Yesterday’s PI Window on Business call-in show regarding the recently released Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission’s (JLARC) report on how Small-Medium Enterprise suppliers have been affected by the Commonwealth’s eVA procurement platform provided a few interesting insights relative to communication, pay-to-play fees and the related (and growing) cash surplus.
While the JLARC Briefing highlighted six “key findings,” it would appear that communication is ultimately the linchpin issue, intersecting all of the cited challenges.
For example, the report highlighted supplier concerns relative to the fees that businesses have to pay to participate in the government bid process, as well as the resulting cash surplus said fees produced. However, one caller indicated that the fees would not be an issue if the cash surplus were used to establish better and more consistent channels of communication between the Commonwealth and its supply base.
The need for communication also extended to how the Commonwealth defines or qualifies a supplier as a Small-Medium Enterprise, as well as how the ongoing veracity of the designation for individual vendors is monitored and periodically verified.
This is a telling statement for a number of reasons including the fact that not one member of the large listening audience called-in to either contradict the caller’s expressed position regarding fees nor for that matter even raise the issue of fees and/or cash surplus.
It also substantiates my long held belief (about which I have written extensively) that the collaborative process between stakeholders both within and external to an organization or enterprise is of greater importance than the technologies upon which a procurement program is built. Bill McAneny’s book Frankenstein’s Manager: Leadership’s Missing Links comes to mind here, and in particular his assertion that listening is not a skill that can be learned, but is instead a desire to be pursued – re it has more to do with will than with aptitude or training.
Other interesting insights included the fact that as a Small-Medium Enterprise (SME) supplier’s success through eVA increases, and with it the size of their business they may ultimately end up losing the very classification that created their success in the first place. An interesting by-product (some would say dilemma) of a successful program that will ultimately have to be addressed through an ongoing review of the SME qualification criteria.
Another more subtle trend which came to light, and that many may have missed is what I call the repatriation of the public sector supply base due in large part to the economy. As an example, I refer to the gentleman who indicated that his business serves the automotive industry.
He commented that revenue is way down down as a result of current economic conditions and that government business represents a potentially important source for replacing the lost income. His basis for making this comment is that the Commonwealth will always require school buses and other vehicles to maintain the government infrastructure. Conversely, private citizens do not have to buy a new car and as a result he can no longer look to private industry for sales.
While circumstances within each sector will undoubtedly vary thereby affecting the degree of repatriation, it will still be interesting to see how Virginia as well as other governments respond to this changing composition of their supply bases.
The next step of course is in the hands of the Virginian administrative hierarchy. And while we did not have the opportunity to review each of the six findings at length, the most important result that can be taken away from yesterday’s broadcast is simply the fact that while it is not perfect, Virginia’s eVA is indeed a program that should serve as a model for all supply chain initiatives in both the public and private sectors.
The replay of the live broadcast is available through the On-Demand Icon Player below:
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Procurement Insights 
Ann
August 5, 2009
I am very disappointed in the quality of this article. I read all the comments when you were soliciting them, and I do not think that this reflects those of us who have not been able to break into the system.
procureinsights
August 5, 2009
Thank you for taking the time to write in Ann.
This specific article relates only to the call-in show from the 29th of July when a near record number of listeners were invited to call-in to express their opinion regarding the JLARC Review that was released on the 13th.
I can of course only write about the calls and comments I received on the 29th – which of course is reflected in the piece that you read.
The comments to which you are referring were of course extensively covered in the multi-part JLARC series that ran during the spring in the Procurement Insights Blog.
As you also know we ran a special poll the results of which were also extensively covered in the above referenced series.
So while you may not agree with the article’s coverage, it is nonetheless an accurate reflection of caller opinions. As I had stressed both on-air and repeatedly in the coverage, eVA is not perfect but based on the Legislative Review and the results from the call-in show it would appear that there is a general agreement that the initiative is headed in the right direction.
Thank you once again for taking the time to write in.