Competency Module: Business Management & Continuity

Description

A critical role that procurement practitioners serve is planning for contingencies when business operations are interrupted. Practitioners must understand how to determine risks and mitigate them through the creation of a business continuity plan.

Objectives

In order to successfully earn a digital badge, learners must:

• Explain the major steps to create a business continuity plan.
• Prioritize essential procurement functions.
• Identify the resources needed for each procurement function, activity, or task.
• Identify and evaluate risks to procurement operations.
• Identify any needs for policy or documentation changes.
• Create and compile back-up documentation.
• Plan communications strategies.
• Identify appropriate emergency contracts and internal entity agreements for specific events.
• Create a plan to execute the strategies such as prioritizing timelines, budgeting, resources, etc.    
• Conduct formal emergency preparedness training.
• Test emergency preparedness policies and procedures.
• Determine lessons learned from a business interruption or simulation.

Intended Audience

Designed to promote applicable experiences for practitioners working in the public sector, NIGP’s Pathways competency courses empower learners with the ready-to-implement actions they need to succeed in public procurement. This introductory course is designed for:

• Public procurement and central warehouse professionals who serve as assistants, coordinators, buyers, or equivalent functions within their respective entities.
   
• Non-procurement managers and supervisors who are responsible for either the procurement function or staff who provide procurement functions under delegated authority.
   
• Professionals who are employed by governing entities and special authorities (such as K-12 and higher education, publicly-owned utilities, transportation providers, and other publicly-funded or created organizations) that either serve within or manage the procurement function.
   

• Suppliers or representatives of suppliers seeking to understand the public procurement function from a holistic level, including the policies, standards, and procedures by which public entities must function.