Baltimore County Public Schools, MD, leverages
spend visibility to stretch budget in support of educational
mission
Baltimore County Public Schools,
MD successfully deploys the Spikes Cavell Observatory: massive ROI
on annually investment in spend and contract visibility. Invaluable
aid to identifying and evaluating opportunities for collaboration
with other k-12 school
districts.
Herndon, VA – 13 August 2012 –
Baltimore County Public Schools, MD has successfully deployed the
Spikes Cavell Observatory to deliver improved spend visibility in
support of the procurements team’s drive to make the most of every
dollar spent in supporting the delivery of the education of more
than 105,000 students at 174 schools, programs, and centers in the
County. Baltimore County Public Schools had been working on their
own databases and reporting structures for a number of years with
the goal of delivering better spend visibility but was never able
to fully commit the resources to do the job properly. In contrast
the Spikes Cavell Observatory has been implemented with little
effort and expense on the school system’s part. For the first time
Baltimore County Public Schools has the right intelligence at their
fingertips that helps them get a handle on where the money is going
and who it’s going to in a way that supports the procurement team’s
efforts to stretch short budget dollars in support of the
educational mission.
The Spikes Cavell Observatory has been particularly valuable in
identifying and evaluating opportunities for collaboration with
other k-12 school districts.
Rick Gay, Purchasing Manager, Baltimore County Public Schools,
MD stated: "One of the things we’ve been able to do is participate
in a pilot program whereby Baltimore County Public Schools and four
other school systems of various size are comparing and contrasting
their spend data through the Spikes Cavell Observatory. We’re now
at the point where we can start to analyze where we have spending
in common that could be leveraged for everyone’s benefit. The
numbers are big. We’re talking $6M, $8M, $10M in some categories
and that makes you a big player under any circumstance. For example
right now in a lot of contracts if you’re getting say, 20-25% off
list, that’s pretty good. Now by cooperating with our peers and
colleagues we’re talking 30-35% and when you’re spending $8M, an
additional $800k incremental savings is very meaningful. It also
means a massive ROI on what we’re investing annually in spend and
contract visibility."
Baltimore County Public Schools is also planning to deploy
Spikes Cavell’s spotlightonspend transparency platform to enable
citizens in the County and beyond to better understand where
Baltimore County Public Schools spends taxpayers money on the goods
& services it needs to run schools in the County.
Rick Gay, Purchasing Manager, Baltimore County Public Schools,
MD commented: "There have been extra benefits of working with an
innovative organization like Spikes Cavell. By way of example, a
bill was passed in the legislature this year that mandated that
Baltimore County Public Schools would support transparency by
posting all of their transactions above $25,000 on the web. So our
people started to look at designing it and everything that would go
into delivering transparency. I then recalled that I’d had a
conversation with Spikes Cavell about an add-on service for the
Observatory called spotlightonspend that was designed to deliver
the transparency required of us. So we took a look and it became
obvious to us that it was already built and there was really no
need for us to go through the expense and time and effort of
designing our own site. I think once we deploy the system that will
pay dividends as it definitely helps position us as a leader and
good steward of the tax payers’ dollars. And we we’re able to
achieve that as a direct result of our relationship with Spikes
Cavell."
The Baltimore County Public Schools case study can be downloaded
from http://www.spikescavell.com/casestudies/baltimorecountycasestudy.aspx
About Baltimore County Public Schools, MD
From the Chesapeake Bay to the Maryland–Pennsylvania Line,
Baltimore County wraps around but does not include Baltimore City.
With more than 800,000 residents, Baltimore County is diverse with
residents living in suburban, rural, and urban neighborhoods,
reflecting the nation's blend of cultures and backgrounds.
Baltimore County Public Schools is the 26th largest school
system in the US and the 3rd largest in Maryland. It’s $1.5 billion
budget supports the education of more than 105,000 students at 174
schools, programs, and centers in the County.
http://www.bcps.org
TAGS: baltimore county public schools, baltimore county, spend analysis, k12 spend, education, Spikes Cavell, public sector, contract visibility, spend visibility