September PED Talks

Mikki Sandin Author

09/14/2018 Added

45 Plays

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Software Purchasing

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[00:00:01.290]Alright, well, thank you everyone
[00:00:02.710]for joining us today for the procurement PED Talks,
[00:00:06.530]we took a little break this summer,
[00:00:07.800]so this is our first one in the fall series
[00:00:09.839]and today, we're talking about software purchasing
[00:00:12.340]and then next month, we'll also be on
[00:00:14.845]IT with hardware and standards and things like that
[00:00:19.485]so hopefully you'll be able to join us again.
[00:00:23.360]So today, along with software purchasing and compliance,
[00:00:28.057]I just wanted to let you know,
[00:00:29.976]for those of you that are on Zoom right now,
[00:00:32.340]sometimes your audio might not work real great,
[00:00:35.830]we're gonna try to speak into the microphone but
[00:00:38.140]nobody's perfect, and we're also just recommending that
[00:00:44.090]if you can't hear very well, on Zoom
[00:00:46.260]is to use your, call in and use your telephone items
[00:00:49.670]for your computer, and then lastly,
[00:00:52.890]we're gonna take questions at the end
[00:00:54.510]instead of throughout, so please write down your questions
[00:00:57.440]or feel free to send them on chat on Zoom
[00:01:00.454]and we'll do the questions at the end.
[00:01:02.136]So, with that--
[00:01:08.460]Hello, so I'm Scott Stremick,
[00:01:09.970]and I didn't actually state one, so
[00:01:12.780]I'll try to do as best as I can not
[00:01:14.540]to engulf the microphone when I'm talking,
[00:01:17.950]but we're basically going to talk
[00:01:20.300]about software procurement today.
[00:01:22.790]The main points we wanna kinda go over were
[00:01:26.000]that this is a collaboration effort when it comes
[00:01:28.710]to procuring software, we work together with,
[00:01:31.840]as you can see, IT procurement,
[00:01:33.451]procurement contracts, and ITS.
[00:01:36.891]My biggest thing is that, if I want you to have any
[00:01:39.480]takeaways from today's meeting, it's that
[00:01:41.990]be RED in your software purchasing ideas
[00:01:44.760]and, kinda going over a little bit of that,
[00:01:47.560]the biggest thing is to reach out to a representative in
[00:01:49.630]IT procurement, ITS, or contracts team.
[00:01:53.270]Any one of us can actually help you
[00:01:55.029]get through your contracts much easier, much quicker
[00:01:58.440]by giving you the information that we would need in advance
[00:02:01.670]to come through engagements with our vendors.
[00:02:05.400]The next part is that one when you talk to us
[00:02:07.380]we'll evaluate your software purchase ideas,
[00:02:10.190]so if you have ideas for new software,
[00:02:12.700]we'll be able to tell you this as far as something
[00:02:14.880]in compliance with the rules the university
[00:02:17.400]has out there for us that we need to follow,
[00:02:19.980]in terms of policies, federal state and university policies,
[00:02:25.001]and then we determine the best course of action
[00:02:27.343]for you to go so, if you come to us
[00:02:28.827]we'll actually be able to tell you
[00:02:31.160]if you should be able to spy it as a regular contract,
[00:02:33.080]if you need to do accounts by quotes,
[00:02:36.040]if you need to go through the RFV process or an RFI,
[00:02:39.910]even if you could just do an RFQ or ICB type process,
[00:02:42.683]it'll make it a lot easier for you,
[00:02:44.730]but we're gonna help you, that's what we're--
[00:02:46.780]our job is to make it easier for everybody
[00:02:49.421]to purchase software on the system.
[00:02:53.181]So, basically I'll kinda go over what my group is,
[00:02:55.810]so I'm Scott Stremick, I'm manager
[00:02:57.810]for the IT procurement group.
[00:03:00.130]I handle basically the long term
[00:03:01.710]planning strategic sourcing negotiations,
[00:03:05.280]head of the quality issues that we have with vendors.
[00:03:09.200]I also have Sue Cuddeback in case care quality of
[00:03:11.712]software purchasing, the workflow process,
[00:03:14.549]the contracts, and then we have Claudette Biskup
[00:03:18.232]who takes care of all the hardware needs in purchasing,
[00:03:22.290]so, our mission basically is threefold,
[00:03:25.940]is that we wanna be collaborative
[00:03:27.540]and engaging with our customers,
[00:03:28.635]and our customers include the students,
[00:03:30.780]the faculty, and the staff, and so we wanna be able to make,
[00:03:34.385]as you can see down there below,
[00:03:36.040]we want you to have the easiest
[00:03:37.267]procurement experience possible.
[00:03:39.630]Our goal isn't to make it like a flesh-eating bacteria,
[00:03:43.230]make it hard, make it complicated,
[00:03:45.330]we wanna make this an easy fast process, so
[00:03:48.318]letting this prolong doesn't make
[00:03:50.230]our lives any easier than it does yours, so,
[00:03:52.960]kinda work with, be patient, like I said, the biggest thing
[00:03:56.060]is that if you engage us early on,
[00:03:57.670]we have the best ability to service you
[00:04:00.580]at the quickest manner.
[00:04:02.450]And then the last part is just basic knowledge,
[00:04:04.920]you know, we wanna purchase the highest quality product,
[00:04:06.990]at the lowest possible price, while continuing to follow
[00:04:09.970]Federal, State, and University
[00:04:13.215]guidelines that are given to us.
[00:04:17.390]So, part of IT Procurement's job
[00:04:19.450]is we manage the supplier relationships that are out there.
[00:04:24.372]We're here to make sure that the suppliers
[00:04:27.350]are doing what they need to do for us as a university,
[00:04:30.490]so the biggest thing I can tell you is
[00:04:32.660]if you engage with a supplier,
[00:04:34.740]we would like to also be part of that engagement with you.
[00:04:38.100]It helps us when we go back to evaluate vendors quarterly,
[00:04:41.865]that we know what the problems are.
[00:04:43.860]If you didn't engage with us when the problem was there,
[00:04:46.770]we don't know it's there either,
[00:04:48.430]and so we want to be able to have an accurate account
[00:04:51.760]of all the problems with vendors,
[00:04:54.000]or, you know, the good things, I mean,
[00:04:55.183]I don't wanna say that we all get bad things
[00:04:57.300]from our vendors, but we wanna make sure
[00:04:59.224]that we know anything that's happening in the environment,
[00:05:02.411]and to engage with the IT Procurement team.
