Being a better buyer, and a better seller

What can vendors do to work better with the government? And how can the government change the ways it procures so the best solution gets into the hands of citizens quickly? These questions are the elephant in the room of many IT projects—and this workshop looks at how to address them. In a unique format combining the private and public sector, we’ll examine changes to procurement and procedure, the balance between DIY and off-the-shelf solutions, and how to ensure the right product or service bets built without creating expensive one-time services that can’t be maintained or scaled.

Questions our presenters will respond to:

1. How can government be a better buyer?
2. How can the private sector be a better seller / provider?
3. What new processes (open/agile procurement, bidding on problems rather than licenses) exist?
4. How does on-demand (clouds) change procurement?
5. Why shouldn’t Government treat SaaS the way they treat battleships?
6.What are the major barriers to suppliers preventing them from selling to the government?
7. How do we make procurement about the best solution that will be supported for a long time, while not excluding smaller players?
8. How do we focus procurement on providing a needed solution to deliver a service, rather than buying technology?
9. When does government build things that compete with the private sector? (Parking apps, tax filing tools) How does this affect the public/private sector dynamic?
10. What are some of the best practices that exist in other large public sector organizations?

Participants will get a sense of what current roadblocks to federal procurement exist, where procurement is headed (e.g. Agile), and what sore points continue to hinder both the buyers and sellers. Speakers will provide examples of new tools and procurement procedures, best practices in other public sectors and will explore how to develop procurements where both SMEs and multinational corporations can compete in fair, open and transparent processes.