EVA: PILOTING A NEW FRONTIER FOR
GOVERNMENT BUYING
As technology continued to progress in the
private sector and online shopping for the consumer became more
and more commonplace, it wasn’t long before the move
toward integrating the internet in government purchasing was
afoot. By 1999, reports and studies were available on the
technological possibilities to improve the process. However,
figuring out how to improve the state’s government procurement
process was no easy feat. By 2000 the Commonwealth was committed
to utilizing the expanding realm of technology to make the
necessary improvements to its government procurement process, a
move that would prove to be challenging, but successful.
“One of the greatest challenges was our culture in the
Commonwealth, not just the technology,” according to Bob
Sievert, director of the eProcurement Bureau and eVA Program
Manager.
Exploring options to restructure a
government procurement process that spends as much as a Fortune
300 company just made good business sense and an internet-based
application offered the solution. The eVA was created through a
contract with a global business and IT consulting firm, and has
become Virginia’s government purchasing tool. In just a few
short years, eVA has revolutionized a traditional paper based
government procurement process and made the Commonwealth more competitive.
According to the Journal of Public Procurement, the manual
processing of a government purchase transaction typically costs
$125.00 to $175.00 each time a buyer goes through the process,
whereas, the typical electronic purchase transaction costs
between $10.00 to $15.00 to process. Besides the cost per
transaction, electronic purchasing has also reduced the order
to delivery time making it on average 25% quicker than
nonelectronic purchasing.
Using eVA offers over five million
different types of products and services ranging from fuel,
vehicles and maintenance services to office supplies; and from
professional consulting services to IT products and services.
Its efficiencies have been a welcome change to most managers
and buyers who have found a
way to strengthen their purchasing
process. Today, there are more than 9,000 buyers, purchasing
officers, and other users on eVA and since its initial
introduction the Commonwealth has realized a savings of over
$114 million.
While efficiencies have been achieved by
saving time and money on government purchases, the general landscape
of physically making a purchase has also been transformed
creating a virtual marketplace for more buyers and more vendors
to participate. Using eVA provides more choices for products
and services by allowing a buyer to comparative shop. There are
more than 980 vendor catalogs available through eVA. Now,
buyers throughout the state can browse product listings and
vendor catalogs from the comfort of their own desks.
With an up to date statewide vendor
database, eVA also solves the problems experienced by both
buyers and vendors. Buyers often found it difficult to find
enough vendors that sold certain products and services, while
vendors were limited to doing business where they knew the
buyer. “Everything is at our fingertips, including buyer
information, along
eVA Scorecard
 |
through Dec. 2005
810,015 Orders
$7.6 Billion Spent
5 Million Items
983 Catalogs
171 Agencies
492 Localities
30,994 Suppliers
9,121 Users
