Tweet

Synchronization Versus Compression Should Guide Government Procurement Policy (200th POST)

Written by: Jon Hansen

Article Overview: Government is never boring. On one hand you have the Government of Canada who despite earlier hopes has once again reverted to muscling a shared services platform down the unwilling throats of stakeholders, the majority of whom oppose the current direction. A move which is ironically being introduced at the expense of the very business and innovation the mandate is purported to protect.

Synchronization Versus Compression Should Guide Government Procurement Policy (200th POST)

Government is never boring.

On one hand you have the Government of Canada who despite earlier hopes has once again reverted to muscling a shared services platform down the unwilling throats of stakeholders, the majority of whom oppose the current direction. A move which is ironically being introduced at the expense of the very business and innovation the mandate is purported to protect.

On the other hand, you have the Commonwealth of Virginia whose eVA program has been one of the few bright spots (I actually used the word beacon in a recent speech) in a sea of failed public sector initiatives perhaps heading precipitously towards a self-destructive end. What’s the old term, “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?” (Note: Read Part 1 and Part 2 of my recent Virginia posts for further details.)

The one common element, besides the irony that both the Government of Canada’s and Virginia’s programs were launched in 2001, is the paucity of either statistical or empirical proof to support the current mandates. For example Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee’s (JLARC) reference to a survey, in which 95 out of a possible 46,000 stakeholders responded, as one of several reasons for their review is difficult to grasp. However, this is still light year’s ahead of the Canadian Government’s shared services strategy whose merits are reflected in the kind of “tastes great, less filling” statements offered by individuals such as ITAC President Bernard Courtois. Bernard, who is a gentleman’s gentleman and someone I genuinely like, was quoted in an April 20th article by Kathryn May in the Ottawa Citizen as saying that “We have been telling the government it buys piece parts at excellent prices, but it could save a lot more money by buying a total product.” Unfortunately, there has been no data provided to support such a claim.

Sorry Bernard, but the promise of increased savings has been proffered before and therefore has the substantive creditability of a Hollywood movie set – you know the ones where the town’s buildings are merely facades supported by skeletal frames behind the scenes.

In the end, the government would be better served through a synchronization of stakeholder capabilities versus a compression of players. If you would like to find out more about the differences between synchronization versus compression, feel free to drop me a line via the author bio.

In the meantime, for those of us who have watched the antics associated with public sector procurement policy planning (sounds similar to the peter-piper-picked-a-peck-of-pickled-peppers tongue twister), gradually unfold on an increasingly public stage, we can only be grateful for the unending supply of anecdotal punchlines from an ever evolving cast of characters. Even though we take this matter very seriously, based of past experience we have learned that immediate, knee jerk reactions accomplish very little given the propensity for sudden, and inexplicable directional changes. Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio, or in this instance David Marshall?

All I can say is thank God for Susan Boyle!

Related Articles
  How does policy either motivate or undermine employee performance?
  Does the Present Buy American AccordBy-Pass Popular Opinion Relative to Protectionism
  While We Were Sleeping: A Story of Misdirected Efforts in the World of Public Sector Procurement Policy
  Is There a Difference Between Purchasing and Procurement? (A PI Q&A)
  Latest PWGSC Press Release Changes Little

Article Tags: bernard courtois, canadian government, common element, commonwealth of virginia, courtois bernard, creditability, empirical proof, gentleman, government of canada, irony, jaws, jlarc, legislative audit, light year, mandates, ottawa citizen, paucity, public sector initiatives, services strategy, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory



Related Forum Posts
Re: Can someone explain Search engine optimization to me? - Hi, Ask yourself, "What is the goal of a search engine like Google?" A search engine's goal is to provide the most related (or best) web page results when someone searches. Do you think people are searching for "Auction Cars Government" or "Government Car Auction." In fact type those keywords into Google with the quotation marks. You will find that Google gives different results for each keyword phrases. Granted you get many of the web pages ranking the same but there is a difference. My answer is, use "Government Car Auction" or even "Government Seized Car Auction" because that is what people are searching for. That is how the majority of the indexed pages use. That is what makes sense when you read the phrase. Jeff
Research & Development Tax Credits - If anyone is involved in any sort of R&D I have a contact that can submit an application for you to the Government of Canada to get back upto 80% of expenses you may have incurred. Best of all - all this at no cost to you. She's worked with companies of all sizes and part of her services, which are included is how to structure yourself in the future to continue to receive these Government Tax Credits. She can even go back to the last three years in your books to get Tax Credits refunds as well. Email me and I can share her details with you.
Re: Recommendations for going Wireless - [size=130:3farizrp][color=#cc3333:3farizrp]Notebook/Netbook[/color:3farizrp][/size:3farizrp] As far as your notebook preferences, I got a netbook about a year and a half ago (January 2010) for notetaking in classes, and for ultimate portability of computing power. The only limitation to the netbook is multi-tasking ability. I tend to do many, MANY things at once on a computer, and that was the biggest limitation for me. If you don't plan to be running 15 programs at a time, then I'd definitely suggest a $300~$350 investment in a netbook. [size=130:3farizrp][color=#cc3333:3farizrp]File Synchronization[/color:3farizrp][/size:3farizrp] A bit late on the chime-in, but there's another tool, similar to Dropbox, called Syncplicity. I originally chose Syncplicity over dropbox because Syncplicity allows you to sync a folder with Google Docs, and it allows you to select which folders on your computer to sync (where Dropbox forces one folder for use). I have since moved to a combination of Syncplicity and Dropbox. But really, either way, Syncplicity and Dropbox are both easy to use, and a great way to sync files from one computer to the other. Highly recommended that you look into it, if you haven't done so already. [size=130:3farizrp][color=#cc3333:3farizrp]Email Synchronization[/color:3farizrp][/size:3farizrp] Assuming you use something like Gmail as your primary email account, set up an email client (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) on both of your computers and use IMAP to access your email. IMAP is a protocol that "pushes" email to your client, similar to a blackberry, instead of POP email, which "pulls" email from the server every x minutes. IMAP also updates server information, such as where you've moved an email, if you've read it, replied to it, etc. Best of luck!
Re: Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals - [quote="Alan Mater":1q4mpk8g][quote:1q4mpk8g] This is what happens when the Government gets involved and puts its nose where it shouldn't. Let the market correct itself. There is no reason for the Government to bail everyone out. If the businesses, mainly banks, weren't corrupted with greed, this wouldn't have happened. They are and it did, so let them dwindle away and pay for their mistakes. That's what any small business has to do. Why should they be any different. They have gotten away with it for over 10 years! Surely they should have seen this coming. [/quote:1q4mpk8g][/quote:1q4mpk8g] The same thing happened in the early 30's that's why the law to prevent these practices was put in place. But, during the Clinton administration people decided that eliminating that law would boost the economy - once again, that didn't work. Kind of reminds you of the saying that people who don't consider history are bound to repeat it. Chris
Re: Bad SEO techniques? - [quote="Alan Mater":3gnk0yja][quote="WebBizIdeas.com":3gnk0yja]There are few more techniques which also known as the Bad SEO Techniques or Black Hat SEO Techniques. Such as: - Relying on keyword metatags - Purchase Links (From Spamming or blacklisted sites or doing purchase links on high level for site marketing) - Horde Page Rank: This is one of my favorites, because it's one that most webmasters don't understand yet. This is because it changed over the past year or two. The concept people have in their mind is that page rank is a key part of site rankings and linking to other sites "leaks page rank" from your site. However, the world has changed. - Swap Links: Another oldie, but not goodie. Search engines want links to represent endorsements. Swapped links represent barter, and they are trivial to detect. Don't swap links for the purpose of building page rank. It's a waste of your time - Implement duplicate content - Use Session IDs on your URLs - Use lots of Javascript - Implement your site in Flash[/quote:3gnk0yja] Hi Jeff, Thanks for adding to the list. I have one question, though. How would one implement Session IDs for a URL, and what benefit would come from doing so?[/quote:3gnk0yja] Session ID shows up in the URL only if the method of the submitted form is GET, i.e., <form method="get"...>. If you can arrange for the form method to be POST, this particular problem does not arise. Data-transmission paths to the host differ between GET and POST. The latter, as well as being somewhat more secure, completely sidesteps the issue of fake URLs and SE confusion.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

What Aweber Can Do For Your Online Business

SEO Link Popularity and the Home Business Website

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.