[00:05:05.640]Between Sue, Claudette, and myself,
[00:05:07.520]we can definitely keep track of what our vendors are doing.
[00:05:11.950]We help determine your needs, like I had said before,
[00:05:14.760]our biggest thing is to help you
[00:05:16.900]make the easiest and best processes
[00:05:18.770]when you go to purchase software,
[00:05:20.630]in this case, it would also include hardware, too,
[00:05:23.070]but we're here to help you again.
[00:05:24.963]The other part is we do the pricing
[00:05:27.460]and contract terms negotiations,
[00:05:29.619]and we do that at an advantage with the stratus group,
[00:05:32.330]Jessica Mehrhoff actually handles
[00:05:34.210]all of my IT contracting negotiations and she takes care
[00:05:38.650]of wording and reviews policy and general business
[00:05:43.910]guidelines that we have to adhere to, we kinda fall back
[00:05:47.065]to ITS to help us with the technology side
[00:05:52.280]of the determination of contracts,
[00:05:55.016]and then we actually will help you with,
[00:05:57.240]when we tell you that we should go
[00:05:58.760]through the vending process, we're actually
[00:06:00.780]the administrators for your RFI, RFQ, or RFPs.
[00:06:05.252]And definitely, you're better off
[00:06:07.820]coming to us in the beginning,
[00:06:09.140]because one of the things that has changed
[00:06:10.840]is the Federal Uniformity law,
[00:06:12.750]that's made it a little bit different
[00:06:14.050]in terms of when we have to go
[00:06:15.720]to an RFP, RFQ, when we have to get all those quotes.
[00:06:18.677]It's a different dollar special than it was
[00:06:21.118]before July 1st in 2018, so we can help you get through
[00:06:26.162]that kind of system in a timely manner, too.
[00:06:31.070]Kind of a little bit, what's needed for software purchases,
[00:06:34.242]the biggest thing is that everything you do,
[00:06:36.920]everything you buy has to have a purchase order against it.
[00:06:40.939]POs come before invoices and and invoice is not a quote.
[00:06:45.273]So we do wanna have our vendors go ahead
[00:06:48.377]and give us a quote in advance,
[00:06:50.094]statement that includes for renewals,
[00:06:51.288]so they need to get us quotes,
[00:06:53.332]so that we can use the quotes for the paperwork
[00:06:55.620]that we deep plan, with the PO,
[00:06:59.270]so again, with that, contracts and POs go hand-in-hand.
[00:07:04.640]If you do a PO, and if you want all those together
[00:07:07.810]if you got just the signed agreement, that does not
[00:07:10.299]constitute a finished product in our eyes,
[00:07:12.930]you need to have a purchase order that goes with that,
[00:07:15.995]purchasing goes out to to like at suppliers spent,
[00:07:21.990]and helps in audit purposes, so that you're showing
[00:07:24.450]that you have purchases that are out there,
[00:07:27.113]some of that stuff is hidden when you use a P-card,
[00:07:29.810]so when you spend, it's lost.
[00:07:32.596]A PO also helps against fraudulent invoices,
[00:07:36.299]something that we have had is that
[00:07:37.320]if you have a purchase order and accounting has to marry it
[00:07:41.925]to an invoice, they have the complete chain taken care of,
[00:07:47.547]there are instances where we've had fraudulent
[00:07:50.640]invoices come into accounting and they've almost stayed
[00:07:53.300]because if there isn't an invoice against it,
[00:07:55.940]accounting still believes it's a good PO.
[00:07:59.420]And then, easy reporting of spend by vendors.
[00:08:03.580]We do wanna make sure that we're taking care
[00:08:05.610]of procurement itself, and when we go back and do reports,
[00:08:09.700]we do reports of different vendors,
[00:08:12.950]and then, one thing that ITS will kind of touch on
[00:08:15.109]just a little bit is Compliance Reviews for software.
[00:08:18.440]We do have to worry about some of the Compliance Reviews,
[00:08:20.810]especially right now for the new software,
[00:08:23.160]but coming up within the next, probably, couple months,
[00:08:26.730]within the year, we'll probably actually start looking
[00:08:28.840]at how we use all software in terms
[00:08:31.960]of Compliance Review and that includes
[00:08:33.920]our Enterprise Architecture, Identity Management,
[00:08:36.820]Security, Accessibility, and PCI.
[00:08:39.990]That's that.
[00:08:42.567]Okay, for you ITS groups, people are telling me
[00:08:44.960]that the Zoom post link isn't working,
[00:08:48.760]even though we have it going, any ideas?
[00:08:53.530]The Zoom what link?
[00:08:56.800]The Zoom what link?
[00:08:58.711]Uh, post, isn't working.
[00:09:00.797]So they're not able to get into it?
[00:09:05.910]What's the meeting number? I'll try.
[00:09:08.129]Okay.
[00:09:09.010]Alright, keep going. So, over to the
[00:09:11.598]next part is IT Procurement does have a website available,
[00:09:14.950]itprocurement.unl.edu, in the next couple months,
[00:09:18.966]we'll be adding an additional page on to that website
[00:09:23.224]for what the Master Agreement template is,
[00:09:27.962]the Technology Appendix Agreement,
[00:09:30.450]those two items, we actually push our paperwork
[00:09:32.980]in front of vendors, we would prefer
[00:09:36.967]not to use vendor paperwork when we do contracts
[00:09:40.590]with our vendors, so those, I got those templates
[00:09:43.510]will be out there for people to look at,
[00:09:45.140]and you'll be able to share them with vendors as you need.
[00:09:49.400]We'll have the Compliance Review information,
[00:09:50.900]you can find different Compliance Reviews that we do,
[00:09:54.517]and we also asked everybody that we engage with
[00:09:59.210]in IT Procurement in the contracts,
[00:10:01.400]that there is a checklist that is out there
[00:10:02.980]that we ask that you fill out,
[00:10:04.690]this helps us more or less assess some of the questions
[00:10:07.320]that we would normally answer you anyway,
[00:10:08.640]but puts it in one single format
[00:10:11.470]for everybody that's in our group
[00:10:13.190]that does the Compliance Review contracts.
