While making fun of the way governments purchase has long been a good source of humor in spend management circles, the deficit news coming out now leads one to believe that it is now time to really make something happen.

What do you think? How would you make this happen? Is it a lost cause?

Ariba has jumped into the fray several times and has even set up, with the help of some public sector experts, a toolkit for public sector professionals to get started.

The value that has been realized by the private sector from the institution of advanced sourcing, contracting, procurement and payment techniques has been staggering. Many in the private sector look at this and think “if only we could do this for the government and, even more, the taxpayer”. Despite the very real challenges, the potential value from broad implementation of Spend Management in the public sector is enormous. Cost savings is just one of the benefits:

• Improved compliance with existing processes and regulations
• Reduced cycle times associated with contracting and acquisition
• Better products and services to agencies and stakeholders
• Lower Total Cost of Ownership for government purchases, both goods and services
• More transparency into spend, supplier performance, invoicing and all other parts of the Source-to-Pay cycle

However, the hurdles are very real, from lack of incentives, to special interests, to outdated technology.

At this point (and regardless of your political affiliation), we in US are endangering are grandchildren’s futures and need to take action.

Kris Colby is a Director in Ariba’s Spend Management Services group. Kris specializes in strategic sourcing and risk reduction for multinational organizations.