Cooperative Purchasing Lesson Learned and NASPO Support Structures

1. Cooperative PurchasingLesson LearnedandNASPO Support Structures WSCA/NASPO Cooperative Development Team Kathryn Offerdahl WSCA/NASPO Cooperative Development Analyst Paul Stembler WSCA/NASPO Cooperative Development Coordinator Coop Lessons Learned & Support

2. Topics • Lessons Learned Some things we have learned over the last 20 years about creating and managing successful cooperative contracts – not criticisms or complaints, just the facts • Conceptual • Procedural • Reporting • Support What NASPO (and WSCA) have done • Cooperative Development Team • Sourcing Teams Coop Lessons Learned & Support

3. Lessons Learned Looking back at what has gone on and trying to apply that experience to what we do going forward • Conceptual • Things that get in the way, some of them situational and political (covered by Lee) and some are knowledge and understanding • Procedural • Things we sometimes put in the way, without realizing that there does not have to be something in the way • Reporting • Complex and complicated, expensive and necessary Coop Lessons Learned & Support

4. Conceptual 1 • What is NASPO, what is WSCA and how does the whole thing fit together? • More later • NASPO has a cooperative contracting structure designed to encourage, foster, mentor and assist states in creating and using successful cooperative contracts. • More later • It is about working together to create a shared, balanced need. • A balance between “many hands make light work” and “my way or the highway” • Users need to think the “solicitation” is useful, without that we have nothing. Coop Lessons Learned & Support

5. Conceptual 2 • It takes time to create one, following the guidelines is never faster than doing it “our” way, but it is a more effective contract. • The lead state owns the Master Price Agreement, the NASPO Terms and Conditions are intended to act as a bridge between lead state terms and conditions and participating state terms and conditions. • Participating Addenda are intended to allow a state to tune the Master Price Agreement and the NASPO Terms and Conditions to meet the statutory requirements of a specific state. Coop Lessons Learned & Support

6. Conceptual 3 • The lead state contract administrator OWNS the Master Price Agreement, but there is help from a number of sources to support the lead state contract administrator (sourcing team – for fact checking, performance measurement, performance evaluation, on-going administration of the contract; WSCA/NASPO Cooperative Development Team – sourcing team (development, process and activity, approval) and award process (through NASPO Cooperative Committee), participation (eligibility process and tracking), reporting (manage, tracking and manipulating reports), and all other duties requested by the lead state contract administrator. Coop Lessons Learned & Support

7. Procedural 1 • “How did that happen?” (A cooperative contracting opportunity is published, evaluate and awarded before you knew about it.) • “We have a solicitation ready to publish” does anyone else want to use it? Piggybacking is the least effective cooperative mechanism. Coop Lessons Learned & Support

8. Procedural 2 • “Here are our 15 pages of terms and conditions, attach them all to the solicitation.” The concept is to use the Participating Addendum to tune the lead state and NASPO terms and conditions, every repeat of the same requirements in different words is simply confusing. Coop Lessons Learned & Support

9. Procedural 3 • The NASPO Memorandum of Agreement – what does it really mean? • What does “be involved” in developing and evaluating a solicitation mean? • “Here is my current contract, you deal with it.” Coop Lessons Learned & Support

10. Procedural 4 • The same states are always involved. Why is that, how do they do it? • “Who can use a cooperative contract?” Coop Lessons Learned & Support

11. Reporting 1 • “Here are our reporting requirements, make them provide them.” • What NASPO standard reporting structure? • “Column A must be ‘purchase order number’.” Coop Lessons Learned & Support

12. Reporting 2 • Reporting costs money, reporting raises prices. • State admin fees documented in the solicitation are different from state admin fees added after the solicitations have closed. Coop Lessons Learned & Support

13. Support • NASPO – 501(cc)(3) professional association of state chief procurement officials – founded in 1947 • WSCA – 15 of those state chief procurement officials who work together (based on monthly conference calls) on cooperative contracts • WSCA started in 1992, formalized in 1993 • NASPO divided up regionally: Eastern, Southern, Midwestern and Western • WSCA is simply a region plus a couple of states • WSCA’s first cooperative contract failed, but we learned a whole bunch Coop Lessons Learned & Support

14. So What Coop Lessons Learned & Support

15. Cooperative Development Team • 2003 – NASPO Cooperative Committee created and develops first guidelines • 2004/2005 – WSCA agrees to split the admin fee from the PC Contract with NASPO, to provide NASPO a funding source • 2006 – WSCA agrees to fund “cooperative development conferences” as a way of encouraging other regions to create cooperative contracts (first one in November, 2006 in Atlanta) • 2007 – WSCA begins to reimburse the State of Minnesota for half of Paul’s time to support coops Coop Lessons Learned & Support

16. Cooperative Development Team • 2008 – WSCA directors decide that they want more support for both WSCA and NASPO cooperative contracts • WSCA issues an RFP (literally) for cooperative contract support and gets three responses • Decides to accept two of the responses: • Doug Richins (from Utah) to support WSCA • Half time focused on WSCA contract initiation • Kate Offerdahl and Paul Stembler (from Minnesota) to support WSCA and NASPO • “Cooperative Development Team” was created on August 15, 2008 • Full time focused on NASPO contract initiation and supporting all WSCA and NASPO contracts Coop Lessons Learned & Support

17. Cooperative Development Team • And, WE get what? • As much assistance as you want, or need, to develop, create, solicit, evaluate, award, or manage cooperative contracts • It is your (a state’s) call • WSCA does some things differently than other regions (and that is fine) • Key focuses for Kate and Paul are reporting and eligibility – these are two areas where direct effort by the contract lead does not have a huge payoff for a lead state (and, being a team, we can cover lots of ground) • You are not alone, there is help available – most importantly, it is not your fault, these are just complex situations. Coop Lessons Learned & Support

18. Cooperative Committee • In 2007 the NASPO Cooperative Committee approved a series of guidelines for use in creating cooperative contracts. • Among them were: • NASPO Coop Guidelines-Admin Fee and Reporting Requirements-Apr07 • NASPO Coop Guidelines-Budget Creation-May07 • NASPO Coop Guidelines-Budget and Invoice Model • NASPO Coop Guidelines-Check Form and Contract Sales Report-May07 Coop Lessons Learned & Support

19. What did we miss?Other ways we could help?Questions? Coop Lessons Learned & Support

20. Kathryn Offerahl WSCA/NASPO Cooperative Development Analyst General Phone: 612-284-4316 Office Phone: 612-284-4384 Fax: 952-392-4580 kofferdahl@amrms.com wncoopdt@gmail.com Paul Stembler WSCA/NASPO Cooperative Development Coordinator General Phone: 612-284-4316 Office Phone: 612-284-7123 Fax: 952-392-4580 pstembler@amrms.com wncoopdt@gmail.com Coop Lessons Learned & Support