The procurement process is a mystery to some, an opportunity for others, and a nightmare for many. A few come away feeling good about it, the rest want to take a shower to wash-off the spooge.

We generally don’t put a lot of effort into our buying decisions, unless a large sum of money is involved, then we can become quite miserly. When spending an institution’s money, or a public facilities’ money we sometimes try to spend it like it’s our own (I’d call that good stewardship), and sometimes we get greedy and take that “if we don’t spend it someone else will” or “if we don’t spend it we won’t get it next year” mentality.

When you need help making a decision about what to buy, do you call all the vendors you know and pit one against the other to get the lowest price possible? Or do you call them to get good information so you can make an educated choice? This can have a profound impact on the quality of service you get. ‘Bubba deals’ are not necessarily a good thing. If vendors are all instructed to get their price down to rock-bottom, then they have little incentive to provide the best solution for your needs.

A rational approach is to develop a clear definition of what you are looking to purchase. Explore the driving forces that define your needs. What must it do? How much can it weigh? How big can it be to fit through your doorway? How much power will it consume?

Developing a specification for a purchase is a fundamental step that can help you understand your own needs, help your purchasing department understand what it is you need, and to help the vendors to understand your performance criteria.

A performance specification is not a parts list. It is a list of functionality. Once you have defined your needs, there may be some products that clearly meet those requirements, and that can be a part of your specification. One of the most common overlooked items in a purchasing agreement or pricing request are the intangibles: Warranty Period, Delivery Date, Replacement Policy, and the inclusion of documentation (manuals, drawings, parts lists, test results, etc.).

Be careful what you ask for – you might get it. Corollary: If you didn’t ask for it – you may not get it.

The more complicated an item is, the more complete the specifications should be, otherwise, you will get vendors second-guessing what your intent is. To control the range of possible products that might be provided to you, it is important that you require some sort of approval process be implemented. This will help you to prevent a well-intentioned purchasing agent from buying 2000 pot-metal bolts when you needed 200 grade 5 bolts. Sure the price for the 2000 junk bolts sounded good to them, but if the purchasing agent doesn’t understand that strength of the bolt is more important than the quantity per dollar, then you may end-up with equipment you can’t use.

With complicated systems like stage rigging, stage lighting, or audio systems, there are hundreds, if not thousands of components that comprise the over-all solution. It is important that the parts are the correct ones, and also that they are properly installed. Does your purchasing agent have the expertise to know if the supplier provided the correct part and that it was installed properly? Not likely. Do you have that level of expertise to see a project through from the design phase to the purchasing, installation, and commissioning phase? If you don’t, then maybe you should consider having an objective third party help you.

Independent consultants bring a level of checks and balances to a project that can be your eyes and ears on the job to ensure that you are getting what you need, it is being installed properly, and that it is being correctly documented. Without someone knowledgeable in these special areas to oversee the process, it is possible that the products you receive may be inferior to those specified, they may not be installed in a manner that is conducive to their use in your theatre, and/or they may not include all the necessary documentation that will facilitate their long-term use and maintenance.

Don’t allow your purchasing department to make final payments to vendors until your systems of equipment have been checked-over to see that they are installed correctly and all of the paperwork is provided. Once the final check has been cut, you have no further leverage to get the vendor to comply with their contractual obligations. I frequently come across clients that have completely undocumented system of equipment. Their explanation is usually “Well, they installed it, and we never saw them again.”
Plan you purchases effectively and involve professionals that can bring objectivity to your purchasing efforts. It’s not a “good deal” unless you get what you really wanted and needed for a fair price.

Be wary of vendors that offer ‘free’ specifications. It is unlikely that they address your unique needs and can be fairly and competitively bid. A point to ponder: If vendor A provides the specifications for your project, and vendor B manages to get the low bid, do you really think that vendor A is going to stick around to review vendor B’s shop drawings and installation? And if they did, would they do it for free and be fair about it? That’s not too likely. Then where will you be? Left with the Fox watching the Hen house?