PED Talks: March 8, 2018

Mikki Sandin Author

03/15/2018 Added

85 Plays

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March PED Talks recording from Zoom.

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[00:00:00.370]Okay, good morning!
[00:00:01.490]Thank you everyone for joining us,
[00:00:03.070]whether you're in person or on Zoom.
[00:00:06.070]And I think Sara put a message out there
[00:00:07.450]if you have any questions throughout the morning,
[00:00:09.900]feel free to type those into the chat on Zoom.
[00:00:13.590]My name is Mikki Sandin
[00:00:14.920]and I'm the project coordinator at procurement.
[00:00:16.890]I just want to
[00:00:19.142]tell you who all is here today from Procurement
[00:00:21.420]'cause we'll kind of have a different group each time.
[00:00:23.410]So we have Julie Hopp and Julie Snyder
[00:00:27.030]and Jessica Mehrhoff, they're all with the contract team
[00:00:29.840]so they're our featured speakers today.
[00:00:32.720]Sara Luther and then also Nicole McCoid
[00:00:35.330]is in the hall there and Maggie Witt
[00:00:37.830]our director or Vice President of Procurement
[00:00:40.090]is here as well, so.
[00:00:41.600]Thanks everybody.
[00:00:42.680]I just wanted to show you a couple things real quick
[00:00:44.440]and then we're gonna turn it over to the contract team.
[00:00:46.300]So this is the procurement website.
[00:00:49.240]And since last time under support
[00:00:51.810]we have added a page for PED Talks.
[00:00:54.520]So whenever you need information about PED Talks
[00:00:57.300]you can go right here.
[00:00:58.760]And it talks about joining it,
[00:01:00.200]it talks about completing our survey.
[00:01:02.130]Thank you all who did complete the survey this last month.
[00:01:05.680]And,
[00:01:07.120]we will have a new survey up again,
[00:01:09.400]oh I don't have it ready, but I'll do another one
[00:01:11.120]for this month. (laughs)
[00:01:12.719]And then we have our registration,
[00:01:15.710]the event details obviously will change each month.
[00:01:18.180]You can add it to your calendar, register and then
[00:01:22.520]join us by Zoom which a lot of you have
[00:01:23.647]already used I believe.
[00:01:25.310]And also then if you want to watch the past PED Talks.
[00:01:28.620]So here's the one from February, our initial kick off.
[00:01:32.750]So I don't know has anybody in the room watched that one,
[00:01:35.480]or were you all here last month?
[00:01:37.823](laughs) Okay, well.
[00:01:41.090]Anyway if you ever have to miss one
[00:01:42.900]then you always know you can catch up with us, so.
[00:01:45.440]Again thanks for everybody being here
[00:01:47.650]and come up to the contract screen.
[00:01:52.070]I'm Julie Snyder,
[00:01:53.520]formerly known as Julie Dexter.
[00:01:55.570]Kind of like Prince I had a former name.
[00:01:58.620]Anyway, I'm the contracts manager for procurement contracts.
[00:02:03.000]And we've put together a little show for you today
[00:02:07.550]that talks, hopefully kind of to
[00:02:10.590]some of the survey questions that we got back.
[00:02:13.170]It was great to get the feedback that we did.
[00:02:15.590]All right so here are the three amigos.
[00:02:18.650]Myself, Julie Snyder, Julie Hopp,
[00:02:21.480]and our newest member, Jessica Mehrhoff.
[00:02:25.620]We are the contracts team.
[00:02:27.310]Julie works primarily on non-IT contracts.
[00:02:31.260]And Jessica's focus currently is with IT contracts.
[00:02:36.620]And I kind of work wherever I'm needed.
[00:02:40.960]One of the things we'd like to draw your attention to
[00:02:43.250]and I hate putting a lot of web addresses
[00:02:45.400]and links and PowerPoints.
[00:02:47.464]It's kind of a moot point,
[00:02:48.470]but this sort of an important one.
[00:02:50.740]So if you have a contact that you need to have reviewed,
[00:02:55.950]if you'll send it to this email box,
[00:03:00.010]it will be attended to promptly.
[00:03:05.570]All three of us have access to this email box.
[00:03:09.510]Maggie has access to the email box,
[00:03:11.330]I think Mikki do you?
[00:03:13.120]So if the three of us hit the Powerball tomorrow
[00:03:15.920]and we decide not to come in,
[00:03:17.140]those two can work from the email box.
[00:03:19.638](everyone chuckles)
[00:03:22.740]Yeah. (laughs)
[00:03:24.990]Okay, so one of the big things I guess that we got,
[00:03:28.850]one of the big questions in the survey,
[00:03:32.020]had to do with they didn't understand
[00:03:35.634]why we had to got through this process
[00:03:38.500]for signing contracts, for even reviewing contracts.
[00:03:41.790]Anybody heard of signature authority?
[00:03:43.780]I know most of you have because I've seen your faces,
[00:03:46.580]I know who you are, so.
[00:03:48.400]You guys are the ones that are our
[00:03:50.790]star players within contracts.
[00:03:53.650]But did you know that signature authority
[00:03:56.210]isn't just some random thing that's passed down?
[00:03:58.600]It's been decided by the Board of Regents that
[00:04:03.040]who gets to sign.
[00:04:04.890]It's delegated down from the top Board of Regents
[00:04:08.250]to the chancellor, to the vice chancellor
[00:04:10.500]and to the director of procurement,
[00:04:13.640]vice president of procurement and then on down.
[00:04:17.460]So very few folks within the university system
[00:04:22.490]have the authority to sign.
[00:04:24.970]We do see a lot of signatures going on,
[00:04:27.340]not so much anymore, but every now and then
[00:04:29.560]we will see the rogue
[00:04:33.890]accounting assistant or whoever who decides to
[00:04:36.760]rent the Quest Center over in Omaha
[00:04:39.080]for however many hundreds thousands of dollars.
[00:04:42.420]So we have to educate folks.
[00:04:46.550]Expenditure contracts, which means contracts
[00:04:49.270]that are actually being paid out of the cost object,
[00:04:52.940]have to follow the Decision Tree.
[00:04:54.500]And I'll show you that in a minute.
[00:04:56.610]But all fee for service.
