e-Procurement & Contract Management: Williamson County, TX goes 100% Digital with Negometrix

FYI: As of Spring 2021, Negometrix is now Mercell

Williamson County is one of the fastest growing counties in the United States of America. In order to compliment its fast-paced growth, Williamson County seeks emerging technologies.

Williamson County Purchasing has used an electronic bidding provider since 2014. The contract was nearing termination date in 2019 and the department was faced with the dilemma of issuance of a new contract with the previous provider or seek a technology solution that more effectively met the needs of the organizational growth. The procurement function is decentralized in Williamson County so department users were included throughout the decision-making and acquisition process to meet both user and Purchasing needs. A Request for Proposals (RFP) for e-Sourcing and Contract Management software was issued in March 2019 that resulted in nine (9) responsive submittals. After a thorough evaluation process that included members from multiple user departments as well as Purchasing staff, a contract was awarded to Negometrix to provide both platforms. The implementation process was timely and efficient which allowed Williamson County to “Go Live” on July 31, 2019.

In the short time since being live with their new solution, Randy Barker, Purchasing Director, and Blake Skiles, Senior Purchasing Coordinator will describe the many benefits the county has realized since moving to a 100% digital solution at the 2019 TxPPA Annual Forum.

A List of Learning Objectives:

From their experiences in implementing a number of technology solutions, specifically e-Procurement & Contract Management (a hot topic in Public Procurement), Randy and Blake will aim to educate all attendees of their workshop the following objectives:

• Creating a digital procurement environment to maximize efficiency between vendors, user departments and Purchasing staff.
• Expanding exposure to vendor community through shared database with other governmental entities to increase supplier participation.
• Movement of existing procurement and contract templates to an electronic environment to increase collaboration between involved parties.
• Development of workflows and approvals to ensure review and compliance with all internal controls.
• Publishing successive stages of procurement activity (from solicitation to contract award) to promote increased transparency and reduce vendor inquiries.
• Increased reporting functionality to capture procurement and performance metrics.
• e-Procurement & Contract Management software implementation expectations

We hope to see you at the conference and our workshop! For more information about TxPPA visit the TxPPA Website.

Visit our Events Page to see when we will be attending a conference near you!