Project Management – Conducting Procurements
Project Management – Conducting Procurements
By Jason Rich, Northwest University
Conducting procurements is where you sign on the dotted line. By now you should have sent out your request of information, proposals and quotes, and are now ready to choose a supplier or vendor. Often times a bidder’s conference may be needed. A bidder’s conference is a meeting with all of the qualified bidders’ to clarify requirements and let the bidders’ ask any questions that they may have before they submit their bids. From there all the bids will be complied and evaluated by you and your team. The evaluation process can be more formal or less so depending on the significance of the procurement. Often the bids or proposals are weighed against specific criteria that have been set by you and the team ahead of time. Once you pick a winner the contract is awarded. Sometimes there may be a formal appeal process that a losing bidder may initiate, this is uncommon in the private sector but may be in place when dealing with government contracts. After the award, a negotiation process takes place. This is not a negotiation for price or scope but is usually centered around standard contract language used by each company. From there the contract is signed.
Jason Rich was raised in Redmond, Washington. He has worked in facilities management primarily dealing in office furniture installation and office relocation. He got his start in the professional world as a cubical installer at Safeco Insurance and continued to build on his skills as the manager of an install group that was a vendor at Microsoft. Jason has had his hands in many projects and has an interesting ability to see the big picture, even when his role is just a small part of the plan.
Published originally on the Northwest University Project Management blog. Northwest University opened to students on October 1, 1934. It is a regionally accredited institution awarding associate, baccalaureate, and master’s degrees.
Note: Implicit permission was given to republish this post, as the article was not copyrighted.