[00:04:58.120]So especially over in IA & R,
[00:05:00.200]you folks probably have seen or deal with
[00:05:02.990]what we call revenue contracts,
[00:05:04.690]where there's money actually coming in
[00:05:06.850]to a cost object, as opposed to going out.
[00:05:10.070]All of those need to route through procurement
[00:05:12.560]and all of them have to route
[00:05:14.210]to procurement for signature.
[00:05:17.240]There is no threshold by which folks can sign
[00:05:21.600]on incoming revenue.
[00:05:23.260]It all has to come through procurement
[00:05:25.970]and sometimes has to go up to the
[00:05:27.580]vice chancellor for signature.
[00:05:29.640]Most of the time we can handle it.
[00:05:32.310]Questions?
[00:05:34.180]Okay.
[00:05:37.320]This is the lovely Decision Tree.
[00:05:39.460]This is out on our webpage.
[00:05:43.329]And basically, you know its kind of small font,
[00:05:47.030]but I did want to just point out two things
[00:05:49.780]about this slide.
[00:05:51.270]So the diamonds are the decisions.
[00:05:54.670]And basically if you're wanting to know about
[00:05:58.160]dollar amount or term, length of time of the contract,
[00:06:02.880]you should be able to find it here.
[00:06:05.710]Which then will point you in the direction
[00:06:07.810]that you need to go, based on dollar amount
[00:06:11.170]and length of time of the contract.
[00:06:14.530]So I'm not gonna read through all of it,
[00:06:16.520]we'll look at the top one.
[00:06:17.530]It says, is the contract
[00:06:19.460]less than $5,000 and less than one year,
[00:06:23.560]or one year and less?
[00:06:25.000]And if the answer is yes,
[00:06:27.220]then your department head or chair can sign.
[00:06:31.160]Now just because your department head or chair can sign
[00:06:33.590]doesn't mean that we wouldn't take a look at it
[00:06:35.960]if you didn't want us to.
[00:06:38.170]So, sometimes folks will get maybe,
[00:06:41.140]you know a 10 or 15, or 30 or
[00:06:43.620]like Maggie and I've been looking at
[00:06:45.020]the last couple of weeks
[00:06:45.920]the box contract which was 147 pages or something like that.
[00:06:50.490]And you don't really know what you're looking for,
[00:06:52.910]you can send it to us and we will review it.
[00:07:00.950]Okay, so I wanted to just show,
[00:07:02.950]'cause there's been some confusion I think in the past,
[00:07:06.110]and we haven't done a training session in awhile.
[00:07:09.050]So,
[00:07:10.280]the time has come.
[00:07:12.300]I don't know why those blue marks are on there,
[00:07:13.940]but that's okay.
[00:07:15.210]So this is a workflow.
[00:07:18.692](laughs)
[00:07:21.600]Up at the top round
[00:07:24.220]little shape it says, contract template
[00:07:26.380]selected and completed.
[00:07:28.530]So somebody comes to you and says,
[00:07:29.787]"We want to enter into a contract
[00:07:31.747]"with x-y-z company."
[00:07:33.980]And your first job is gonna try to get them
[00:07:36.860]to use our paper.
[00:07:38.520]So you're gonna select the contract template.
[00:07:41.030]Julie's gonna talk about templates in a little bit.
[00:07:43.810]But in this case let's just make it simple and say
[00:07:45.970]that we're gonna spend money on a contract.
[00:07:49.090]So you pick the template out of the boxed account,
[00:07:52.530]and we always want to use the boxed account,
[00:07:54.660]because contract standard language changes
[00:07:58.380]from time to time.
[00:07:59.660]Sometimes more often than others.
[00:08:01.810]That way you'll have the most current version.
[00:08:05.150]You're going to complete the template
[00:08:06.680]and then you're gonna send it to that
[00:08:09.180]Outlook email box that we talked about earlier
[00:08:11.410]for contracts to review.
[00:08:14.770]Now here's a decision, here's where we have
[00:08:16.840]our first crossroads.
[00:08:18.950]Either everything looks great
[00:08:20.950]and procurement can approve it
[00:08:21.987]and we can get signature on it,
[00:08:24.590]or maybe there are some edits that are required.
[00:08:27.720]And this is gonna happen more often if we're using
[00:08:29.880]the supplier's paper instead of ours.
[00:08:32.760]So negotiation may need to start.
[00:08:35.530]And one of the things that I would like to stress is that
[00:08:38.360]if we can, if we, meaning procurement contracts
[00:08:42.630]is given the opportunity and is provided with
[00:08:47.260]the names of the folks that are on the supplier's
[00:08:51.430]side that we can work with to negotiate and do these edits,
[00:08:54.750]then that will make things flow a little smoother
[00:08:57.740]and a little faster, generally speaking.
[00:09:00.670]So the edits would be required.
[00:09:02.790]And then once the edits and the negotiation is complete,
[00:09:06.720]then we both end up down here where it gets
[00:09:08.840]routed and Docusign for signature.
[00:09:12.920]People familiar with Docusign?
[00:09:15.400]Folks have seen it, it is very slick.
[00:09:18.400]It's nice because you can set it all up
[00:09:20.450]so that once the last signature is done,
[00:09:23.410]everybody that needs a copy of that
[00:09:26.306]signed contract will have it.
[00:09:30.590]The next step, and Julie's gonna talk about this
[00:09:33.670]in a little bit too,
[00:09:35.000]is expenditure contacts need to be uploaded
[00:09:37.970]to the State's website, per LB 429.
[00:09:42.900]Revenue contracts do not need to be uploaded,
[00:09:45.130]but expenditure ones do.
[00:09:48.270]And then here's the biggie, work can begin.
[00:09:51.910]Get the contract signed and down before the works starts.
[00:09:54.900]You know it doesn't always happen that way,
[00:09:56.240]but that's the ultimate goal.
[00:10:00.890]All right.
[00:10:02.520]So put your contract on the fast track.
[00:10:06.510]Include us from the very beginning.
[00:10:09.270]So if you kind of wait until,
[00:10:11.410]say for example, oh I don't know the work ended last week,
[00:10:14.500]but you got the invoice and you need to pay it,
[00:10:17.825]that's not the optimum way to do business.
[00:10:20.270]I think everybody in here would agree
[00:10:21.780]and I know that most of you don't, that's not usually
[00:10:26.280]resting on your shoulders to make that call.
