Too often, procurement and IT don’t see eye-to-eye. There are a number of reasons for the schism, but a lot of it just has to do with communication. That’s why it’s good to see that a meeting organized by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) has resulted in an action plan to help modernize procurement practices to match the needs of IT departments. The action plan includes CPOs and CIOs working closely together, early in the process, and centralizing the governance structure to help facilitate collaboration.
The action plan includes CPOs and CIOs working closely together, engaging earlier in the process, and developing a formalized governance structure that allows both CPOs and CIOs a voice on an IT procurement. But the key in all of this, and it’s hammered home throughout the report, that communication needs to be key. And it’s not just a matter of “formalizing governance structures” and other changes that may take time. It’s about creating better habits. As the report states:
Start somewhere. Collaborate, be creative, and work towards developing an understanding of who needs to be on a governance committee, what roles participants should play, how to position this group to be effective, and how to routinize and make working together a regular occurrence.
You can read the full report below.