[00:10:15.140]IT Procurement, we all have something that we can
[00:10:17.290]see pretty quick, to know what's going on
[00:10:20.040]or how we should engage the different contracts,
[00:10:23.307]things like that, and then the other things we look at
[00:10:26.170]is the Security Assessment Questionnaire
[00:10:28.410]that we ask all vendors to fill out
[00:10:30.020]that kinda goes along with the request that we have
[00:10:32.400]to view that information on accessibility,
[00:10:35.860]and then the last thing is just the information
[00:10:38.180]needed for purchases, we need past agreements,
[00:10:40.480]if applicable, in that situation,
[00:10:42.986]proposed vendor agreements, quotes/proposals,
[00:10:45.990]and scope of work, usually this has to be
[00:10:48.712]so that everybody has the goal on early on in the process
[00:10:51.141]because if we engage early enough,
[00:10:52.280]we can start getting that stuff together right away
[00:10:54.505]and be able to, get those things, and make your form.
[00:10:59.280]Experience with IT procurement makes it a lot easier.
[00:11:02.330]So the last thing, again, I kinda touched on it,
[00:11:04.430]is RED, reach out to somebody that's in the team,
[00:11:08.090]we can help you evaluate your purchases,
[00:11:10.410]and we determine the best course
[00:11:11.970]of action of the available options.
[00:11:15.600]So, the next thing I'm going to talk
[00:11:17.053]about is the NEware software store.
[00:11:24.687]Just an update for the people in the room,
[00:11:27.010]if you want to an update on online, I sent a message,
[00:11:31.080]they're asking if, some people are saying
[00:11:34.130]it's a little hard to hear the audio,
[00:11:35.830]it's a hard to hear Scott, they say they called in, as well,
[00:11:39.430]so maybe we do have to speak a little closer to the mic?
[00:11:42.400]I think that's been the case before.
[00:11:46.362]Is that better?
[00:11:49.713]I'm gonna ask.
[00:11:51.650]Keep going, Sue.
[00:11:53.784]Thanks.
[00:11:54.900]Okay, software.
[00:11:57.040]First off, I'm happy to tell everyone I have SPSS codes.
[00:12:00.066]I just got them, about two hours ago,
[00:12:02.980]so, once I get back, I will be giving
[00:12:05.500]them out to any interested folks.
[00:12:10.180]I didn't go into a great detail here,
[00:12:13.770]because there's so much to it,
[00:12:16.230]but as you can see, the softwares that we have
[00:12:19.190]site licenses to have the photographs,
[00:12:23.100]because Julie wanted pictures,
[00:12:26.231]and aside from that, we always have these on hand.
[00:12:29.880]So, you should always get these almost immediately,
[00:12:33.160]because I have stock.
[00:12:35.510]Some of the others, some vendors
[00:12:38.338]require us to do a quote before they'll
[00:12:40.595]even sell us the software, so that can take time.
[00:12:45.285]Also, there's others that I do buy
[00:12:48.010]that I keep on hand because they're popular,
[00:12:51.670]such as the ones I mentioned earlier.
[00:12:54.700]So, I usually have those in stock,
[00:12:57.510]but some of them, of course, being by subscription,
[00:13:01.970]I can't order those ahead of time
[00:13:03.760]for obvious reasons, because then
[00:13:05.970]you'd only have six months left and you paid for a year.
[00:13:09.520]So, I didn't really include a lot on that.
[00:13:14.540]Basically what we have to do
[00:13:15.780]is we have to put everything in SAP first,
[00:13:18.274]then upload it to site wide store, that's what it's called,
[00:13:21.227]and it usually takes a little longer
[00:13:22.970]for it to show up in there, so I do encourage people,
[00:13:26.389]whenever there's something new
[00:13:27.913]that you're looking for, be sure to contact me
[00:13:30.670]and we'll see if we can get something cheaper involved.
[00:13:35.790]That's all I have.
[00:13:55.020]Hi, I'm Julie Snyder, I'm the
[00:13:57.010]Procurement Contracts manager,
[00:14:00.410]which now includes IT contracts, too, which is great,
[00:14:04.866]I've been doing this for about a year now,
[00:14:07.610]if you need to have my help, we've been helped along,
[00:14:12.210]I think we're getting to a process that will be better,
[00:14:16.297]and we keep working to make it
[00:14:18.034]as good as it can possibly be.
[00:14:20.733]But primarily, what we do in Procurement Contracts
[00:14:25.310]is we negotiate the terms and conditions
[00:14:28.340]doing business with the Board of Regents, which
[00:14:31.050]is the University of Nebraska.
[00:14:33.330]And so when you send any type of contract request in,
[00:14:38.060]we'd like for it to come into this website,
[00:14:40.340]no matter what it is, IT or represent reading,
[00:14:45.830]whatever it is, we ask that you send it here
[00:14:49.070]because my team then--
[00:14:53.110]Hello, goes ahead and parses it out
[00:14:55.627]to the various end-users that need to be looking at it,
[00:15:02.103]such as Amy's team or Scott's team.
[00:15:06.238]Some of the documents that we need to have sent in
[00:15:09.450]right off the bat should be the contract, obviously,
[00:15:13.320]we don't always have that right up front
[00:15:14.930]or you may not have it, that would be something
[00:15:17.410]that you're going to need to have on your radar and ask for.
[00:15:20.983]If there's a question and you'd like to see that,
[00:15:24.120]we do like to have your supporting email documentation
[00:15:27.280]like maybe you have faculty that's requesting
[00:15:31.130]this for a very specific reason.
[00:15:33.090]It always helps us to understand better
[00:15:35.440]when we go to reviewing the entire thing,
[00:15:38.250]if we know the contact--
[00:16:06.427]and contracts.
[00:16:07.460]And I'll talk to you again in just a little bit,
[00:16:10.057]but now I'm gonna let Amy talk
[00:16:12.050]about the next step in IT Procurement Contracts.
[00:16:17.521]Thank you, Julie, so I'm Amy Metzger.
[00:16:37.130]Alright, well, I'll talk while
[00:16:38.633]I'm trying to figure this out.
[00:16:39.570]Anyways, my name's Amy Metzger,
[00:16:41.540]Assistant Director with IT Strategic Sourcing within ITS.
[00:16:45.991]The role I played was developed a year,
[00:16:49.010]year and a half ago by our CIO, Mark Askren,
[00:16:53.987]and other CIOs on the various campuses.