[00:10:30.440]But anyway if you include us from the start
[00:10:32.343]then we can help you to do the best
[00:10:35.240]where it can get the most bang for your buck
[00:10:36.800]out of your contract.
[00:10:39.020]Use the procurement Outlook email box.
[00:10:43.080]If you use the approved templates and you complete them
[00:10:47.012]before you send them to us
[00:10:48.780]then we won't have to back and forth
[00:10:50.410]and that will streamline the process
[00:10:52.030]and make it a little quicker too.
[00:10:55.300]And with your contract templates,
[00:10:58.810]or even if you're using the supplier's paper,
[00:11:01.810]please include all of the pertinent documents,
[00:11:04.550]the scope of work.
[00:11:06.240]Maybe a certificate of insurance.
[00:11:09.900]Signature pages, whatever it is that you've got.
[00:11:13.030]Terms and conditions that the supplier might require.
[00:11:17.900]Because,
[00:11:20.330]one of the things that I want to stress is that
[00:11:23.400]when we are looking at these contracts and reviewing them
[00:11:26.970]we're assessing a couple of really important things.
[00:11:29.470]And one is the risk that it is going to
[00:11:32.940]put the university in the position of,
[00:11:36.020]that has to do with dollar amount,
[00:11:37.950]that are has to do with a lot different things.
[00:11:40.180]But it could be Jessica's very well versed in this
[00:11:44.349]IT stuff, anything that touches our system.
[00:11:47.900]You know we want to be able to be sure
[00:11:49.820]that when we get that contract document done
[00:11:52.460]that we're in a good partnership with our supplier
[00:11:54.537]and that everybody's happy, the risk is minimal,
[00:11:58.270]and the benefits are great.
[00:12:01.950]So.
[00:12:04.250]Quotes, scope of work.
[00:12:06.510]In some cases if you have a purchase requisition number,
[00:12:09.710]that's important to include as well.
[00:12:13.480]Does anybody have any questions yet?
[00:12:17.612]Okay.
[00:12:22.650]Yes, yes.
[00:12:37.790]All right, so a question that we had from online is,
[00:12:41.480]when using the supplier's contract
[00:12:43.390]is the Board of Regents addendum always required?
[00:12:50.440]It's not always required,
[00:12:52.720]but we use it as often as we possibly can,
[00:12:55.960]because it has the required language in there,
[00:12:59.410]that general counsel, legal, has
[00:13:03.380]written up for us.
[00:13:05.690]It is negotiable.
[00:13:08.920]However, it's good cover for basic terms and (audio skips)
[00:13:13.100]our relationship, the relationship between the supplier
[00:13:16.590]at the outside source and us.
[00:13:18.900]So it's (audio skips), yes Maggie.
[00:13:27.180]I think there are some terms within there,
[00:13:29.020]that may not be negotiable.
[00:13:30.980]Yes. Okay.
[00:13:31.850]I'd like to clarify those.
[00:13:32.930]Yeah, there are terms in there
[00:13:34.330]that are non-negotiable, but there are terms in there
[00:13:36.720]that we can negotiate.
[00:13:39.390]It's kind of interesting though,
[00:13:40.670]I think probably the majority of times that we
[00:13:43.870]put that little addendum on a contract,
[00:13:47.850]for whatever reason, most suppliers are okay with it as is.
[00:13:53.030]And we'll take that and run with it.
[00:13:55.200]'Cause it says right at the top that our terms rule.
[00:13:57.763](laughs) So.
[00:13:59.270]Maybe they're not reading it, I don't know.
[00:14:01.560]Okay, let's see if this thing will work.
[00:14:03.860]There we go.
[00:14:05.240]All right!
[00:14:06.160]So we talked a little bit about templates.
[00:14:08.100]And I'm gonna turn this over to Julie Hopp
[00:14:09.810]and she's gonna visit with you a little bit more.
[00:14:21.237]Actually I don't have (voice fades).
[00:14:23.560]In some cases it's pretty obvious when you need a contract.
[00:14:26.600]So are there any set rules on like
[00:14:28.980]when you definitely need a contract for some vendors?
[00:14:31.900]Like I had someone ask me,
[00:14:34.160]that, okay they got some analysis done,
[00:14:36.280]really don't know the total price.
[00:14:38.770]So when are they gonna
[00:14:40.670]need to like price that contract?
[00:14:42.960]I am so glad you asked that
[00:14:45.230]'cause it totally slipped my mind.
[00:14:46.820]I was telling these ladies this morning,
[00:14:49.030]we're so close to this that sometimes we forget
[00:14:52.260]all of the little nuances and questions about it.
[00:14:55.560]So the question was, when do we need to contract?
[00:14:59.170]And the answer is, when the supplier won't
[00:15:01.820]take a purchase order.
[00:15:03.950]Because you think of what a purchase order is,
[00:15:06.410]it is a contract.
[00:15:07.940]It is also tying whoever accepts the PO
[00:15:11.910]to the terms and conditions of the Board of Regents.
[00:15:15.180]So if they'll take a PO, great.
[00:15:17.798](audience member comments)
[00:15:24.220]That's a great answer Julie
[00:15:25.790]and I'd like to restress that,
[00:15:27.330]so that everyone understands here.
[00:15:28.950]I'm pretty sure that you're all power users
[00:15:31.380]that POs are contracts.
[00:15:33.270]But another gauge or especially if you're power users,
[00:15:36.730]of when is a contract essential?
[00:15:39.310]You mentioned something that perhaps
[00:15:41.140]they don't know the cost yet, or the total final price,
[00:15:44.020]or anything else.
[00:15:45.300]The contract can be the master relationship guide.
[00:15:49.040]If you'll notice like the addendum
[00:15:51.060]and a lot of the terms that are in the template,
[00:15:52.990]those just govern the terms of how we relate
[00:15:55.970]with that organization.
[00:15:57.730]So what you're negotiating with them
[00:16:00.200]is a statement of work for their services.
[00:16:03.220]And the statement of work is really kind of
[00:16:05.260]an attachment to, as you know when you look
[00:16:07.320]at the addendum it's a description of services.
[00:16:10.500]So, you know that empowers you in a way to say
[00:16:14.770]that statement of work, it can be attached
[00:16:16.760]to a purchase order.
[00:16:18.060]Or perhaps you want a little bit more protection
[00:16:20.130]and you feel that the contract provides you
[00:16:22.580]a little bit more of a framework for that relationship.
