Page 6 - School Planning & Management, February 2018

NEWS & VIEWS
Hot Tips
This Month
Purchasing
STRATEGIC PROCUREMENT
THE BENEFITS OF A STRATEGIC PROCUREMENT
operation can be significant and far-reaching. Here’s are tips to consider when attempting to become more strategic.
Align the goals of your strategic sourcing and procurement function with the institution goals. This is one of the most important things to consider.
Ensure you have a solid Spend Analyt- ics program in place. Understanding, analyzing, and managing your institutional spend is a key component to success.
Develop a strategic sourcing plan. Use your spend data to develop a strategic sourc- ing plan that determines where you’re going to get the biggest ROI.
Establish the right competitive solicitation thresholds. If these thresholds, contract terms, and limits are too low, it restricts the ability of a procurement function to be truly strategic.
Make sure you have an effective e- procurement system or solution. This can significantly improve process efficiencies.
Leverage cooperative contracts and other group purchasing opportunities. Cooperative and/or group purchasing contracts provide significant time savings and financial incentives.
Continue to utilize emerging tools, such as reverse auctions. Reverse auctions bring transparency, savings, and speed to
the bidding process, while ensuring that you receive the best value available.
Review and manage your payment services and processes. An e-payables solu- tion is critical to the success of any procure-to- pay organization process.
Monitor your contract utilization and compliance. You may have great contracts in place, but if there is too much maverick spend and people are not using those contracts, or if your suppliers are not complying with those contracts, then you’re leaving money on the table.
>>Gary D. Link, C.P.M., is senior vice presi- dent of E&I Consulting Group & Contracts. He can be reached at glink@eandi.org.
{ CONT. FROM PAGE 3 }
a panel representing industry experts, administrators and advocates for safe and healthy schools. Institutions will be recognized in the April issues of SP&M and CP&M, on the SP&M/CP&M web- site spaces4learning.com, and featured in future Healthy Facilities Webinars.
In addition, the winner of the Gold Standard of Excellence Healthy Facilities Award will receive a Kaivac Lithium-ion powered OmniFlex AutoVac and a case of Kaivac’s Neutral Floor Cleaner.
For more information, a link to the Healthy School Handbook, and to down- load an entry form, visit spaces4learn- ing.com/pages/hfa/healthy-facilities- awards.aspx.
NFMT Conference Coming Soon
National Facilities Management & Technology-Baltimore (NFMT) is the premier educational conference and trade show in the facilities management industry. Held at the Baltimore Convention Center (March 20-22, 2018), it’s the largest show for facilities professionals in the country.
Currently in its eighteenth year, this year NFMT is proud to partner with the Smart Building Innovations Conference—an event focused on managing intelligent, efficiency, occupant-friendly facilities.
The 125+ scheduled conference sessions continue to be a vital part of the show.
NFMT is free to attend. Your registra- tion includes access to more than 125 edu- cational sessions, entry to the industry’s largest FM Expo, facility tours, and net- working events. For more information or to register, visit www.nfmt.com/baltimore.
Ground Broke for $52.4-Million Addition to P.S. 144Q in Queens
The Queens Borough president, School Construction Authority director, school, principal, elected officials, and represen- tatives of the New York City Department of Education, Urbahn Architects, and general contractor MPCC celebrated the groundbreaking for the P.S. 144Q Colonel Jeromus Remsen School addition. Locat-
ed in the Forest Hills section of Queens, N.Y., the addition will accommodate
the growing enrollment in the elemen- tary school, which currently serves 894 students in grades Pre-K to 5. The $52.4 million, four-story addition will house
26 new classrooms, an entrance lobby,
an outdoor play area, a cafeteria, offices, and a medical suite. The new building’s contemporary architecture will reflect the exterior of the original school erected in 1931. The new building will accommo- date 590 students and address functional deficiencies of the existing school. The addition is designed in accordance with the NYC Green Schools Guide and Rating System. To read more, visit webspm.com/ articles/2018/01/26/ps-144q.aspx.
Groundbreakings Kick Off School Projects for Texas ISD
Teachers, students, and administra- tors held a groundbreaking to celebrate the start of construction for the new Charter Oak Elementary School in Belton, Texas. When completed for the 2019 start of classes, the new 82,300-square-foot Charter Oak Elementary School will
have capacity for 800 students. The new school will be a flexible and adaptable 21st-century learning environment, based on the building program devel- oped through the collaboration between Belton ISD and O’Connell Robertson architectural firm. Belton ISD has been identified as a fast growth school district; the projects are part of their Roadmap to BISD 2025, a 10-year facilities master plan to provide capacity for growth through 2025. In early January, Belton ISD held another groundbreaking to mark expan- sions to Lakewood Elementary School.
To read more, visit webspm.com/ar- ticles/2018/01/26/belton-isd.aspx. SPM
6 SCHOOL PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / FEBRUARY 2018
WEBSPM.COM