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Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford — who once led Maryland’s Department of General Services and has overseen efforts to buy more from small businesses and to improve efficiency at federal agencies — headed the state’s s reform and modernization effort after Governor Larry Hogan formed the Commission to Modernize State Procurement in 2016. (Submitted photo)
Maryland has a new streamlined, more integrated electronic eProcurement platform.
The improved system, eMaryland Marketplace Advantage (eMMA), went online July 22 and makes it easier to submit bids and proposals across an electronic platform. After several rounds of upgrades expected to come online over the next year, the system will become a full procure-to-pay platform.
Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford — who once led Maryland’s Department of General Services and has overseen efforts to buy more from small businesses and to improve efficiency at federal agencies — headed the state’s s reform and modernization effort after Governor Larry Hogan formed the Commission to Modernize State Procurement in 2016.
Maryland state government rebuilt its procurement system with products and services from Ivalua, Nitor Partners and Business Solutions Group.
Below, he tells more.
What is eMaryland Marketplace Advantage?
eMMA is our electronic procurement platform. It is a successor to eMaryland Marketplace, our original automated platform. I can’t just say it is, “next generation,” because it’s several generations in advance of where we have been.
Why was the previous system replaced?
It was an older system that didn’t have full functionality, and, primarily, it didn’t have integration with some of the other platforms and financial management systems we have. It required manual and repetitive processes to make sure that you transferred data and information from it to our financial management system.
The new system, eMMA, is integrated. It’s also cloud-based so it’s not as dependent on the hardware and software as it had been, and it will be much easier to use for our employees as well as for vendors.
What new features will eMMMA offer?
It’s going to give us greater transparency. Initially eMMA will simply replace the existing functionality, although it will have the integration that has been missing.
Over the next 10 months we’ll be rolling out additional modules and capabilities, ranging from contract management to easier analytics — being able to do better searches to see what companies are out there that are offering what types of products.
The data — just being able to get data about what the state is buying, and what categories of products the state is buying — is going to give us the ability, at the state level, to step back and review what our buying patterns are, and to be sure we’re getting the best price and best value for the services and products we’re purchasing.
It will be easier for vendors to utilize eMMA, easier for them to search through our solicitations for products and services that may match the services or products that they sell.* They can then focus on individual agencies, focus on individual needs of those agencies or departments to be able to direct their marketing efforts, to see what we are actually buying, look at the history of what we have been buying [and] look at where contracts are soon to expire so they can prepare for the next round of solicitations and position themselves better for that.
How will vendors learn to operate within the new platform?
[Guides are] provided online, at https://procurement.maryland.gov/emma-qrgs/.
It’s a fairly intuitive system so it shouldn’t be too difficult for the modern person that is somewhat familiar with using the internet. If they have used Amazon or any of the purchasing platforms, they should be able to utilize this as well.
Guides will be updated as we roll out additional capabilities. We want to constantly try to improve.
How does this impact transparency within the procurement process?
Being able to have additional information and being able to search for vendors or search solicitations and products, it basically puts everything out in the open — who we’re doing business with and how much we’re spending in terms of the business and the services and the products. I believe it helps the public as well as the business community.
I expect, as we get feedback from vendors as well as from government customers, that we can modify and improve the system to make it easier to use. As well, there may be some reporting that we want from an oversight standpoint. The Board of Public Works may want to see certain things.
Some of our other systems need upgrades as well. Our financial management system is old and very cumbersome. We are able to integrate with it, but it has to be set for a major rewrite.
Contract management has long been an issue. This system will give us a bit more analytics to be able to manage contracts a lot better.
What role does the Office of State Procurement play?
The Office will set standards, training criteria and capabilities for our procurement professionals as well as make sure that our regulations make sense.
We are looking at conditions in our contracts which, in many cases, have not been changed in 15 or 20 years. We found that, in some cases, we are not getting the competition we would like because some companies will say “I don’t agree with these terms and conditions.” So some companies will back out [and] the incumbent will win again.
The Office of State Procurements was created by the Commission to Modernize Public Procurement. It will centralize procurement in a way that we’ve not done before, and allow us to standardize practices across all agencies and departments. Vendors are really going to like that.
* eMarylandMarketplaceAdvantage uses UNSPS Codes (United Nations Standard Products and Services Codes).
Expanding Opportunities
This article is featured in the 2019 edition of The Daily Record’s Expanding Opportunities Resource Guide for Small, Minority and Women Businesses. Published in conjunction with the Governor’s Office of Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs, Expanding Opportunities explores diversity, entrepreneurship and innovation in Maryland’s small business community. Read more from Expanding Opportunities on this website or read the digital edition.