[00:16:57.650]The position was created to work with all campuses
[00:17:00.911]very closely with procurement on purchases.
[00:17:05.430]It's been really exciting, it's a new day now,
[00:17:08.581]we're trying to purchase more together
[00:17:10.880]as a university versus the separate campuses.
[00:17:15.410]That's our objective up there,
[00:17:16.243]I'm not going to read it to you,
[00:17:17.747]but I did wanna give a little shout-out
[00:17:19.840]to the staff that does help in this area.
[00:17:23.770]Shannon, Ryan, Paul, Mike, Brett, and there's a few others
[00:17:27.520]that have been helping develop our processes
[00:17:30.510]as we've been going along, so thank you very much.
[00:17:34.070]Paul's been very instrumental, also helping
[00:17:36.240]with our Enterprise Architecture to help with the contracts
[00:17:40.630]and with the business side of software purchases.
[00:17:48.360]So, just a little bit, really we've been
[00:17:51.062]developing it as we go, but we've
[00:17:53.370]been wanting to look for opportunities.
[00:17:55.942]Scott and I are always looking at,
[00:17:58.039]when software's being purchased,
[00:18:00.350]what are the other campuses doing?
[00:18:02.220]Do they all have the same software,
[00:18:04.244]but four different agreements?
[00:18:06.370]And it's a lot of work, but we've had a lot of success
[00:18:08.416]with taking multiple contracts
[00:18:11.039]and moving them into one so it's not only efficient
[00:18:14.860]in cost savings, it also helps with purchasing power,
[00:18:20.244]in terms of negotiating for pricing,
[00:18:23.370]and I think that it helps a lot when you start combining
[00:18:26.610]contracts together and campuses together.
[00:18:29.300]We've also worked very hard to standardize
[00:18:31.747]and we've been very successful
[00:18:34.420]within the learning management system,
[00:18:37.250]now all four campuses have the same tools to use.
[00:18:41.660]Security is another area where the tools
[00:18:44.162]are being combined so that all campuses are using the same.
[00:18:48.322]Those are some really big ones,
[00:18:50.640]but some really great examples of where we standardize.
[00:18:54.110]We're trying to do the same in hardware.
[00:18:56.940]And then, just the business needs.
[00:18:59.890]If you come to any of us, what we like to do is,
[00:19:02.330]is there any solution out there
[00:19:05.230]I know that Paul Erickson will spend
[00:19:07.060]a lot of time in this area, working
[00:19:08.572]with the different departments and groups,
[00:19:10.760]about opportunities, you know,
[00:19:13.070]why purchase separately, so we try to help with business
[00:19:18.040]needs as well, to align together.
[00:19:21.720]So, next I'm just going to talk about
[00:19:23.140]a little bit of the process that we've
[00:19:24.670]all done together here, and really,
[00:19:29.180]it starts with the business need,
[00:19:32.010]and then we do a lot of information gathering.
[00:19:33.984]Julie touched on that a little bit,
[00:19:35.837]and so did Scott about the checklist
[00:19:38.100]that we put together, what we need
[00:19:40.319]to just begin with the process.
[00:19:45.229]So, throughout the process, there are many
[00:19:48.384]different types, and we're not gonna go through them,
[00:19:51.000]but there's different types of new software purchases,
[00:19:54.270]renewals, pilots, LTI statement work,
[00:19:57.620]there's a whole bunch of them, and each one of them
[00:20:00.440]has their own process and reviews that we go through.
[00:20:03.550]It is, we are really trying very hard
[00:20:05.610]to make sure that we are in compliance,
[00:20:07.730]not only with the NDA, but security,
[00:20:11.300]we wanna make sure that we examine what data is,
[00:20:14.440]and make sure that we are at very minimal risk
[00:20:18.939]with the software that we put onto our network,
[00:20:21.740]so we work very closely with all of these areas,
[00:20:24.930]they run parallel, but my main point, too,
[00:20:28.800]is that they take time, and it depends on the vendor
[00:20:33.980]and the vendor's willingness to work through
[00:20:37.880]each one of these reviews, sometimes they're great,
[00:20:40.490]sometimes they retract, so it's just a new thing,
[00:20:46.050]I think, with vendors, and so we worked
[00:20:48.168]very hard to put this process in place,
[00:20:50.703]so it can seem like it takes time
[00:20:54.077]to get some of this pushed through,
[00:20:55.680]but know that behind the scenes,
[00:20:57.870]there are multiple people working
[00:20:59.760]to make sure that we are as compliant
[00:21:02.140]and as low risk as we can.
[00:21:04.780]So, as Scott mentioned, we really focused
[00:21:07.522]on the new purchases, and we'll be spending
[00:21:10.740]the next few months coming out with processes for renewals.
[00:21:18.000]The last piece I want to talk about
[00:21:19.400]and that is also new, probably,
[00:21:24.550]I don't know, the last, six months, year?
[00:21:27.730]We've been including documents in the Technology
[00:21:32.380]Appendix Agreement, this is something that
[00:21:34.762]Paul Erickson and our legal counsel
[00:21:37.710]work closely together on to put together,
[00:21:41.000]pushing forward, we move into software services,
[00:21:44.130]it's been very important to have this language.
[00:21:46.377]It is in development, I will say,
[00:21:50.050]so it's not completely developed,
[00:21:51.970]we're always working to refine it,
[00:21:54.892]but these are just some of the areas
[00:21:57.690]within the agreement, and I do have Paul here,
[00:22:00.580]so if there are any questions at the end
[00:22:02.650]of the presentation, we can ask him,
[00:22:05.598]but it's really, I think it's really done a lot for us
[00:22:10.560]to be able to have this agreement that we include.
[00:22:15.500]It's part of the package that people see
[00:22:17.476]when procurement, that you know that you have the page up,
[00:22:21.940]and part of what we need to collect is this agreement,
[00:22:26.800]and it covers all these different areas,
[00:22:28.750]so a lot of times, we will think about,
[00:22:30.847]you know, moving from a pilot to production,
[00:22:33.960]or data, data's huge, I mean, we want to protect
[00:22:37.181]our data and so we spend a lot of time
[00:22:39.783]looking very closely at what is that data,
[00:22:42.870]where is it going, who's touching that.
