Involved in the government procurement process...this column is for you!
by Mary Scott Nabers
CEO of Strategic Partnerships, Inc.
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For the last 14 years, Strategic Partnerships, Inc. (SPI) has worked with private sector firms interested in capturing more government contracts. SPI's procurement consultants spend lots of time explaining the culture of public sector organizations.
The SPI experts are good at what they do because they all spent decades in government and they have a complete understanding of the culture, processes, procedures, expectations and more. They also know how to communicate with governmental officials and have lived in the political environments that are common to public institutions.
By helping clients understand public sector issues, government processes and protocol, SPI has been successful in providing great benefit to many of the world's largest government contracting firms. And, in the last five years, SPI consultants have traveled throughout the country providing this same type of knowledge transfer to private sector firms interested in understanding government officials better.
Recently, an interesting thing happened. SPI was asked to develop a curriculum that would share knowledge about the culture and expectations of private sector government contractors with public officials involved in the procurement process. The caller explained that it seemed appropriate to help procurement specialists, government legal teams and contract managers (all of whom have an interest in good contracting partnerships) understand the for-profit corporate world better. At a time where public private partnerships are becoming more the norm, government officials see a desire to understand as much as possible about selecting, communicating and building strong relationships with private sector partners.
The caller offered others from the government world to serve as a focus group to help SPI consultants understand what government officials wanted included in the curriculum. It seemed like a great idea and the SPI team began working on a program designed to help the two diverse cultures communicate and understand each other better.
Elsewhere in this newsletter is an announcement about the first workshop for public sector procurement officials. The new program is being launched and all government procurement specialists in Texas are invited to attend. SPI has also managed to obtain training credits for participants.
The curriculum for the workshops - scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 23, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Wednesday, Oct. 21, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. - was developed by SPI's team of veteran former government executives who have lived and worked in both cultures. The sessions promise to be lively, fast-paced and interesting. The planned result is that participants will leave with a much better understanding of how to attract better competitive contractors and how to manage partnerships once contracts have been signed.
SPI consultants will share their knowledge about corporate issues and concerns that can become "deal breakers" for what would otherwise be attractive partnerships. The sessions are aimed at providing valuable insights into the vendor perspective of the entire procurement process as well as the ongoing relationship once a contract is signed.
Having partnered public and private entities for the last 14 years, SPI has many "lessons learned" and "best practices" to share with procurement professionals.
With money to spend, government entities will continue to encounter more vendors and service providers who are new to government contracting as well as seasoned contracting firms eager to increase their government footprint.
It is reasonable to assume that the more public sector procurement officials understand about potential contracting partners - the better the working relationship will be for both in the future.
For more information regarding the upcoming workshops, click HERE.
