Procurement Piggybacking And Data Sharing Modernizes Government Spending

With 10-20 percent of U.S. GDP tied to government procurement ($2-3 Trillon per year in non-defense spending), it makes up a substantial part of the US economy. Historically, government agencies did not have the data tools to share their individual purchase transactions with each other resulting in siloed inefficiencies and wasted spend. The scale of this fragmented process and inter-agency disconnect is what motivated Jeff Rubenstein to found SmartProcure in 2011.

While working as a reserve police officer, Rubenstein saw how siloed purchasing information was, even within an individual agency. When Rubenstein’s police department purchased new defibrillators, only to find out what they paid was nowhere near the same amount charged to the fire station across the street for same product, Rubenstein became determined to do something. If only his department had insight into the fire department’s existing purchase agreement, Jeff could have piggybacked on the deal, locking in the same rate and saving taxpayers a lot of money.

“Over the years, I’ve witnessed countless missed opportunities for government organizations to save money and time because every city, county, town and village purchases independently”

“Over the years, I’ve witnessed countless missed opportunities for government organizations to save money and time because every city, county, town and village purchases independently,” said Rubenstein. “If the 90,000 U.S. government agencies worked together, it would be largest purchasing organization in the world, but that is not the case today and most cities have the buying power of a small company. After 20+ years shaking my head at the outdated procurement industry, I decided to quit my job and do something about it.”

“If the 90,000 U.S. government agencies worked together, it would be largest purchasing organization in the world, but that is not the case today and most cities have the buying power of a small company.”

Starting SmartProcure was a way to make government procurement more efficient and transparent through its two main product offerings: GovSpend and GovQuote.

GovSpend

GovSpend is a procurement information database that  government agencies and government vendors use to research each other.  The GovSpend search engine filters through hundreds of millions of historical government purchase orders and current bids, enabling government vendors to analyze government agency spend history and, perhaps more importantly, competitor pricing. For Government agencies, GovSpend is a critical tool in a procurement officer’s vendor workflow enabling vendor identification and price comparison.

(GovSpend is currently being used by 19,000 government agencies across 70+ states and territories. Check out Govtech Fund’s Impact Series to learn how GovSpend’s platform helped one county save $50,000 alone on a simple tree-cutting project!)

GovQuote

GovQuote is the first-ever government procurement marketplace that allows agencies to request multiple sub-RFP vendor quotes in under a minute. This free platform broadens the universe of government vendors enabling small and minority-owned companies compete for quote requests alongside larger organizations.

“Before integrating GovQuote, we faced a range of challenges that slowed down our procurement process and put our purchasing decisions at risk,” said Renee Biby, Okaloosa County Grants Coordinator. “This included long response delays due to miscommunication, hours of time spent manually keeping records to maintain compliance to audit standards, as well as reliance on outdated technology. GovQuote provided the tools we needed to build strong, lasting relationships with new vendors, while maintaining compliance and detailed, fully automatic recordkeeping.”

To learn more about the impact SmartProcure’s GovSpend and GovQuote procurement tools, visit: https://smartprocure.us/.