IT Sourcing Committee & IT Strategic Sourcing Center of Excellence wins UC Tech Yvonne Tevis UC-wide Collaboration golden award

This year, the IT Sourcing Committee & IT Strategic Sourcing Center of Excellence won UC Tech Yvonne Tevis UC-wide Collaboration golden award, presented at the UC Tech Awards ceremony at the UC Tech 2023 Conference. Learn more about their project and the impact of their work as a team since 2017.

Summary

Through the development and maintenance of a strong collaborative partnership, the UC IT Sourcing Committee and UC Systemwide Procurement IT Strategic Sourcing Center of Excellence have delivered an intentional program under which all UC locations can work together to strategically source commonly needed IT products and services, resulting in significant cost reduction and risk mitigation. Results since inception of this collaboration include: 

• $325M in total financial Benefit UC-wide; 
• 140% increase in annual financial Benefit; 
• 64 new or significantly updated UC system-wide IT strategic sourcing agreements, including terms and conditions aligned with UC policy and the law; 
• 33% increase in spend under agreement, resulting in significant risk mitigation due to negotiated agreement terms aligned with UC’s needs; 
• Additional operational efficiencies resulting from reduced duplication of effort. 

Project description

The UC IT Sourcing Committee (ITSC) provides direction for collective UC-wide IT sourcing efforts by identifying, prioritizing, and providing ongoing input related to opportunities for collective IT sourcing efforts. Each UC location’s ITSC member is responsible for engaging the appropriate leaders and stakeholders at their location regarding strategic sourcing opportunities, addressing business and funding models and developing tight IT/Procurement collaboration. All UC location CIOs (campus and health) have the option to appoint representatives to the ITSC, providing a venue for both local and UC-wide perspectives. 

Based upon the common priorities identified, and working in close alignment with the ITSC, the ITCOE leads project teams of IT and Procurement SMEs and stakeholders to implement UC-wide agreements providing the right solutions, at the right time, under the appropriate terms, as well as associated ongoing supplier relationship management to optimize the value resulting from those agreements. To accomplish this, the ITCOE effectively and efficiently develops, manages, and deploys resources to: 

1) Collaborate: Coordination among key stakeholders and partners to identify, prioritize and successfully execute IT sourcing initiatives that leverage the power of UC’s collective demand. 

2) Lead: Lead excellent programs and project teams to develop, negotiate, implement, and manage UC-wide IT agreements that align with UC’s needs, mitigate risk, reduce cost and provide benefit UC-wide. 

3) Improve: Continuously seek, develop, and execute on opportunities to improve existing agreements and programs to further reduce TCO, and to improve existing practices and procedures to enhance productivity. 

4) Communicate: Active engagement among UC IT and Procurement leaders, partners and key stakeholders, as well as individual IT SMEs and business process owners that use IT products and services to achieve specific UC goals, to effectively understand and address UC-wide needs. 

Project complexity, impact, and mission alignment

Working together on UC-wide IT strategic sourcing initiatives is a highly complex undertaking. Successful execution and implementation require establishment of transparent and agile procedures and decision-making processes that identify and align around diverse UC location needs, taking into account differing organizational structures, stakeholders, operational needs, timelines, tolerance for risk, and levels of funding/resources. The procedures and processes developed by the ITSC and the ITCOE have resulted in a highly successful collaborative partnership, optimizing UC-wide value, including: 

• $325M in total financial Benefit UC-wide; 
• 140% increase in annual financial Benefit; 
• 64 new or significantly updated UC system-wide IT strategic sourcing agreements, including terms and conditions aligned with UC policy and the law (full list posted at: https://www.ucop.edu/procurement-services/for-ucstaff/systemwide-contract-lists/information-technology-agreements.html); 
• 33% increase in spend under agreement, resulting in significant risk mitigation due to negotiated agreement terms aligned with UC’s needs; 

• Additional operational efficiencies resulting from reduced duplication of effort. 

This collaboration to reduce the cost and risk associated with acquiring and using IT products and services provides growth and innovation opportunities for IT in support of UC’s teaching, research, and public service missions. 

Measuring impact

Below are some of the metrics used to measure/quantify success. Additional value derives from risk mitigation, which is more challenging to quantify. As noted above, leveraging UC-wide volume to negotiate agreements with terms best aligned with UC’s needs, risk is mitigated by having more agreements and increasing adoption of those agreements. 

Timeframe

This collaborative partnership between IT and Procurement had its inception in FY17 and has continued to expand and improve year over year since then. 

[Cover image caption: Tom Trappler and David Wilson accepting the UC Tech Yvonne Tevis UC-wide Collaboration golden award presented by Van Williams, Gabriel Gonzales, and Joe Bengfort]

Learn more

To learn about other winners of the UC Tech Awards 2023 Program by reading 2023 UC Tech Awards winners: Celebrating technical excellence, grounded in a commitment to caring.

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