We began working over 2 years ago with the State Procurement Office to initiate a statewide e-procurement system called Procure AZ.  The goal of the statewide system is transparency of all procurement actions, cost reductions, and a more efficient use of time and resources by reducing purchasing timelines.  We started using the new system on last July and to date we’ve completed 47 solicitations in the system.  In October of  ’10 we started using it to input Purchase Requisitions and release Purchase Orders for non-governmental entities.  We passed the 400 Purchase Order mark a couple of weeks ago.

There are over 1,400 contracts currently uploaded to the new system.  In the last few weeks, rollout of the system for input of Purchase Requisitions started.  Our Nutrition & Physical Activity unit, the Lab, and Preparedness were the first volunteers.  The next group scheduled was ITS and Operations, Licensure and Behavioral Health.  The rest of the Department will roll out by April 1st and all Purchase Requisitions for Fiscal year 2012 will be in Procure AZ.  Our Procurement team sincerely appreciates the valuable input, guidance and constructive comments received from the early users of the system.   We look forward to further collaboration in the new few weeks.