MISSION VIEJO, CA - On November 4, 2021, the Orange County Business Council (OCBC) presented the South Orange County Community College District (SOCCCD) a “Red Tape to Red Carpet” award in the Incorporating Innovative Technology category for SOCCCD’s Fully Online Bidding, Contracting and Public Procurement Organization.
The District embarked on two interrelated projects to accomplish procurement efficiency by creating a fully integrated online bidding and contracting public procurement organization. The project included the organization-wide implementation of two systems—the Jaggaer Contracts Management System (CMS) and the PlanetBids system.
The implementation of both systems was led by Priya Jerome, Executive Director of Procurement, Central Services and Risk Management. The project was instrumental in continuing services during the pandemic and allowed SOCCCD to devise additional innovative and creative business processes, such as virtual job walks for contractors conducted via Zoom, which included live video tours of the project sites—these videos were later posted to the bid documents for bidder reference. This innovative approach was so well received by the contractor community, that this functionality will be permanently adopted into the SOCCCD bidding process.
“The project required a great deal of hours and restructuring of systems to be completed in an efficient and effective manner. The work on this initiative was not in vain, as it not only increased the productivity internally within the South Orange County Community College District, but also served as a model to improve systems in procurement departments throughout the State,” said Priya Jerome.
Similar to the virtual job walks, all in-person pre-proposal meetings and interviews with firms have been conducted virtually via Zoom. The efficiency of the process and time saved for both the District and attending firms has helped SOCCCD to permanently transition to conducting all pre-proposal meetings virtually.
“It takes a village to succeed, and the SOCCCD team led by Vice Chancellor Ann-Marie Gabel and Executive Director Priya Jerome is no exception. They pulled together during one of the most difficult times in our District’s history. They not only survived, but thrived and incorporated innovative solutions for essential projects. As a result, permanent efficiencies for internal and external stakeholders were created. Many thanks to OCBC for recognizing this great accomplishment,” said Chancellor Kathleen Burke.
To learn more about SOCCCD and the bidding process, please visit www.socccd.edu.
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About the South Orange County Community College District: SOCCCD serves more than 50,000 students per year through our two colleges, Saddleback College and Irvine Valley College. The district serves nearly one million residents and employs more than 3,000 faculty and staff