[00:16:25.160]So use your judgment.
[00:16:26.830]But Julie's exactly right.
[00:16:28.760]You'll never fail if you attach that to a PO,
[00:16:31.970]as a part of that it's just
[00:16:33.450]sometimes you're gonna get a little more,
[00:16:35.180]a little bit more
[00:16:37.570]meat around the relationship.
[00:16:41.390]Okay, and then Sara just got a question.
[00:16:43.720]This is awesome.
[00:16:45.010]So we can use the PO instead of a contract?
[00:16:49.070]You can, and it's like Maggie was talking about.
[00:16:52.150]We want to think about it in terms of
[00:16:53.880]how we want to do business.
[00:16:55.790]So just like I was mentioning earlier.
[00:16:58.140]If there is a fairly large
[00:17:02.300]risk, maybe associated with money, okay?
[00:17:06.330]So maybe we're gonna pay this company
[00:17:08.770]a great deal of money to do something,
[00:17:10.260]they're like, "Oh we'll take your PO."
[00:17:12.090]What are a couple of things that you think
[00:17:14.250]might be critical if they will accept a purchase order
[00:17:17.040]without a contract?
[00:17:23.330]What would be critical to define
[00:17:26.100]and keep everything on the level playing field,
[00:17:29.770]so your scope of work, right?
[00:17:32.690]Your deliverables.
[00:17:34.420]Yup, payment schedule, yup, how they expect to be paid,
[00:17:38.610]how often they expect to be paid, great.
[00:17:41.000]See, you guys all know this stuff.
[00:17:43.430]You just want to make sure that if
[00:17:45.600]they think that, "Hey they're just gonna pay us with a PO."
[00:17:49.440]Great, but we still need to have very definite outline
[00:17:53.670]of how work is gonna go.
[00:17:54.840]And that really goes for anything,
[00:17:57.130]regardless of dollar amount.
[00:17:58.760]I mean we have to be good stewards of the State's money.
[00:18:02.850]Sometimes I think about it and I'm like,
[00:18:04.237]"I'm paying my own salary because I'm a taxpayer
[00:18:06.467]"here in the State of Nebraska."
[00:18:08.470]So you want to think about how you would deal
[00:18:10.990]with your own purse strings
[00:18:13.741]when it comes to dealing with contracts
[00:18:16.100]and what we purchase.
[00:18:18.360]Anything else?
[00:18:20.370]Okay.
[00:18:22.040]Yes.
[00:18:24.159](audience member comments)
[00:18:27.320]I know just what you wanted, huh?
[00:18:29.269](people laughing)
[00:18:30.209]In the very beginning you talked about,
[00:18:31.843]at the rest of the presentation
[00:18:32.820]you talked about cost objects.
[00:18:35.580]This applies to WBS as well?
[00:18:40.950]Yes we are.
[00:18:42.240]WBS probably have a few more nuances
[00:18:45.590]than I know anything about.
[00:18:47.620]But in general when we're spending money
[00:18:49.900]on behalf of the Board of Regents,
[00:18:51.750]'cause that's what we're doing.
[00:18:53.960]When we're spending out of a cost object
[00:18:56.150]or out of a WBS,
[00:18:59.150]we have been given, pretend like I am putting you
[00:19:02.430]as my POA and giving you my checkbook.
[00:19:06.100]We are spending money that's not ours,
[00:19:08.690]it's not the PI's, it's not the department's,
[00:19:11.840]it belongs to the Board of Regents.
[00:19:14.180]And we have to think of it in terms of state funding.
[00:19:18.100]But it's being spent out of the university's checkbook.
[00:19:25.370]Could you elaborate like for
[00:19:27.430]visiting personnel if they're gonna be speaking
[00:19:30.840]if that needs a contract?
[00:19:34.770]That's one that we get all the time.
[00:19:37.100]That one is kind of case by case depending upon
[00:19:42.810]what you're doing.
[00:19:43.650]I think
[00:19:45.880]what's been decided is they're gonna come here
[00:19:48.210]they're gonna do a half a day workshop.
[00:19:50.143]It's not gonna cost a great deal of money.
[00:19:52.950]We are gonna need a certificate of insurance
[00:19:55.300]probably since they're gonna be working on our campus.
[00:19:58.880]But,
[00:19:59.920]it can be done with visiting personnel
[00:20:02.350]from what I understand.
[00:20:05.360]Accounting is okay with that.
[00:20:06.900]I think
[00:20:09.030]there has been some back and forth about that,
[00:20:11.480]but the visiting personnel form for the most part
[00:20:14.460]we don't get much push back from accounting on it.
[00:20:18.330]Yeah, that's a good question.
[00:20:20.890]Anything else?
[00:20:24.740]Wow I love this interaction.
[00:20:27.770]Sure!
[00:20:30.420]So, visiting personnel needs to
[00:20:34.940]have an insurance certificate if they're
[00:20:37.290]just like working with a class and then giving
[00:20:39.150]a talk in the evening?
[00:20:41.400]Like we're not in a lab or anything like that.
[00:20:44.150]Would you still need insurance for that?
[00:20:47.110]Here's what I would do,
[00:20:48.130]I would contact risk management.
[00:20:50.480]Which is Gail Shanow, okay?
[00:20:53.590]And explain to her and let her make the call.
[00:20:56.510]'Cause ultimately she's the person that's going to be
[00:21:01.020]dealing with any kind of insurance claim
[00:21:03.070]or anything that would happen.
[00:21:05.950]And that way, I mean I guess one of the other things,
[00:21:08.980]and we're gonna talk about this a little bit later, too.
[00:21:11.640]Think of this in term of any of these scenarios
[00:21:14.870]that we're talking about now,
[00:21:16.010]think of it in terms of defending it.
[00:21:20.250]In case of an audit, keep us out of the news,
[00:21:23.550]but also, you know do our due diligence and think about,
[00:21:26.637]"Okay, so does this seem like an ethical
[00:21:29.177]"way to do business," or, "Is there a way that I can
[00:21:31.747]"document and support what I'm trying to achieve here?"
[00:21:37.690]And if in doubt you can call us.
[00:21:40.260]You know just when you think you've seen it all,
[00:21:42.180]something else comes through the email and you know.
[00:21:45.420]I mean people that say to me, "Oh my god how boring
[00:21:48.597]"your job, you look at contracts all day."