[00:22:45.430]We have confidential, we have termination notices,
[00:22:48.980]another one that we really need to be aware of.
[00:22:53.290]The security we covered with our security team
[00:22:57.431]does, there's a little language in this,
[00:22:59.987]but we also do the review, that questionnaire review
[00:23:03.820]came out of the Big Ten Alliance, all of the security
[00:23:06.980]groups put that together, so that's
[00:23:10.540]really been well expressed, to be able
[00:23:11.870]to use that and share that, cyber insurance is new,
[00:23:17.067]and, sorry, I don't know much about that,
[00:23:18.965]and then just miscellaneous terms.
[00:23:21.390]I just wanna do high level, with software,
[00:23:24.200]it's so important to have this agreement,
[00:23:27.740]and thanks Paul and mostly Paul,
[00:23:31.250]he reviews it along with legal council.
[00:23:35.000]So, with that, I am going to turn over to Julie,
[00:23:37.760]because she will talk about (speech fades out).
[00:23:42.470]Thanks, Amy.
[00:23:44.920]Okay, responsibilities of the Procurement Contracts Team.
[00:23:49.170]So, like I said before, we are responsible
[00:23:52.217]for reviewing and editing, negotiating, redlining,
[00:23:56.570]reading upside down, backwards, and sideways,
[00:24:00.410]the general terms and conditions of doing business
[00:24:03.300]and basically, the general T's and C's do just that.
[00:24:08.760]They just define the business
[00:24:10.350]relationship with the supplier.
[00:24:12.650]The appendix that Amy was just referring to
[00:24:15.730]actually refers to the services, the deliverables.
[00:24:19.911]So, we negotiate the general T's and C's with the suppliers
[00:24:24.515]and the folks that review the IT portion
[00:24:28.500]of the appendix and any of the subject matter expert
[00:24:31.147]language in the contract would be negotiating
[00:24:35.300]some of those, or at least guiding my team
[00:24:37.940]on how to respond to that, so we're always sleuthing
[00:24:41.396]for hidden click-throughs that are provided
[00:24:44.900]by the supplier, and a lot of times, people are like,
[00:24:47.780]what do you mean, we don't need to worry about those,
[00:24:50.192]well, more and more, we do, because suppliers
[00:24:53.490]are becoming very creative in how
[00:24:55.580]they get their terms and conditions to trump ours.
[00:24:58.476]And so, even sometimes, you'll see them on a quote.
[00:25:01.570]Anymore, you maybe didn't necessarily even realize
[00:25:04.140]that there are hidden items or something like that.
[00:25:07.050]Nine times out of 10, what I see in click-throughs,
[00:25:09.720]they always say these can be changed,
[00:25:11.238]without any notice, and that they
[00:25:15.150]trump our terms and conditions.
[00:25:17.830]So, my group is diligently working
[00:25:20.880]to see if we can find where those are,
[00:25:22.880]and then we ask for them in a virtual hard copy document
[00:25:26.780]so that we can see them and attach them
[00:25:28.830]as part of the contract that we've agreed to,
[00:25:31.702]so that six months down the road,
[00:25:33.942]somebody doesn't change something and go back
[00:25:36.810]and go, you know, we have a problem with them
[00:25:38.930]and we have to enter some sort of litigation
[00:25:41.090]with the legal, and this is what we agreed to, so, nope.
[00:25:48.070]Okay, so other Procurement Contracts Team facts is that,
[00:25:53.210]the university always needs a start date and an end date,
[00:25:57.730]called a term, that's a state law.
[00:26:00.520]We can't have something that's just open ended out there.
[00:26:04.070]We always need a dollar amount, that's also a state law.
[00:26:08.120]And sometimes, we're not going to know specifically,
[00:26:10.850]but at least we can do a best guess estimate
[00:26:13.370]as to what something's going to be costing us.
[00:26:17.000]And the other thing is that we are the only direct line
[00:26:20.020]to General Counsel for their review and assistance,
[00:26:23.340]so we are the lucky ones that get
[00:26:25.580]to work with the attorneys over at central admin.
[00:26:28.410]They are wonderful people to work with,
[00:26:31.220]very short staffed, as a lot of us are here,
[00:26:33.970]but we have them on the red phone, so.
[00:26:40.740]Once the negotiations are complete,
[00:26:43.260]and I mean, all of them, like, so,
[00:26:45.940]the appendix, the subject matter expert,
[00:26:48.610]the technology language, the business terms and conditions,
[00:26:52.180]when all of those negotiations are complete,
[00:26:54.890]and you can see from what we've just been going through,
[00:26:58.604]it's not just like, one or two things
[00:27:00.620]we're taking a quick peek at, there's a lot
[00:27:02.720]of stuff involved, we will route the documents
[00:27:06.315]for signature in DocuSign and that is,
[00:27:11.047]it's approved, it's, to my knowledge,
[00:27:14.040]the only approved electronic signature software
[00:27:20.040]that is allowed in the state of Nebraska,
[00:27:22.790]it gives us high visibility for where
[00:27:25.430]a contract is in signature workflow,
[00:27:30.140]and the other thing that I really wanted to point out
[00:27:32.880]is Signature Authority, and this is something
[00:27:34.860]that we're constantly having to break the bad news to folks.
[00:27:41.080]Hello? Okay.
[00:27:42.805]That, no one outside of Procurement, the Office
[00:27:47.650]of the Vice Chancellor of Business and Finance,
[00:27:50.116]or central admin's CFO have delegated
[00:27:54.082]signature authority for software purchases.
[00:27:58.350]So, I mean that, those rules and regulations
[00:28:02.040]and policies are always being looked at,
[00:28:04.227]and to this point, that has not been addressed.
[00:28:10.100]Once the contract is fully executed in DocuSign,
[00:28:13.627]then you can go ahead and create a PO.
[00:28:21.572]Alright, here you go.
[00:28:25.880]So, were there any questions that anybody had?
[00:28:34.070]So, you mentioned SPSS
[00:28:35.529]and we're just now getting those codes,
[00:28:37.200]I mean, that license expired,
[00:28:39.520]last month, am I understanding
[00:28:40.870]What's the issue with that?
[00:28:41.703]Why does that keep recurring with so many titles?
[00:28:44.770]In the past, SPSS was renewed indirectly,
[00:28:49.273]and so we're kind of going back
[00:28:51.690]to the signature authority policy,
[00:28:53.640]and to what's negotiated in the contract,
[00:28:56.640]we have to go back to that, that's what we kinda lean into.
