CAPPO 2019 Recap and Takeaways

An Emphasis on Improving Current Procurement Practices

Steve Isaac
22 January 2019

Thank you to all of those who helped organize the 2019 CAPPO Conference in Sacramento. The Negometrix team had a wonderful experience, having met countless enthusiastic purchasing professionals from public agencies across the state of California. The Negometrix team began the conference at the golf tournament where we enjoyed some rounds of golf while having meaningful conversations with some of the many conference attendees. Pictured below is a candid shot from the Lunch at the golf tournament, sponsored by Negometrix:

After the golf tournament, the official conference began the following day. The opening session delivered by Darryl Sweet – CAPPO President – was attended by a full room of hundreds of attendees. One of the major takeaways from this session was when the Mayor of Sacramento emphasized that the city has officially adopted a 100% digital procurement solution, and has seen great benefits in doing so.

Opening Session presented by CAPPO President, Darryl Sweet

In addition to the opening session, we attended many of the workshops and presentations throughout the conference. There were many hot procurement topics covered including: collaboration, disaster recovery preparation, green procurement, supplier identification, tracking supplier performance, best practices for offer evaluation, the benefits of e-procurement, contract management strategies, JOC, & more. Here are a couple pictures from some of these workshops mentioned:

Greg Tatar covers how to evaluate proposals. Excellent best practices; Following a structured process an keeping track is essential.
“Every purchase has hidden human health, environmental and social implications” – Opening Quote from Darrin Matthews on Sustainable Procurement
Marcheta Gillespie explains why contract management and supplier performance monitoring matters

Having attended these sessions, we were able to realize the forward thinking and emphasis on improving current procurement practices. The speakers aim to educate and assist their fellow statewide procurement professionals on some of the various new strategies they have tried, what has worked, and how it could work from them.

This was seen multiple times with an emphasis on e-Procurement. Boyd Donovan of the County of Ventura explained how his agency was able to move to a digital way of procurement. He was able to communicate his past pains, such as speed of evaluation, poor visibility, limited supplier reach, too many physical meetings, issuing of RFP’s, and vendor communication. These pains were felt throughout the room, and Donovan was able to prove how e-Procurement fixes these issues, and has brought the County of Ventura a streamlined and efficient process.

The Negometrix team truly had an amazing experience, and we are looking forward to CAPPO 2020 in San Diego!