Inside Public Procurement: Heroic Stories from the Frontlines – Details, episodes & analysis

Every year, around 3.6 million kids get opportunities to pursue their dreams with the support of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. That incredible impact takes the work of hundreds of thousands of people in more than 5,000 club locations across the country.

Among them, hustling behind the scenes at the national office, is BGCA’s hard-working procurement team led by Director of Procurement, Chris Burton. From large federal grants to generous private donations, every dollar that passes through the BGCA national office is strategically allocated by his team to ensure each club has the resources it needs.

It’s a massive responsibility to bear. But it’s also a big part of what keeps Chris and his team improving processes, strengthening relationships, and striving to be their best every day.

In this episode of Inside Public Procurement, Bonfire host Maria Volakhava sits down with Chris and his colleague Jordan Rodges for a journey into the world of purpose-driven nonprofit procurement.

The pair share their firsthand experience managing procurement at one of America’s top youth organizations—diving into these hot topics, and more:

● What makes nonprofit procurement unique

● The biggest challenges that nonprofit procurement teams face

● How BGCA navigates challenges like vendor diversity, complex contracts, and financial planning

● Managing the ebbs and flows of nonprofit budgets

● Strategies for measuring procurement’s cost-saving successes

Enjoy the show! And don’t forget to connect with Chris and Jordan on LinkedIn.

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

Procurement departments know that federal grants play an important part in achieving their community goals. The good news is that there’s never been more funding to go around. The bad news? Making sure all that money gets to the right places-and stays there-requires a lot of work in the form of reporting and compliance, and the rules are always changing. 

In this week’s episode, we invite you to listen in on a roundtable discussion at the 2023 NIGP Forum, where Stephen Cook from Bonfire, a Euna Solutions brand, sits down with Sherry Weir (partner at Kearney & Company) and Andrew Janos (Director of Procurement and Material Management for Fairfax County) to discuss how you can help your organization stay accountable. 

Hear about: 

• The importance of understanding grant requirements 
• The journey of a federal grant, from “pre-award” to “post-award” 
• The difference between a subrecipient and a contractor 
• How to optimize your grant compliance  

Plus much more! 

• Break down what vendor diversity really means in practical terms
• Learn why vendor diversity is important to fostering healthy competition and vendor transparency 
• Discover the critical steps for launching a successful vendor diversity initiative
• See how to bust down the barriers that prevent diverse suppliers from bidding on government contracts
• Plus, listen in on a Q&A with procurement professionals just like you!

Getting everyone on board with procurement is easier said than done.

All procurement pros face the stigma of “red tape” at one point or another even though we all know how vital the purchasing process is.

What’s the key here? This panel says: education, breaking silos, and good customer service.

Collaboration and education were hot topics at Bonfire’s User Meetup in Austin, TX. On this episode of Inside Public Procurement, listen in on a conversation between:

• Melissa McCord, Senior Contract Administrator and Supervisor, Harris County
• Edward Romero, Executive Director of Operations and Business Services, San Antonio Independent School District
• Annie Collier, Executive Director of Contract and Procurement Services, Austin Independent School District.

Hear their take on improving relationships and educating internal clients, collaborating with other departments to create efficiencies, leveraging the knowledge and experience of other agencies, getting the best outcomes from cooperative purchasing, and so much more.

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

After a two-year hiatus we were finally able to get together in person with our amazing users at an Ontario Meetup. After the last few years of isolation, they had much to say about the importance of coming together to share ideas, celebrate successes and challenges, and problem solve together. And on this special mini episode of Inside Public Procurement, we’re bringing the highlights straight to you!

Tune in to hear from four procurement professionals on the power of collaborating with peers: Michael Alguire, Purchasing Manager, County of Gray; Bhavna Sharma, Procurement Specialist, Laurier University; Jan Oliver, Assistant Director, Strategic Sourcing, Procurement Services, York University; and Tony De Sciscio, Manager, Procurement and Contracts, Toronto Public Library.

Here are some highlights from the session:

· Why it’s so important to make space for procurement professionals to share their experiences

· How insight sharing breaks down silos

· Why a culture of collaboration benefits both procurement teams and the clients they serve

· Bonus: Each panelist shares their favourite sticky takeaway from the event!

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

The transformative powers of technology on procurement is something we’ll talk about until we’re blue in the face—but hearing from the people who are reaping the benefits really puts it into perspective.

On this episode of Inside Public Procurement, enjoy the recording from the case study session we hosted at the NIGP Annual Forum back in August titled “Innovation for Impact”.

We sat down with Cheri Estrada, Director of Purchasing at Tacoma School District; Brenda Byers-Banks, Procurement and Contract Specialist at North Carolina State University; Adam Stearns, Director of Purchasing at Magnolia ISD; and Glenn O’Steen, Manager, Procurement at Columbia County, Georgia.