[00:21:50.605](laughs) And I'm like, "You have no idea.
[00:21:51.737]"It is not at all."
[00:21:54.800]But just think of it in terms of
[00:21:57.090]how that's gonna look in a paper trail.
[00:21:59.470]Or think of it in terms of a year and a half down the road
[00:22:02.520]the auditors come to your office
[00:22:04.610]and they're gonna want you to recall why you did something
[00:22:07.510]a certain way, or why you didn't do something a certain way.
[00:22:11.270]It's always easier to have that documentation
[00:22:14.183]on your side,
[00:22:15.770]'cause my memory's not that great, maybe yours is but.
[00:22:19.780]Okay, here we go.
[00:22:23.410]So templates.
[00:22:25.940]How many of you have access to our box folder
[00:22:29.580]or to the IA & R, box folder where the templates reside?
[00:22:36.000]Great, great!
[00:22:38.440]Don't, please don't
[00:22:41.210]download that to your desktop.
[00:22:43.120]You're like, "Okay I'm just gonna download this,
[00:22:45.227]"put this on my desktop and I'm ready to go."
[00:22:48.080]Because tomorrow we could get general counsel saying,
[00:22:52.310]there's a new state law, the legislature's in session,
[00:22:55.590]they just passed it, it's got an emergency clause.
[00:22:58.640]Boom, contract changes.
[00:23:01.220]And then when we get that from you,
[00:23:03.330]if we see it is not the most current,
[00:23:05.460]pre-approved template, we've got to go back to you and say,
[00:23:08.817]"Hey, could you please move all your information
[00:23:12.537]"onto the new template?"
[00:23:14.330]So please go to the box folder,
[00:23:16.940]get a new one, they're Word documents,
[00:23:20.030]should be reasonably easy to fill in.
[00:23:23.060]One of the places that I have found some people,
[00:23:26.730]none of those in this room or on the Zoom call,
[00:23:29.760]but some people miss university department.
[00:23:34.640]And with us being as large as we are,
[00:23:39.100]I might know your name and even if I look you up
[00:23:41.810]in the directory, you might be responsible
[00:23:44.110]for more than one department.
[00:23:45.720]Or two, or three, or four.
[00:23:47.920]I need the department.
[00:23:50.260]And we need to know who your service provider is.
[00:23:53.690]Their address.
[00:23:56.150]Contract total dollar amount.
[00:23:58.870]It does not have to be the exact dollar amount.
[00:24:02.580]But that is how we're gonna determine signature authority,
[00:24:06.760]is the dollar amount.
[00:24:08.430]And if I don't have a good idea on that,
[00:24:10.920]I might have the wrong person sign.
[00:24:14.440]We need a start date.
[00:24:16.790]And we get very uncomfortable and may send it back to you
[00:24:21.400]if the start date is already done and you're just saying,
[00:24:24.977]"I need this contract so I can pay them."
[00:24:28.370]We need a term end date,
[00:24:30.950]so that we know and the supplier knows,
[00:24:34.980]this is when the work needs to be done.
[00:24:37.880]We can amend contracts to extend dates, increase dollars.
[00:24:42.820]But we need to know where we're starting.
[00:24:45.500]All of this information,
[00:24:48.120]this helps us in contracts know who your person is
[00:24:52.820]you're working with.
[00:24:54.310]And if we do need to negotiate directly with them,
[00:24:58.230]what we'll do is we will email them,
[00:25:00.670]but we'll always copy and keep you in the loop.
[00:25:04.060]And then here, this is probably gonna be
[00:25:07.370]the person who's maybe involved in the project.
[00:25:11.000]But this is gonna be who's gonna upload the contract
[00:25:14.950]or who's gonna pay the invoices,
[00:25:17.690]or just to give everybody on there
[00:25:22.630]the information they need on who to get ahold of.
[00:25:26.320]Signatures.
[00:25:28.100]This department head approval is not a required signature,
[00:25:32.680]but we do have some departments who want it.
[00:25:35.610]So if you ever want that signature to be in there,
[00:25:39.060]you just need to let us know.
[00:25:41.790]We can send in Docusign and get it all of the signatures.
[00:25:48.380]This is how we start out, standardized.
[00:25:53.030]The terms that are on the following two pages
[00:25:55.880]are preapproved by legal
[00:25:57.950]and that's why they change sometimes.
[00:26:00.810]It just, it puts everything,
[00:26:04.100]and especially everything you need to know
[00:26:05.950]when you upload it to Contract Manager
[00:26:08.220]or to the Nebraska Contract System
[00:26:10.400]is all on the front page.
[00:26:13.500]So that is, that gives you compliance,
[00:26:16.740]and that gives you answers to most of your questions.
[00:26:20.870]Are there more questions?
[00:26:26.520]Okay.
[00:26:28.440]So we have two templates to choose from.
[00:26:33.500]There's the standard agreement when you have an expenditure.
[00:26:38.150]And there's a fee for service agreement
[00:26:40.870]when you're bringing revenue into the university.
[00:26:44.370]We also reference the addendum with required language.
[00:26:48.280]That document goes with an expenditure.
[00:26:52.620]There is no addendum with required language
[00:26:56.853]if we were in a position of using supplier paper
[00:27:00.800]for a fee for service, for bringing in revenue.
[00:27:05.210]We would not have standard additional terms for that,
[00:27:07.980]that would be negotiated.
[00:27:13.710]Are there questions?
[00:27:23.523]Did you mention on the form that
[00:27:26.290]you don't want the vendors to sign first?
[00:27:29.050]Because then if they do, usually send it back? (laughs)
[00:27:32.508]And then one question.
[00:27:33.490]When you send back the completed contract all signed
[00:27:37.630]do you also send it to the PI?
[00:27:39.230]'Cause a lot of times they just see my name,
[00:27:40.780]so I'm not sure if you already sent it to the PI,
[00:27:42.770]or if have to forward that to the PI.
[00:27:46.440]Because we don't always know or remember,
[00:27:50.420]if your first email to us, or when we are ready
[00:27:54.640]for signatures you say, "Okay would you
[00:27:57.127]"put this in Docusign?"
[00:27:58.990]If you just say, "Please copy the PI,
[00:28:03.227]"the supplier, me, the department head."
[00:28:06.860]If you just tell us we will put each person in the routing,
[00:28:11.370]in within Docusign.