[00:28:59.590]We did put that one ahead of everything
[00:29:02.040]as far as trying to get things out there to people
[00:29:04.915]and to the legal group, but SPSS falls under
[00:29:08.320]a little bit different circumstances, then
[00:29:11.850]because as a UI contract, which it is,
[00:29:15.007]it has to be signed by Chris Kabourek,
[00:29:17.957]and so I do have to go through certain channels,
[00:29:20.483]I have to have legal review, contractual review,
[00:29:23.079]and Julie's been doing that, too,
[00:29:24.390]so in order to get to that point,
[00:29:25.920]so it did take a little bit longer, unfortunately.
[00:29:29.490]And just to add to that,
[00:29:30.557]it's not like I need to talk to you over microphone,
[00:29:33.850]but just so people can hear, we've had some leadership
[00:29:38.020]changes, here in the past six to eight months
[00:29:42.000]and Chris Kabourek has asked that
[00:29:44.543]everything that he signs, regardless of dollar amount
[00:29:48.230]or whatever, if he's signing it, it needs
[00:29:50.223]to go through general counsel for their review,
[00:29:54.007]edits, approval, before he'll even consider it,
[00:29:57.560]so, you know, everyone's being cautious
[00:30:01.275]at this point and time in their new roles,
[00:30:03.350]and we get that, and the process
[00:30:04.850]is new, and so that's part of it.
[00:30:07.820]It does take time, I think there's some new attorneys
[00:30:10.180]that have been hired recently, so that should help
[00:30:12.734]in the upcoming year to try to get things
[00:30:14.917]moving a little quicker, but that's
[00:30:17.788]one of the explanations for that.
[00:30:20.530]So is that a timeline we can move up?
[00:30:22.340]Like, I guess, to not run into that with other titles
[00:30:24.750]or at least in the future, can we start that process
[00:30:26.279]earlier to account for that, or--
[00:30:29.589]Well, we have done that.
[00:30:30.800]We tried to do that this year with SPSS,
[00:30:32.853]in that we did go ahead and push those
[00:30:35.900]a little bit earlier, only to kind of fall back
[00:30:37.597]into a rut where, you know, as time went on,
[00:30:42.230]people that needed to review it grew
[00:30:44.403]and the good thing is that, once we get the contract
[00:30:46.440]through the first time, we don't have
[00:30:48.150]to go back through this process technically,
[00:30:50.190]we now have documents that SPSS has approved,
[00:30:53.561]our IBN has that, so moving forward,
[00:30:57.480]we don't have to negotiate some of the terms
[00:30:59.003]and conditions that were set out before.
[00:31:02.370]So that will make it easier, moving forward.
[00:31:05.421](audience member and speaker interrupt each other)
[00:31:09.210]You guys, before we ask questions,
[00:31:10.630]can I give you the microphone?
[00:31:12.520]Otherwise, we can't hear, like, for the recording.
[00:31:14.970]Two things, yeah, we need to repeat
[00:31:17.020]the question just to make sure,
[00:31:20.324]because not everybody's hearing things,
[00:31:22.030]so when we're asking questions in the room,
[00:31:24.330]we got people online that aren't hearing questions,
[00:31:26.790]so this is making it better, I just wanna make sure
[00:31:29.930]everybody heard that, so if we can
[00:31:32.420]get that qualification going, here, I'm going to hand you--
[00:31:37.680]Do you have established
[00:31:39.110]timeline documentation on these policies
[00:31:42.670]that we have talked about today?
[00:31:44.850]Because, to follow up to that,
[00:31:46.910]a lot of us are really being hurt
[00:31:49.160]and efforts hindered by the way these processes,
[00:31:51.654]and if we know what your timelines are,
[00:31:54.190]then we can start our processes sooner
[00:31:56.160]so that does not continue to affect our progress.
[00:31:59.190]We understand that and we are in the process
[00:32:01.230]right now of gathering SLAs, and we have,
[00:32:06.870]it's a software, it's a homegrown, and luckily,
[00:32:11.420]we have it now, in order to help us determine these things.
[00:32:16.420]When we went to the one IT system,
[00:32:19.910]we sorta didn't know what was going
[00:32:22.500]to be coming through the door at us,
[00:32:23.857]and it was hard to plan, it was a brand new concept
[00:32:28.520]for the university, and I know I'm making excuses,
[00:32:33.160]but I'm being real about it, we are in the process,
[00:32:36.030]I'm in my second month of doing reports
[00:32:39.530]with turn around times, I can tell you that
[00:32:43.350]last month alone there was 32 ITS new requests
[00:32:47.410]for software that came through the door
[00:32:48.497]and I had one person working on that.
[00:32:52.060]But we are working on the process,
[00:32:54.320]we're working on the reviews, we've got the software,
[00:32:59.380]or the homegrown coding, that we're using to help us,
[00:33:03.300]which is truly helping to be visible
[00:33:05.340]as to where we're at, I can't stress enough
[00:33:07.448]that the sooner you get a request to us, the better,
[00:33:10.420]and I know you don't always know that
[00:33:12.080]until it's like, the 11th hour, but,
[00:33:17.130]my new push this year for contracts in general,
[00:33:20.580]whether they're IT or anything else,
[00:33:22.550]is getting in front of it, get this information
[00:33:25.530]out to your faculty so that they understand
[00:33:28.127]that if there's stuff that they wanna buy
[00:33:30.413]or are thinking about buying, or even entertaining
[00:33:33.470]the notion, let's start looking at it now
[00:33:35.440]instead of waiting until a week
[00:33:37.110]before they wanted to go buy it.
[00:33:38.860]Yes, we are working on that.
[00:33:41.749]Okay, I don't know where the microphone is.
[00:33:44.108]Right here.
[00:33:45.720](speaking over each other)
[00:33:52.408]You mentioned this earlier,
[00:33:54.177]in your new system, is that, are
[00:33:55.830]all software requests going to that?
[00:33:57.097]I've been using the web form on the IT Procurement
[00:34:00.360]website for software requests,
[00:34:02.200]and I feel like they go to a black hole,
[00:34:04.010]I mean, like, after a week or two,
[00:34:05.210]I do really have to reply and follow up
[00:34:08.065]with somebody specifically asking what the status is,
[00:34:12.620]is that something that the staff can get access to?
