex research that ProcurementIQ provides in their reports have proven them to be a valuable and reliable research tool.” ProcurementIQ research has helped the Procurement Department of the County of Santa Clara capitalize on available opportunities, increase efficiency, and drive the internal value of the procurement function.
 About the Procurement Department of Santa Clara County The Procurement Department of Santa Clara County, California is tasked with aiding all of the county’s branches in the purchase of necessary goods and services. It strives not only to uphold the high ethical and professional standards of their community, but also to provide timely and cost-effective service. That’s why Santa Clara’s Procurement Department is always looking for ways to improve their processes and why they recently sought out research from ProcurementIQ. The Procurement Department has 13 users in its IT and facilities sourcing groups utilizing ProcurementIQ's online procurement research library, helping it cut costs and save time across its operations.

When the Procurement Department of Santa Clara County came to ProcurementIQ, it had some pretty clear goals, like reducing sourcing lead times and creating more effective RFPs.

Public Procurement: County of Santa Clara

This month, we caught up with Suzanne Aquino, Global Category Manager – Outsourcing, Offshoring and Professional Services, at Chain IQ to find out what’s going on in her world of procurement.
 
ProcurementIQ: What challenge(s) do you and your company or department face right now?
 
Suzanne Aquino: As a Global Category Manager, the biggest challenge is to ensure my clients can fully maximize Category Management within their organizations to deliver the value that can be derived from the supply chain. Category Management is crucial for operating a successful procurement organization, but creating innovative category strategies that are both agile and focused on client priorities is an ongoing (and exciting) challenge.
 
PIQ: How does/might ProcurementIQ help you overcome this challenge?
 
SA: ProcurementIQ provides me with truly reliable and extensive market research that gives me necessary insight into the marketplace – what is happening, what is likely to happen, what trends are forming and whether the market dynamics are changing. In particular, ProcurementIQ's reports give excellent benchmarking information and insights into strategic sourcing. I believe it is impossible to run a successful procurement organization without a comprehensive understanding of the market, and ProcurementIQ is a key source for Chain IQ’s data-driven end-to-end sourcing processes.
 
PIQ: What do you foresee happening within the procurement world in the coming year?
 
SA: The current environment of rapidly changing technology, advancing automation and an increasingly customer-led, outcome-driven world challenges even the most advanced procurement organizations. My clients are seeking new ways to continuously create value for their customers, and I think it will be increasingly important for smart procurement organizations to deliver on cost optimization while balancing service delivery, innovation and risk.
 
PIQ: Tell us something interesting about yourself (hobbies, experiences, travel, etc.)
 
SA: Living in New York City gives me the opportunity to pursue my passion for experiencing the arts – I enjoy opera, theatre, concerts and the wide variety of museums that we have here.
 
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Chain IQ Group AG is an independent, global service and consulting company providing strategic, tactical and operational procurement for its clients. Chain IQ operates from four main centers – Zurich (headquarters), New York, London and Singapore – and is currently servicing 13 countries (including China, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia).

We caught up with Suzanne Aquino, Global Category Manager – Outsourcing, Offshoring and Professional Services, at Chain IQ to find out what's going on in her world of procurement.


Client Q&A with Chain IQ

We caught up with Peter Z. McKay, Business Librarian at the University of Florida, to find out what’s going on in his world.
 
ProcurementIQ: What challenge(s) do you and your company or department face right now?
 
Peter Z. McKay: The University of Florida is making a major push to foster entrepreneurship and innovation and take research from the benchtop to the marketplace. Major initiatives include the Innovation Academy; the Innovation Hub; the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation; and the Big Idea Gator Business Plan Competition, which awards over $40,000 in prizes to student teams with the best business ideas.
 
PIQ: How does/might ProcurementIQ help you overcome this challenge?
 
PM: We’ve been a long-time subscriber to ProcurementIQ's excellent market intelligence collection. Last spring, we picked up ProcurementIQ Reports. These reports fill a critical information gap in the B2B space, analyzing price trends on products and services essential for operating a business using Porter’s Five Forces and offering negotiation strategies to obtain the best price. Our entrepreneur students use them to price start-up costs and analyze the market for their business ideas.
 
PIQ: What do you foresee happening in your industry within the next year?
 
PM: Colleges and universities in the United States and around the world are embracing the challenge of educating students to become entrepreneurial and to commercialize university research and technology.
 
PIQ: Tell us something interesting about yourself (hobbies, experiences, travel, etc.)
 