[00:28:13.900]And we do prefer that we have looked at the contract
[00:28:17.840]before the supplier signs it,
[00:28:20.970]just because they may sign it and ask for a change.
[00:28:25.700]And then we're gonna have to go back to them and say,
[00:28:27.777]"Could you initial this change," or,
[00:28:29.677]"We need you to sign again."
[00:28:32.630]So we don't,
[00:28:34.260]we don't want them to sign immediately.
[00:28:40.520]Other questions?
[00:28:47.380]Jessica is going to talk about
[00:28:49.830]one of our newer clauses that was recently,
[00:28:53.300]within the last year, added by general counsel.
[00:29:05.090]So you may have noticed
[00:29:06.400]some new sections in the template.
[00:29:08.650]And one of those is the
[00:29:10.440]right to audit language.
[00:29:12.230]Within the last year, internal audit and legal
[00:29:15.120]have worked together to provide us with this section.
[00:29:19.460]This section talks about the fact that the university
[00:29:22.840]must be able to audit suppliers.
[00:29:25.320]Why do we do that?
[00:29:32.130]Here are the reasons.
[00:29:33.220]The purpose of an audit is to ensure transparency
[00:29:36.850]that the vendor is performing according to the agreement,
[00:29:39.543]that the vendor is charging appropriately
[00:29:42.070]for good or services.
[00:29:43.770]So when you're looking at your invoices
[00:29:45.250]you want to make sure that it's matching up.
[00:29:49.570]The conformance to ITS security practices.
[00:29:54.870]Compliance with state and federal laws,
[00:29:57.520]compliance with Board of Regents policies.
[00:30:01.200]And we can identify opportunities for process improvements.
[00:30:08.080]If you have any questions about
[00:30:10.550]the Board of Regents policies, that is on the UNL website.
[00:30:15.370]There are also some information on our website, as well,
[00:30:18.750]the procurement website.
[00:30:34.100]I just wanted to add a comment
[00:30:35.390]for the group, too, Jessica's you know
[00:30:38.270]identified seven really critical aspects here.
[00:30:41.690]The thing for our suppliers to remember along with that
[00:30:45.190]is if anybody ever questions this clause,
[00:30:49.310]the key is is they're a supplier
[00:30:50.940]to the University of Nebraska.
[00:30:52.910]If we get audited, as a supplier, they have to be obligated
[00:30:56.780]to the same terms.
[00:30:58.700]So it's really one of those things where
[00:31:00.990]they need to understand that up front,
[00:31:03.570]as a result of doing business with the university.
[00:31:06.410]So again, if you ever get questioned
[00:31:08.310]on something like that, you know you can sure pull out
[00:31:10.940]these kinds of things.
[00:31:11.870]But I think your first statement is,
[00:31:13.677]"Do you want to work with the University of Nebraska?
[00:31:16.607]"Because these are things that we're held accountable to."
[00:31:19.180]So if you ever need help in those discussions,
[00:31:22.930]please let us know.
[00:31:25.610]We can help them understand how this
[00:31:27.280]fits into the big picture.
[00:31:28.590]I want to make sure, 'cause those seven bullets
[00:31:30.930]are really great, but they're frankly non-negotiable.
[00:31:45.570]Let's talk about the route to legal.
[00:31:48.890]Your fastest route to legal is via procurement.
[00:31:54.180]Not every contract will need legal review, however.
[00:31:57.890]In fact, procurement has a lot
[00:32:00.050]of experience with negotiation.
[00:32:02.150]We can do a lot of negotiation up front
[00:32:05.140]which may mean legal review is not necessary.
[00:32:08.560]If legal does need to get involved
[00:32:11.200]it can prolong the process,
[00:32:14.410]prior to obtaining the signatures.
[00:32:16.320]So you'll want to keep that in mind.
[00:32:23.840]Reasons procurement will consult with legal.
[00:32:26.720]It's a high risk contract.
[00:32:30.080]The Board of Regents approval is necessary
[00:32:34.100]or it could be board reportable.
[00:32:37.320]If you have questions on those two items
[00:32:40.071]there's information on the procurement website
[00:32:42.360]about that as well.
[00:32:45.420]The third reason could be that we've reached
[00:32:48.190]a stalemate with the supplier.
[00:32:50.870]This is what extends the process.
[00:32:54.370]If we get into intense negotiations with suppliers,
[00:32:57.100]we'll have to schedule discussions with the supplier's
[00:32:59.630]legal and our legal representatives.
[00:33:12.040]Thanks, so this is the test.
[00:33:14.370]What's LB 429?
[00:33:21.610]It's that?
[00:33:22.610]Oh, very good, you read ahead.
[00:33:24.743](audience laughs)
[00:33:25.576]Thank you Todd.
[00:33:28.119](laughs)
[00:33:29.990]It's a Nebraska statute, that means it's a law
[00:33:34.400]for taxpayer transparency.
[00:33:37.380]That means if we have an expenditure contract
[00:33:41.670]for one cent or more
[00:33:45.670]please don't ask us to write contracts for one cent.
[00:33:49.510]At least two.
[00:33:51.300]They must be uploaded to the State of Nebraska
[00:33:55.030]to be compliant.
[00:33:57.790]It's a law, end of discussion.
[00:34:01.920]Questions?
[00:34:07.850]So.
[00:34:09.310]You're gonna upload contracts to the State of Nebraska,
[00:34:12.330]or we are in Procurement Services.
[00:34:15.300]Nebraska Contract Management System.
[00:34:18.660]If you don't have access to it
[00:34:20.790]there's a link to sign up on our website.
[00:34:23.880]Or if you do have access there's a link
[00:34:26.240]to access the system on our website.
[00:34:30.320]So who uploads the contract?
[00:34:33.700]If we sign it, if we processed it for signature,
[00:34:37.770]we upload the contract.
[00:34:40.370]If your department signs, generally the ones
[00:34:43.800]under $5,000 and a year or less,
[00:34:47.240]then your department is responsible to upload.
[00:34:51.270]I wanted to give everybody a I love compliance sticker,
[00:34:55.300]but it wasn't in the budget.
[00:34:57.240]But anyhow.
[00:34:58.620]You love being compliant.
[00:35:01.250]Are there questions?
[00:35:06.980]We have referenced it, but we have a shared email box.