[00:34:15.940]To see where along that is in the process
[00:34:18.740]and what we can do to speed that along,
[00:34:22.061]I feel like so many of them go through that process
[00:34:23.890]and then come back and say that's not
[00:34:25.760]something that we're gonna put on any software anyway.
[00:34:27.820]Go put it on a keycard, and I've had that happen
[00:34:29.940]twice this week, and that's a giant waste of time
[00:34:32.700]on my end, and for my faculty and present students
[00:34:35.650]who are waiting for that if I could've
[00:34:37.626]just done that from the beginning.
[00:34:39.138]I understand that.
[00:34:40.755]Well, basically, you can send your contract request,
[00:34:43.058]if there's a contract with it--
[00:34:44.677]No, it's generally, it's not,
[00:34:46.863]I mean, the last couple things have
[00:34:47.696]been smaller things that didn't have contracts.
[00:34:49.323]Okay, well, it is on our wishlist
[00:34:52.908]that we will have a system in couple of years
[00:34:55.117]that will be highly transparent
[00:34:57.920]to everybody who's purchasing,
[00:34:59.900]but we all know what the budget cuts have done this year,
[00:35:02.770]so the process right now, myself,
[00:35:05.330]and Maggie, and Nicole are looking at
[00:35:07.854]some systems that, gi-der is one of them,
[00:35:12.280]that we can kind of plug in, and,
[00:35:14.402]for example, you wanna make a purchase,
[00:35:17.120]it just takes you right out into the, like,
[00:35:20.720]help desk thing, and you fill out all of the information,
[00:35:23.260]if you need a contract, it populates the contract.
[00:35:26.290]We're working on that, we're not there yet.
[00:35:28.630]I wish I could tell you that it was transparent,
[00:35:31.610]but like I said, it was only intended to be a Band-Aid,
[00:35:36.780]we didn't know for how long, and so,
[00:35:40.276]we're in kind of a process before, tool, person, anyway,
[00:35:46.090]and so we've been working on this process
[00:35:47.893]and trying to streamline it and make it better.
[00:35:50.143]I think it's getting better, but unfortunately,
[00:35:54.810]there's fallout that y'all are seeing
[00:35:56.640]and having feeling the effects from
[00:35:58.580]and trust me, we are all three feeling those effects as well
[00:36:02.210]and we also are open to any ideas,
[00:36:05.880]and I will tell you also that,
[00:36:10.360]I firmly believe that we need to be reviewing these things
[00:36:13.360]all the time, so if you have a better idea,
[00:36:15.290]then you can come to me, or we need to meet
[00:36:17.849]whoever to work this out, let me hear it,
[00:36:22.330]I'm all ears, 'cause you're right, Chay,
[00:36:24.780]I know you're on the line, too,
[00:36:27.220]for what you're trying to do, we all are,
[00:36:29.870]so right now, I guess the answer is no, I'm sorry.
[00:36:40.140]Some online questions, the first one is,
[00:36:43.144]is a contract that auto renews without notice of termination
[00:36:47.000]allowed, or is that equivalent to not having end dates?
[00:36:52.200]Okay, first of all, auto renewals are not allowed
[00:36:55.920]by the Board of Regents, so no.
[00:37:00.820]We do need a firm end date and typically,
[00:37:03.950]I will just tell you that it is unspoken policy
[00:37:07.960]that we don't want anything to go longer than 10 years,
[00:37:11.500]and I would say that in the technology field,
[00:37:13.450]that's way too long, that we would wanna have
[00:37:16.250]a contract out there that was rolling over for 10 years.
[00:37:21.300]I'd encourage folks to get three years, or five years,
[00:37:25.079]and once we get the processes a little more streamlined,
[00:37:28.900]maybe get some additional tools that will help us,
[00:37:32.398]then that won't be such a big huge deal.
[00:37:35.060]Like what Scott was saying earlier is
[00:37:37.950]once we go through this initial review and stuff,
[00:37:40.355]it's not going to be like this for every single thing
[00:37:43.300]so like, renewals should be more
[00:37:45.820]streamlined at some point down the road.
[00:37:47.960]But yeah, auto renewals, no, big no.
[00:37:53.360]Next question, what is the amount of time
[00:37:56.010]needed to go through the entire process?
[00:37:58.700]What is the dollar amount when an RFP is required,
[00:38:01.867]and where do we access the information
[00:38:04.267]if the vendor has been approved?
[00:38:11.090]Okay, let's hit those one at a time.
[00:38:13.080]Let's start with the first one,
[00:38:14.742]go ahead and say that one again really quick.
[00:38:17.713]What is the amount of time needed
[00:38:20.040]to go through the entire process?
[00:38:22.324]I think, looking at it right now,
[00:38:24.224]I would probably give it about 90 days,
[00:38:26.437]you know, three months, three months for a brand new
[00:38:29.345]software that we have to try to negotiate
[00:38:32.383]with the vendor, so yeah to get through everything,
[00:38:36.453]I would say three months to be safe.
[00:38:38.590]A lot of it depends on the vendor,
[00:38:40.310]like we're saying, if you have a very compliant
[00:38:42.609]vendor who's good about wanting
[00:38:44.470]to be compliant, and it only behooves them to be compliant,
[00:38:47.890]and there's sales with other universities,
[00:38:50.470]then it's no big deal, and we've had some of those
[00:38:52.270]where we've had the opposite, too,
[00:38:54.110]we've had problem vendors that are stubborn,
[00:38:56.524]they do not wanna move anywhere,
[00:38:57.643]they do not want to go off of their paper, anything,
[00:39:01.068]and so it becomes a little bit harder for us,
[00:39:03.410]but I would say anything else,
[00:39:04.490]I would say to start off with,
[00:39:06.670]I would say 90 days, three months from start to finish.
[00:39:12.208]What is the dollar amount when an RFP is required?
[00:39:14.960]And where do we access the information
[00:39:17.415]if the vendor has been approved?
[00:39:20.080]Okay, so the second one is basically,
[00:39:25.940]yeah, 150 right now is the new state
[00:39:28.140]and federal uniformity guidelines,
[00:39:33.950]uniform guidance, that's the key, is $150,000 where your
[00:39:37.810]RFP starts at, RFQ at some point.