PM: In 1974, my family moved to Costa Rica, started a lumber company, set up a sawmill in Puerto Limón on the Atlantic coast and manufactured lumber for the domestic and export markets. As the only Spanish speaker in the family, I became known as Don Pedro.
 
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The George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida form the largest information resource system in the state of Florida, serving the information needs of a comprehensive research university.

The George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida form the largest information resource system in the state of Florida. Learn how they use ProcurmentIQ's solutions.

Client Q&A with the University of Florida

This month, we caught up with Mike Maguire, Vice President of Strategic Sourcing at Premier, Inc., to find out what’s going on in his world of procurement.
 
ProcurementIQ: What challenge(s) do you and your company or department face right now?
 
Mike Maguire: We are working with our members to help them lower their costs on Purchased Services, which typically equate to 25% of their overall expenses. For many of these purchased services, our members are just beginning to source these categories on a corporate basis, and as a result have very little information relative to pricing benchmarks and the overall health of the competitive market. As many of these categories are not core to healthcare operations, my team and our members are typically not very familiar with all of the nuances of each individual category.
 
PIQ: How does/might ProcurementIQ help you overcome this challenge?
 
MM: ProcurementIQ helps us understand everything about a category, from a general overview to an understanding of subtle details that will influence costs. In addition, the procurement reports are a great resource for helping us educate our members on potential suppliers in a category that they may not have exposure to in the healthcare supply chain. This exposure has allowed us to introduce suppliers that have brought exceptional value to our members over historic incumbents that seemingly had the healthcare market cornered.
 
PIQ: What do you foresee happening within the procurement world in the coming year?
 
MM: In the healthcare industry we will continue to see a greater focus on purchased services expense management. This is an area of spend that has typically not been handled through the corporate procurement group and, as a result, the spend is typically very scattered for multi-hospital systems. In addition, with the creation of bundled payments that force the physician providers and hospitals to accept capitated total payments for certain procedures, we will see greater alignment managing costs by both parties.
 
PIQ: Tell us something interesting about yourself (hobbies, experiences, travel, etc.)
 
MM: As someone that travels quite a bit for work, I enjoy spending time with family on the weekends. While I have lots of hobbies, my family is my true passion.
 
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Premier is a provider of Group Purchasing Services to over 2,400 hospitals across the country. Premier also provides numerous other services to members that can be found on the company website.

Premier, Inc. is a provider of Group Purchasing Services to over 2,400 hospitals across the country. ProcurementIQ asked Premier's Mike Maguire what's going on in his world.

Client Q&A with Premier, Inc.

We caught up with Paula Petersen, Procurement Director at PRIDE Industries, to find out what’s going on in her world of procurement.
 
ProcurementIQ: What challenge(s) do you and your company or department face right now?
 
Paula Petersen: Even as a non-profit, we face margin and cost pressures, as we want to deliver the best value to our customers. For the Procurement Team, this translates to ensuring that we get the best value from our suppliers and sub-contractors. We have found that developing the right partnerships is the key, as well as ensuring that we are leveraging our spend appropriately.
 
PIQ: How does ProcurementIQ help you overcome this challenge?
 
PP: ProcurementIQ helps us by providing a market view of our various categories of spend. This information enables the PRIDE Procurement Team to fully vet potential suppliers and also keeps us informed of the specific marketplaces with which we deal. The ease of use and availability allow us to make the best possible supplier selections.
 
PIQ: What do you foresee happening within the procurement world in the coming year?
 
PP: The digital nature of procurement is accelerating, which gives us the opportunity to better leverage our spend and manage our supply base more effectively. As a performance-driven organization, we are better positioned to keep supplier and procurement metrics and generate significant improvements to information sharing with our sites around the country. All of this greatly improves our efficiency and effectiveness.
 
PIQ: Tell us something interesting about yourself (hobbies, experiences, travel, etc.)
 
PP: I spent nearly 17 years with HP and had the opportunity to travel to more than 40 countries. This gave me a great perspective about cultures, business and life in general. Having joined PRIDE Industries four years ago, I have also come to appreciate the potential of people, especially those with disabilities. Truly, anything is possible!
 
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PRIDE Industries, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit employers of people with disabilities, provides outsourcing solutions that meet the manufacturing and service needs of Fortune 500 companies and government agencies nationwide. As a nonprofit social enterprise operating in 14 states and the nation’s capital, we employ more than 5,600 people, including more than 2,900 people with disabilities.

We caught up with Paula Peterson, Procurement Director at PRIDE Industries, to find out what's going on in her world. We discussed procurement's challenges, digitization and more.

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