[00:35:11.590]This is how the three of us cover for each other
[00:35:15.630]and when we win the Powerball,
[00:35:17.520]how Maggie and Mikki will pick up.
[00:35:21.470]So, if you send the contracts to our shared folder
[00:35:26.850]Jessica will see them, I will see them,
[00:35:29.270]Julie will see them.
[00:35:31.733]And we'll know where they're going.
[00:35:35.620]We have also found occasionally we might get
[00:35:38.630]a contract that comes to us
[00:35:40.090]with the subject line, university contract.
[00:35:44.930]When I lose that contract, okay I'm being honest,
[00:35:48.710]when I am searching through my email folder
[00:35:51.870]for your contract, if it says university contract,
[00:35:55.960]I'm in trouble.
[00:35:57.600]If you put your supplier name
[00:36:00.220]and even your department name
[00:36:01.880]in the subject line, I'm golden.
[00:36:04.680]I will be able to put everything,
[00:36:07.260]the whole email chain in one place.
[00:36:10.390]And it speeds my process tremendously.
[00:36:14.730]When you send us, if you have a quote,
[00:36:18.980]a proposal that you're referencing in the standard agreement
[00:36:23.640]attach all of that on the email.
[00:36:26.850]And if we don't need something, that's okay.
[00:36:30.660]Let us know what information you have
[00:36:33.440]and then we won't come back additional times
[00:36:37.150]and ask for it.
[00:36:40.290]Are there questions about the process of the shared folder?
[00:36:48.483](audience member comments)
[00:36:49.710]Oh, okay.
[00:36:53.210]So, question is, I think I have been
[00:36:55.570]uploading all of my contracts, even the ones
[00:36:57.430]that are signed by you.
[00:36:58.710]Do I need to delete the duplicate?
[00:37:03.780]In Nebraska Contract System,
[00:37:07.330]that may not be possible.
[00:37:10.390]They may have gone to the State and they may be there twice.
[00:37:15.831]I'm saved. (laughs)
[00:37:19.090]You can delete them if you like.
[00:37:22.030]What happens is the upload actually happens
[00:37:26.720]weekly, supposedly,
[00:37:29.180]and instead of just uploading new stuff,
[00:37:31.850]it dumps the entire file and uploads a whole new file.
[00:37:35.930]So if you go back in and you mark something for
[00:37:39.890]buyer only, or not for public,
[00:37:42.540]I think you can even delete them,
[00:37:45.470]it may take a few days before
[00:37:47.960]you're not seeing it out there.
[00:37:49.540]But yeah you can do that.
[00:37:52.010]If you use Contract Management System, it's the same thing.
[00:37:55.902]It's time sensitive, 'cause it's kind of,
[00:37:58.341]it's kind of not the most smooth process,
[00:38:02.350]but eventually it will go away. (laughs)
[00:38:06.150]What we've found out too is a lot of time
[00:38:08.570]the State's upload isn't working.
[00:38:11.650]That's happened for like weeks on end.
[00:38:13.890]So we aren't typically notified of that.
[00:38:21.030]I have a question about redaction.
[00:38:24.500]When and how does that happen?
[00:38:28.360]Well, redaction should happen
[00:38:32.320]if you have personal information.
[00:38:34.290]So say you have somebody's social security number.
[00:38:37.300]So a prime example is if you're dealing with somebody
[00:38:39.530]who's coming to do a workshop
[00:38:41.660]and they're not maybe a corporation or an LLC
[00:38:44.350]or anything and they just use their social security number.
[00:38:47.070]Or they use their home phone.
[00:38:49.110]Or they use their personal home address.
[00:38:52.230]Those things really should be redacted, okay?
[00:38:55.200]Those should be redacted before we upload to the state.
[00:39:00.550]In Docusign, we're doing less and less redaction because
[00:39:05.600]the signatures are extremely secure.
[00:39:08.890]I mean I've actually
[00:39:11.020]tried to break it.
[00:39:12.060]I've downloaded documents to my desktop,
[00:39:15.720]saved them in different manners
[00:39:17.420]tried to make them,
[00:39:21.100]editable, I can't get it to work.
[00:39:23.980]I'm not very high tech, so I suppose there are
[00:39:25.940]people out there that could make that work.
[00:39:28.187]But because those signatures are not actual
[00:39:32.210]hand signatures of somebody,
[00:39:34.490]we have not been redacting those
[00:39:36.260]if they go through Docusign.
[00:39:37.760]Now.
[00:39:39.370]If you are getting something signed on the department side
[00:39:42.838]that you're just getting your department head
[00:39:45.020]or chair to sign and then the other entity to sign.
[00:39:48.500]And then you're wanting to upload it to the state
[00:39:51.660]'cause it's less than $5,000 or whatever,
[00:39:54.740]you're gonna need to be sure that you do
[00:39:56.410]your due diligence and redact those.
[00:39:58.430]We all know
[00:40:00.420]with all of the cyber scamming that's going on now,
[00:40:03.660]we got to be really careful of each other's
[00:40:06.670]personal information and security.
[00:40:10.400]The easiest way to redact is having your IT folks
[00:40:16.180]set you up with Adobe Pro.
[00:40:19.090]And if you need help with that and they can't help you
[00:40:22.720]we can certainly do something to give you a hand.
[00:40:27.480]One thing I wanted to remind everybody
[00:40:29.310]if you have like a new student worker
[00:40:31.190]or a new employee who wants to be in the contract
[00:40:34.160]management to upload contracts to the state,
[00:40:36.930]we can not approve them as a user
[00:40:40.080]unless they have a UNL email address.
[00:40:42.620]We won't approve any Gmails or anything like that, so.
[00:40:50.090]Anything else?
[00:40:51.920]Yes?
[00:40:56.200]A question regarding
[00:40:57.540]a kind of contract and whether a contract's necessary.
[00:40:59.990]We recently hired some independent contractors,
[00:41:02.720]some writers, at Sheldon to do some writing for us.
[00:41:05.200]We wanted to ensure that we had copyright
[00:41:06.960]to the material to use it however we want it.
[00:41:09.310]It's a pretty low value.
[00:41:11.180]Would a PO suffice in that instance, or should?
[00:41:15.579]Copyrights are-- (audience laughs)
[00:41:18.310]You're talking about intellectual property,
[00:41:20.550]I don't care about the value, the residual value
[00:41:23.310]to the university, you already answered your own question
[00:41:26.620]with your head nodding.
