February Purchasing System Presentation

  Friday, February 11th 2011

I had to move the purchasing system presentation to the February Commissioners meeting - we have had a packed agenda every meeting since January 1st.

So this presentation was given at the February Commissioner's meeting at the Porter Corners.

The presentation itself was only about 10-15 minutes with questions, but the demonstration lasted probably another 15 minutes - so everyone who attended the meeting got a pretty good look at what the system can do.

1. Purchasing System Presentation (143kb - powerpoint)

All in all, there was alot of positive feedback regarding the system - and I hope that this system will greatly improve the business workflow of our fire district!

As always, contact me with any questions that you have.

posted by spackmann in Purchasing System at 2:41 PM (376 day(s) old)  Permalink

Proposed GFD Purchasing System Unveiling

  Sunday, January 2nd 2011

So it's been a long time coming, but I can finally start to reveal the GFD Purchasing System that I have been developing since March of last year (2010).

I started working on the system after identifying a variety of issues in how the GFD has historically purchased equipment.

1. Officers would run out of requisitions, and sometime it would be hard to meet up with the purchasing agent to get new paper forms.
2. Orders that were "back logged", or "out of stock" when processed by the purchasing agent were often perceived as left in "limbo" simply because this information wasn't relayed back to the people who requested the equipment.
3. Like above, there really wasn't any way of "tracking orders" after officers handed them off to the purchasing agent. For example, there was no way of knowing how long it took the purchasing agent to order the equipment, and then once delivered, how long it took for the officers to actually receive the equipment. Sometimes the equipment was in the office (for lengthy periods of time), but this information was miss-communicated.
4. Signing of purchase requests (for the most part) really only happens at Commissioner meetings - when Commissioners are present to sign the purchase orders. That's not a *horrible* practice, but its inefficient because that gives a 1 month overhead to getting orders processed, ordered and delivered - because that process can't begin until the request is approved.

There are, naturally, commercial grade purchasing software packages available for purchase. Unfortunately, these packages often have (1) high price tags and (2) a complexity of business features (aimed at corporations) that simply are not required by the GFD.

So I decided to create an entirely new system (that makes it free), customized to the needs of the GFD (that makes it useful) - and all of the downfalls listed above are addressed in this system. Features of the purchasing system:

1. Email notification to any one who submits a requisition. These emails notify users when (1) a requisition is approved by the Board, (2) when it is processed by the purchasing agent, (3) when it is ordered, and (4) when its delivered.
2. Commissioners can approve an requisition submitted online - so there's no waiting to approve requisitions at monthly Commissioner meetings. In fact, Commissioners get email notifications when a requisition has been submitted for approval.
3. The ability to track any changes to a requisition - so if a purchasing agent puts on a requisition "on back order", the person can see that on the requisition itself
4. The ability to search on all previous requisitions - to see what was ordered by a particular company/officer - and therefore determine if something is required to be ordered again (cuts down on duplication of orders).

And many more...

The GFD has grown to such a size and magnitude that it has become a bottleneck in processing paperwork. Granted, this is part of being a business, but in this day and age, technology gives us the methods to make pretty much any process easier (and also cheaper).

There's no reason since it is now 2011 not to use a system like this to streamline purchasing within the GFD.

And here are some screen shots.

I plan on giving a public presentation at the January workshop (end of this month) on this system. This idea of having an easier purchasing system has been talked about for the past two years - let alone this year, so I assume that this system will be readily accepted an integrated into operation sometime (early) this year.

Any questions in the meantime, just let me know.

posted by spackmann in Purchasing System at 11:12 AM (416 day(s) old)  Permalink