Even in non-Covid-19 times, procuring and selling technology products and services within the State Health and Human Services (SHHS) Market has become increasingly challenging.
States are constantly pressured with rapid changes in technology, ever-shrinking administrative budgets and federal policy directives mandating (or encouraging) modular, rather than monolithic solutions like in the past in order to shorten the time to production and lessen reliance on a single vendor.
These, and other drivers are requiring states to make substantial changes in the ways they prepare for and procure products and services, often with less progressive, incompatible procurement laws or practices.
In an effort to support our customers with this transformation, the Human Services IT Advisory Group (HSITAG) launched a new Procurement Committee to focus on positively impacting these evolving procurement challenges. A shared vision by both the public and private sector is a clear desire for State procurement efforts to be successful, both in identifying through fair and open competition the right vendor as well as establishing a solid framework that supports a successful project outcome.
The HSITAG Procurement Committee will focus on questions such as:
- What challenges are commonly faced in creating a procurement that will deliver expected goals?
- What is the most effective way to communicate requirements in a procurement?
- What can vendors do to assist states in understanding the range of solutions available and resultant procurement considerations that could be implemented?
- Working within legal guidelines, how can communication between states and vendors before an RFI or RFP is released be maximized for optimal clarity and to result in states receiving the best responses possible from vendors?
- For states that would like to solicit innovation as part of the RFP process, what insights can vendors share to help with the challenges of evaluating innovation?
By bringing together individuals dedicated to improving the procurement experience for both our customers and our companies, HSITAG is excited to be part of a procurement reform movement that brings about improved outcomes! We are striving to identify recommendations impacting broad outcomes such as:
- Increase speed for the procurement,
- Enhance the quality of bids,
- Lower administrative costs, reduce contingencies added to deal with uncertainty,
- Reduce the number of cancelled bids
- Increase the clarity of state procurement requirements to result in better vendor responses
- Improve alignment between delivery methods and required deliverables
This ‘Introduction Blog’ is the first output of this committee, creating awareness, providing education and offering a collaborative platform focused on improving the HHS procurement process. Our next product will be a white paper which will discuss and address the challenges and recommendations in the procurement lifecycle on the broad topics such as:
- Terms and Conditions
- Procurement Methodologies
- Requirements
- Budget Considerations
- Evaluation Processes
- Communication and Notices
- Roles and Responsibilities
The Call to Action in our Procurement Committee invites our state and federal partners to join us in this effort by weighing in to share your thoughts and experiences related to procurement challenges as well as ways to improve the procurement process.
We are targeting a late June delivery of the whitepaper, loosely focused on best practices/potential solutions related to the broad topics above. We encourage your thoughts as part of this effort. Improving procurements in the SHHS market, regardless of your public/private role, is a win/win proposition in our collective efforts to support the needs of and service delivery for our most vulnerable citizens.