Listen in as panelists discuss how tech impacts:

• Vendor service, diversity, and engagement
• RFP creation and collaboration
• Evaluations
• Client service
• Cost savings

And much more. Sit back, enjoy, and learn how you can use tech to see similar benefits.

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

Public procurement pros are the champions of creating positive, impactful change.

Every now and again, take a step back and appreciate the ways procurement has real power to make a difference not just for your team and organization, but your community and peers, too.

For Ada County, Idaho, that meant creating a procurement environment that empowered agility, mobility, and a better vendor experience. But, as if creating big internal changes wasn’t enough, Bob Perkins, Ada County’s Procurement Director, led the charge to tackle outdated legislation and introduce a new state bill that benefits all Idaho public agencies through cooperative purchasing.

Cooperative purchasing in public procurement can make a world of difference—especially for smaller agencies. The little guys gain more purchasing power and all participating agencies can breeze through procurement since all the heavy lifting is already done. For everyone, it means negotiating lower prices and gaining the ability to be more frugal with taxpayer funds.

On this episode of Inside Public Procurement, we sit down with Bob to talk about being the driving force behind switching to paperless procurement and creating a bill that would allow Idaho public agencies to leverage cooperative contracts. We also discuss how both he and his team at Ada County are always working to improve their processes, create a better experience for vendors, and advocate for cooperative purchasing.

Have questions? Reach out to Bob at bperkins@adacounty.id.gov

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

How often have you heard procurement described as the “department of no”?

To your internal clients—who want their goods and services purchased yesterday—the systems and processes you’ve put in place to ensure a fair and transparent process sometimes just look like red tape.

But forward-thinking purchasing teams, like the one at San Bernardino County, are changing the narrative.

In this episode, we sat down with Michelle Churchill and Bruce Cole, Supervising Buyers at San Bernardino County.

At over 20,000 employees, Michelle and Bruce serve a huge internal client base. And they’ve made it their mission to shift their agency’s perspective of procurement, once seen as a roadblock, now established as a trusted and strategic advisor to their organization.

In our conversion, hosted in-person at this year’s NIGP Forum in Boston, Bruce and Michelle tackle topics such as:

• How manual errors and RFP addenda eroded trust with internal clients and vendors
• How procurement technology has freed up the purchasing team’s time to get out of the weeds and think more strategically
• The importance of user-friendly software to ensure buy-in from evaluators and vendors

Connect with Bruce at bcole@pur.sbcounty.gov and Michelle at Michelle.Churchill@pur.sbcounty.gov.

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

Have you ever met someone who grew up wanting to go into public procurement? When all of their friends were dressing up as doctors and firefighters for Halloween, they came as a purchasing agent? Us neither.

Hardly anyone actively seeks a job in public procurement; you just kinda fall into it.

So whether someone is coming to the procurement department from finance, public works, planning, or even fresh from school, the field of public purchasing can be a bit overwhelming to say the least. Procurement is a whole new, scary world complete with a new language, processes, rules, and tools. What’s a newbie to do?

One thing that public procurement doesn’t get enough credit for is how friendly and helpful the community is. Procurement pros are always ready to share their knowledge, experience, and advice to help others.

For Keith Allen, Senior Buyer at Jackson County, Missouri, leaning on a mentor and his peers has been one of the most crucial parts to him finding his rhythm in public procurement.

Not only that, as a fresh mind in the department, Keith identified a lot of opportunities and helped the County ditch dozens of drawers of paper records, among other innovations.

Keith sat down with us at the NIGP Annual Forum in Boston to talk us through his transition into procurement from finance, advice for new procurement pros, the power of new perspectives, and the best way to make seafood pasta.

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.

New technology can be scary to a lot of people which is why digital transformation can be a huge deal in an organization—especially in public sector agencies where tech is notoriously lagging.

Leading a new software implementation doesn’t start with technical things, it starts with the very human elements. Getting people on board with change is one of the hardest parts of the implementation process and involving your team in the transition right from the beginning is a winning strategy.

On this episode of Inside Public Procurement, we sat down to chat with Kyle Jurgens, Category Specialist in procurement at the University of Saskatchewan. Kyle received the Leadership award—nominated by multiple colleagues—in this year’s Bonfire Procurement Awards after successfully leading the implementation of eProcurement at USask.

Kyle shares his wisdom on leading change in your organization, what engaging stakeholders and obtaining buy-in looks like, and why procurement digital transformation is a team sport.

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to Inside Public Procurement on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or gobonfire.com/podcast.

Listening on a desktop and can’t see the links? Just search for Inside Public Procurement in your favorite podcast player.