On March 24th, 2014, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts launched COMMBUYS, the Commonwealth's new electronic market center which replaced the Comm-PASS system. All Commonwealth public sector entities are eligible to use COMMBUYS and take advantage of online purchasing from statewide contracts and catalogs, end-to-end online bid management, electronic record keeping, reporting capabilities, and the many other innovations offered by COMMBUYS. In order to help the very diverse set of local buyers and sellers understand how the market center can meet their needs, the Operational Services Division (OSD) has launched a dedicated effort to provide information, demonstrations, and training to interested local government organizations.

As part of our effort to better understand the purchasing and procurement practices of our cities, towns, and schools, including their use of statewide contracts, we partnered with the MA Association of Public Procurement Officials (MAPPO) to distribute a 14-question survey to their constituents. We are grateful to Mary Delaney, Director of Purchasing for the City of Gardner and MAPPO President, for allowing us to tap the expertise of the MAPPO members, and we are thankful to the 62 local purchasing officials who took time to provide responses. We feel confident that this sample of responses represents a true snapshot of the purchasing, procurement, and statewide contract use habits within Commonwealth municipalities.

Here is a sample of the survey results.

·  70% of the municipalities surveyed use statewide contracts; the most commonly purchased items are office supplies and facilities equipment;

·  All of the survey respondents (100%) issue bids/solicitations; 92% issue more than 6 per year;

·  While close to 50% of those surveyed have not attended any COMMBUYS meetings, 75% expressed an interest in learning more about COMMBUYS.

The complete survey results are attached for your review.

These results reinforce our belief that COMMBUYS has the potential to support the needs of local government, and renew our commitment to providing the education and support municipalities may need in determining how best to use COMMBUYS. We have created a Municipal Outreach and Implementation team that continues to work with municipalities, demonstrating functionality and working hand in hand in exploring COMMBUYS adoption. Our outreach strategy includes on-site consultation, adoption analysis, on-site organization setup, training, and ongoing support. Municipalities also have access to a host of online resources, including webinars, webcasts and job aides available on our COMMBUYS website.

Our current outreach program and these early survey results are just the start. It is OSD’s goal to make sure that the advantages of COMMBUYS are shared with all government buyers. To that end, we will continue to work to fully understand the purchasing and procurement needs of local buyers, reflect those needs in ongoing COMMBUYS and contract improvements, and engage with all those seeking to learn about and use COMMBUYS.

Question 1

COMMBUYS offers purchasing entities the ability to customize user access to the system to place orders, so it is well suited to support the kind of decentralized purchasing that 57% of survey respondents say they do. The COMMBUYS Enablement Team can assist local procurement officials complete the set-up necessary to support their decentralized business processes.

Question 2

Current practice reported in the survey indicates that municipalities are not able to track orders through to delivery using current tools. COMMBUYS offers the ability to place and track orders from end-to-end for statewide contract purchases, assuring buyers’ access to pre-negotiated prices and an online record of purchasing transactions.

Question 3

Survey results show that many municipalities use some form of automation for at least a portion of their purchasing activities. As they continue to engage with municipalities, the COMMBUYS Enablement Team is actively seeking opportunities to demonstrate how COMMBUYS can be configured to meet a number of business needs in one system.


Question 4

Survey results indicate that, of those municipalities reporting that they use an electronic purchasing system, nearly half use the Munis platform. The COMMBUYS Enablement Team is working to understand the Munis platform in more depth in an effort to determine the integration potential between Munis and COMMBUYS.

Question 5

Approximately 75% of survey respondents indicated that they do not use an online system to post bids. As a result, they may be running the risk that only a limited number of vendors are seeing and responding to their bids posted in more traditional setting (i.e., in local newspapers). COMMBUYS not only offers buyers a one-stop-shop to post bids viewable to thousands of vendors statewide, it also provides buyers the ability, through use of commodity codes, to target bid posting notices to vendors that have expressed interest in doing business with public buyers in the Commonwealth (by registering in COMMBUYS) and, therefore, are most likely to respond to bids.

Question 6

Survey results indicate that over 50% of respondents post more than 20 bids each year. With that volume, using the bid posting and management features of COMMBUYS could offer a real advantage, as access to more vendors and potentially more bids can help assure local buyers get the best price. In addition, COMMBUYS enables groups to collaborate on bids, so municipalities or agencies have the ability to collaborate on bids to attain increased economies of scale.

Question 7

Most respondents were not able to calculate the cost of preparing a bid, but given the number of municipalities using manual processes, it’s reasonable to assume that the time spent compiling paper bids could translate into significant costs. COMMBUYS enables online bid management, from posting through evaluation to award, providing a complete online record of the process. In addition, prior bids can be “cloned” and re-used for solicitations that are issued on a regular basis, thus saving time and paper.

Question 8

All respondents indicated that they use Statewide Contracts for at least some purchases and buy a range of goods and services. Clearly, many local governments find value in Statewide Contracts, and OSD will continue to seek opportunities to provide contracts that meet the needs of the local buying community.

Question 9

Survey results indicate convenience, reliability, and price advantage are the leading reasons municipalities use Statewide Contracts. These results are confirmation that Statewide Contracts can offer a real advantage to local buyers.

Question 10

While survey responses indicate that most municipalities use Statewide Contracts, the feedback from those who do not use the contracts provides important information as OSD continues to refine and improve Statewide Contracts for all buyers.

Question 11, 12 and 13

OSD is pleased to see the level of interest in learning about COMMBUYS expressed in answers to Questions 11, 12 and 13 in the survey. The COMMBUYS Enablement Team looks forward to connecting with every local buyer interested in learning more.