[00:41:27.453]I would write a contract.
[00:41:29.500]I would write a contr-- (man commenting)
[00:41:31.250]Well, and the PO covers, if you want to know what
[00:41:33.830]the PO covers, you can go out to the
[00:41:35.470]Nebraska.edu website and look up
[00:41:37.440]purchase terms and conditions.
[00:41:40.400]You know a purchase order, if you think about it,
[00:41:42.410]is just a blank contract template, too,
[00:41:45.200]with anything you add in the text field that says,
[00:41:49.300]I'm gonna buy, if you're buying office supplies
[00:41:51.730]and you pick something out of a shopping cart
[00:41:53.700]and drop it on there it's gonna say what you're buying.
[00:41:56.550]If you're buying a service from a supplier
[00:41:59.386]and you write that text in that text field,
[00:42:02.500]that's what you're purchasing.
[00:42:04.140]The face of the PO along with the terms and conditions
[00:42:07.500]of the university that are embedded within
[00:42:11.076]our standard Ts and Cs,
[00:42:13.720]those combine together on a purchase order
[00:42:17.010]encompass what you're agreeing to.
[00:42:19.930]So let's just, this could go on forever
[00:42:22.820]about the battle of terms and conditions,
[00:42:24.870]but especially when it comes to intellectual property,
[00:42:28.350]I would guide you especially in the fine arts area,
[00:42:30.800]'cause you're talking to a couple of artists here too,
[00:42:33.220]I would protect ourselves.
[00:42:34.760]'Cause regardless of what you consider high
[00:42:36.820]or low purchase value,
[00:42:37.840]that's a pretty significant acquisition.
[00:42:40.410]So.
[00:42:41.431](man comments)
[00:42:42.920]I wouldn't feel comfortable with it.
[00:42:46.090]I would go with something additional.
[00:42:49.800]Awesome.
[00:42:51.163](woman commenting off microphone)
[00:42:54.510]Well I want to thank everybody very much
[00:42:56.420]for coming out today and for all of your
[00:42:58.730]good interaction and discussion.
[00:43:01.216]This is how we learn, this is how we need
[00:43:04.010]to go forward.
[00:43:06.370]When we get the opportunity to do this again
[00:43:08.570]I would certainly encourage you to
[00:43:11.020]bring your friends and family,
[00:43:12.560]because the more the merrier.
[00:43:13.920]And there's no stupid questions, honestly.
[00:43:16.610]And you guys work from such diverse areas out there,
[00:43:19.860]I mean we're just talking about copyright on
[00:43:23.160]art and I know Pat for one, she works for
[00:43:26.450]Department of School of Natural Resources.
[00:43:29.160]So I mean the gambit is vast.
[00:43:31.920]And so there are no dumb questions.
[00:43:34.620]And there are a lot of circumstances that
[00:43:36.980]require a question that you're not gonna get
[00:43:39.490]from a piece of paper that you're gonna,
[00:43:42.280]sometimes you're just gonna have to get from somebody
[00:43:44.310]who's beat their head against the wall
[00:43:46.240]a few times on this stuff.
[00:43:47.490]Scott?
[00:43:50.130]Just a quick question too.
[00:43:51.930]P Card purchases.
[00:43:53.200]Those are considered contracts as well, correct?
[00:43:55.570]Even though they are potentially less than $5,000?
[00:43:59.843](woman laughing) I'm sorry?
[00:44:00.990]That's okay, I know nothing!
[00:44:05.040]So great questions.
[00:44:06.750]What a power user group we have here.
[00:44:11.210]P Cards are a contractual agreement,
[00:44:13.760]because we have an agreement with our merchants
[00:44:16.740]in the form of the P Card agreement.
[00:44:19.000]So if you really want to get down to brass tacks
[00:44:21.340]there's a P Card agreement that the university has.
[00:44:24.440]You've got one if you use the P Card,
[00:44:26.310]or if your department has one.
[00:44:27.920]So technically it is, it's a contract.
[00:44:29.980]Anytime you are exchanging funds
[00:44:34.510]and services with anyone and using a vehicle of some sort,
[00:44:39.400]purchase order, check, handshake.
[00:44:44.320]Technically, legally, handshake agreements can
[00:44:46.620]and have been proven to stand up in a court of law.
[00:44:49.846]The language of contracts is a broad world
[00:44:53.570]as you've learned and you're learning now here.
[00:44:56.070]Which part of the reason why we want
[00:44:57.490]to drive you to standards.
[00:44:58.530]But yes, there are terms tied to a P Card transaction.
[00:45:02.540]So we also have our own policies around those.
[00:45:06.180]You know like limits on P Cards themselves
[00:45:09.970]you know some of the other protections we get.
[00:45:12.420]But you know what that's actually a good topic
[00:45:14.340]for us to bring up.
[00:45:15.550]I think what we had a request for,
[00:45:18.150]I know we might be running out of time,
[00:45:19.620]but we've had a request for a round two on contracts.
[00:45:22.810]So we'll be back again.
[00:45:24.330]And I think it might be a good idea if you all
[00:45:26.330]fill out the survey following this,
[00:45:28.370]so if you have more questions, so we can have more content.
[00:45:31.860]What an interactive session, this is great.
[00:45:34.490]Fantastic.
[00:45:37.010]One more question.
[00:45:38.340]What is the Board of Regents addendum
[00:45:40.110]that was referred to earlier?
[00:45:41.610]Is it on the website?
[00:45:46.210]The addendum with required language
[00:45:49.260]is for expenditure contracts
[00:45:52.910]that we are using the supplier's paper.
[00:45:55.180]And that is available in the box folder.
[00:45:58.674]IA & R has their own box folder for their staff
[00:46:03.240]where our documents are uploaded.
[00:46:06.760]If you are non-IA & R staff
[00:46:09.450]and you don't have access to the box folder
[00:46:12.010]just email the procurement contracts
[00:46:14.770]and we will get you access to the
[00:46:16.830]university templates folder for the standard agreement,
[00:46:21.430]the addendum with required language
[00:46:23.680]and the fee for service, for revenue generating contracts.
[00:46:39.850]Thank you very much.
[00:46:41.030]All of you who are here
[00:46:42.750]and all of you who are with us in Zoom.

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PED Talks: March 8, 2018

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