CARE Global Best Practices
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CARE Global Best Practices

Insights You Can Act On 


Built on the expertise of experienced professionals, the NIGP Global Best Practices offer concise, actionable guidance that sets the standard for excellence in public procurement.

The Global Best Practices align with the focus areas of Pathway's Public Procurement Competency Framework. 

STRATEGY


 

  • Strategic Use of Cooperative Procurement

    Written in collaboration with National Cooperative Procurement Partners, NIGP's newest Global Best Practice, Strategic Use of Cooperative Procurement, provides fresh guidance for evaluating cooperative contracting options. Cooperative procurement methods like joint solicitation and piggybacking are effective strategies to procure the goods and services your entity needs while supporting economic, social, and sustainability initiatives.

    DOWNLOAD PRACTICE - Strategic Use of Cooperative Procurement

  • Establishing an Effective Supplier Diversity Program

    Top-performing entities establish supplier diversity programs that work to ensure all suppliers have an equitable opportunity to obtain contracts. This equity can be achieved when customized outreach and support programs remove the barriers that may prevent some suppliers from participating in a project. This GBP emphasizes the traditional concepts of social disparity in government contracting and highlights the steps necessary to develop a successful supplier diversity program.

    DOWNLOAD PRACTICE - Establishing an Effective Supplier Diversity Program

  • Performance Management

    Performance management is the process by which a procurement professional or organization establishes criteria based on strategic planning goals for the purpose of determining the results and quality of its activities. It involves creating a simple, effective system for determining whether the procurement team is meeting its objectives.

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  • Performance Measurement

    Performance measurement is the process by which a procurement organization establishes criteria based on strategic planning goals for the purpose of determining the results and the quality of its activities.

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  • Performance Metrics

    The term performance metrics refers to the process of measuring performance. Applying an analytical application of measurements allows organizations to compare performance standards.

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  • The Place of Public Procurement within the Entity

    The 'place of procurement' refers to positioning procurement within the entity to optimize the influence and impact of procurement on internal and external stakeholders. It should be operationally distinct from other departments and divisions. This best practice builds a case for the strategic placement of the procurement function to maximize the effectiveness of procurement within the entity, which is critical for the entity to fully benefit from procurement operations.

    DOWNLOAD PRACTICE - The Place of Public Procurement within the Entity

  • Sustainable Procurement Practice

    Sustainable procurement is a purchasing and investment process that takes into account the economic, environmental, and social impacts of the entity’s spending. Sustainable procurement allows organizations to meet their needs for goods, services, construction works, and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a whole-life basis in terms of generating benefits to the organization, society, and the economy while remaining within the carrying capacity of the environment.

    DOWNLOAD PRACTICE - Sustainable Procurement Practice

POLICY AND LEGISLATION


 

PLANNING AND ANALYSIS


 

  • Market Research Process: Research, Analysis, and Intelligence

    The market research process is critical because it provides procurement professionals with the accurate and relevant information they need to make the most appropriate decision regarding the procurement of commodities and construction.

    DOWNLOAD PRACTICE - Market Research Process: Research, Analysis, and Intelligence

     

  • Risk Management

    The process of risk management includes identifying and analyzing risk and making a decision to either accept or mitigate the exposure to such risk when compared to the potential impact on achieving the organization’s objectives.

    DOWNLOAD PRACTICE - Risk Management

     

  • Spend Analysis

    Spend analysis is the process of collecting, cleansing, classifying, and analyzing expenditure data from all sources within the organization (i.e. purchasing card, eProcurement systems, etc.). The process analyzes current, past, and forecasted expenditures to allow visibility of data by supplier, by commodity or service, and by department within the organization. Spend analysis can be used to make future management decisions by providing answers to such questions as what was bought; when was it bought; where was it purchased; how many suppliers were used and how much was spent with each of them; and how much was paid for the item.

    DOWNLOAD PRACTICE - Spend Analysis

     

  • Strategic Procurement Planning

    Transparency can be defined as timely and easily understood access to

    Strategic procurement planning is the process of creating alignment and consistent action. It results in documents that establish the long-range objectives and overall strategy or course of action by which an organization fulfills its mission.

    Strategic Procurement Planning (SP2) is the transformation of an organization’s mission, goals, and objectives into measurable activities to be used to plan, budget, and manage the procurement function within the organization. The goal is to bring about positive change in organizational culture, systems, and operational processes.

    DOWNLOAD PRACTICE - Strategic Procurement Planning

     

SOURCING AND SOLICITATION


 

Values & Guiding Principles

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Get Involved with the

Global Best Practices

What are your areas of expertise? There are multiple ways to contribute that can fit your interest and availability. 

  • Join the Global Best Practices (GBP) community on NSite
  • Join a core team that develops a practice.
  • Join the review team.
  • Comment on the final draft of the practice.
  • Contribute resources and case studies.
  • Present a webinar on a practice.*

*Presenters must meet specific criteria.

Please email Emily Moses at emoses@nigp.org to become involved.

CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION


 

LEADERSHIP


 

  • Managing a Remote Workforce

    Like other business sectors, public procurement has faced changes and challenges in recent years as more employees are performing their work at home or in remote offices.

    Beginning in 2020, the global workforce was disrupted by the COVID 19 pandemic. Offices and businesses around the world were shut down to prevent the spread of the virus. In the US, federal, state, and local procurement offices were asked to operate without coming into the office. This forced the hand of public procurement to perform their duties with creativity and flexibility.

    It’s difficult to predict what the typical procurement office may look like in the future. The events of 2020 brought about circumstances that nobody could have foreseen, which required procurement leaders to rapidly adapt and adjust their workplace policies.

    While many agencies have returned to traditional work schedules, it is reasonable to assume that remote work will continue to be an option for tomorrow’s procurement professionals.

    This global best practice provides guidance to public procurement leaders on effectively managing a remote workforce.

    DOWNLOAD PRACTICE - Managing a Remote Workforce

  • Stakeholder Relationships

    Procurement functions in three critical areas of stakeholder engagement: 1. conducting individual procurements, 2. participating in entity-wide activities such as budgeting and strategic planning, and 3. continually improving the effectiveness of Procurement.  Procurement’s ability to succeed in these areas and contribute to the achievement of the entity’s goals are realized through establishing and strengthening effective relationships with stakeholders. Effective relationships require proactive and continual effort through intentional investments of time, resources, andstrategies to establish, build, maintain, and strengthen trust and reciprocity. 

    DOWNLOAD PRACTICE - Stakeholder Relationships

  • Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)

    Also called vendor relationship management, supplier relationship management is a set of principles, processes, and tools that can help organizations maximize relationship value with suppliers and minimize risk and management of overhead through the entire supplier relationship life cycle. SRM has two aspects: clear commitment between the supplier and the buyer; and the objective of understanding, agreeing with, and codifying the interactions between them.

    DOWNLOAD PRACTICE - Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)

BUSINESS PRINCPLES


 

  • Audits

    There are three primary audit types: compliance, financial, and performance. Preparing for an audit through regularly conducted self-assessments ensures that procurement professionals can readily provide up-to-date documents and data that may be requested by an auditor.

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  • Cybersecurity

    What is Procurement's role in identifying, assessing, and addressing cybersecurity risk.

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  • Technology

    Procurement technology helps accelerate business improvements. It allows for the making, modification, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems, or methods of organization to solve a problem, improve a pre-existing solution, achieve a goal, or perform a specific function in relation to procurement and the procurement process.

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