[00:39:43.319]And I just wanna talk real, real briefly
[00:39:45.100]about uniform guidance within the new federal law.
[00:39:47.640]We are a federally funded research institution,
[00:39:52.060]so you don't wanna step outside of those boundaries
[00:39:55.140]'cause it could cause us to lose federal grant money.
[00:40:01.050]And then the last one is,
[00:40:02.543]what is it we look for in approved vendors?
[00:40:06.830]Is that right?
[00:40:11.849]I believe the question he's asking is,
[00:40:14.330]if you have a place that has information
[00:40:16.070]about vendors that have been approved.
[00:40:19.109]We really don't have any place
[00:40:21.247]that we keep any data repository for vendors
[00:40:23.700]that are gonna be passed through the system.
[00:40:26.975]This is probably something that
[00:40:27.936]we'll need to think about, but we have not
[00:40:29.684]gotten to that point yet, being able
[00:40:31.690]to do that, within our system.
[00:40:35.447]Maybe we should start like,
[00:40:37.540]a little (mumbling) or something,
[00:40:38.993]put something together that's visible
[00:40:41.130]sort of, our cost and insurance stuff
[00:40:43.260]that pops up on our website.
[00:40:49.500]And sure, you want me to commit to this, right?
[00:40:51.754](laughs)
[00:40:53.410]Okay, well, so, we do have other things
[00:40:56.000]and I think maybe this will be our next project
[00:40:58.613]in a couple years, so possibly, we could enter in
[00:41:02.863]some sort of database that you could access
[00:41:05.810]through the ITS Procurement website,
[00:41:08.159]probably like our COIs or Certificate of Insurances,
[00:41:13.080]you can go out and search for those, now
[00:41:15.300]Maybe that might be something that could
[00:41:16.990]come down the pipe in six months to a year.
[00:41:22.270]Any other questions?
[00:41:27.910]This microphone's challenging.
[00:41:31.172]Is that a no?
[00:41:32.283]Okay, then have a good day, thank you very much.
[00:41:35.687](speaking over each other)
[00:41:38.311]I have one more question.
[00:41:40.300]Just, slow down, Scott.
[00:41:42.520]Is anyone planning to investigate an NUI license
[00:41:45.510]for a survey product such as Alteryx?
[00:41:53.330]I can tell you that, and Paul's smiling, because,
[00:41:56.760]there are a lot of different tools out there,
[00:41:59.140]and we would love to be able to pull it into one contract,
[00:42:03.850]so yes, I would tell you there is actually
[00:42:05.390]a lot of work done pulling together data
[00:42:08.610]showing what sort of tools were out there,
[00:42:11.620]so it is on the list, and I don't know where
[00:42:15.548]it's going to go from there, but it definitely
[00:42:17.820]is an initiative that we'd like to take on.
[00:42:20.844]One more question, how will the recording
[00:42:25.675]be distributed, the PED talks?
[00:42:31.786]It'll be posted on our website.
[00:42:32.619]It'll be posted on our website, says Amy.
[00:42:37.162](laughs) Your voice has changed on that.
[00:42:44.790]So, this is not a question, it's more
[00:42:46.620]of a comment to add a little bit to what
[00:42:48.819]the team has been presenting today, as shared with you,
[00:42:53.187]first off, I think it's important to understand that,
[00:42:58.333]I think it takes a little bravery,
[00:43:00.652]it takes courage to get out there and try something new
[00:43:03.690]and create a process where one did not exist before.
[00:43:07.053]So, the feedback that you're giving this team
[00:43:09.787]is absolutely critical, they're going
[00:43:13.260]to continue to want that, we're band-aiding
[00:43:16.490]three systems together to accomplish
[00:43:19.200]the kind of process that didn't exist before,
[00:43:22.090]so I'm extremely proud of this group that we have.
[00:43:25.441]I just wanted to go to the back of the room
[00:43:27.739]so they could see you, on the recording.
[00:43:31.230]So, I'm extremely proud of this group
[00:43:33.430]for taking this on, and it's taken a village,
[00:43:36.540]and it's going to continue to take a village,
[00:43:38.518]and it's going to take all of you,
[00:43:39.760]and your input, and your collaboration,
[00:43:41.622]so, not agreeing with something
[00:43:43.330]is not a problem as much as us not hearing
[00:43:46.580]what all is going on, what the challenges are,
[00:43:49.140]what they present to you, so that
[00:43:50.910]we can find ways to improve and enhance
[00:43:52.940]those processes, and I say we,
[00:43:55.050]and really, it's fallen on the shoulders
[00:43:57.930]of these three individuals and some of the other
[00:44:00.020]names that they've mentioned, and
[00:44:01.383]some of the people in the room.
[00:44:03.610]Add to it, uniform counting tasks presented us
[00:44:06.960]with an opportunity to talk about the awareness
[00:44:10.913]of where are you in your procurement processes
[00:44:14.740]and your guidelines, while the big threshold is $150,000,
[00:44:19.520]I'd like to remind everyone that quotes, or comparisons,
[00:44:23.300]are required in order for us to move
[00:44:25.980]forward at that 10 to 150,000 level.
[00:44:29.700]So, again, that early engagement with the team
[00:44:32.020]is going to help you know what you need to do
[00:44:35.769]to prepare for procurement process and in some cases,
[00:44:38.410]it might be the sole source, but not as much
[00:44:40.870]as you think in the software world,
[00:44:43.231]because there are a lot of products out there
[00:44:45.107]and it really becomes more complicated
[00:44:47.145]when they're trying to help you find what's best
[00:44:50.440]for your project and keep in mind, too,
[00:44:53.480]that software is one of the most unique types of purchases
[00:44:58.379]because it involves intellectual property.
[00:45:01.070]We're putting our intellectual property
[00:45:02.943]into this technology, so it's rife
[00:45:07.330]with a lot more challenges, and that's a lot
[00:45:10.134]of what this team is trying to ensure
[00:45:12.410]we have a system wide protocol
[00:45:15.049]to keep us all protected, so, I, for one,
[00:45:19.340]am grateful for their efforts,
[00:45:20.910]and I hope that you are, too, and I hope--
[00:45:22.760]Don't remain silent, speak up,
[00:45:25.060]even after the meeting, we'd like your feedback.
[00:45:27.470]More questions?
[00:45:32.285]Thank you.

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September PED Talks

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