Overview

October 22

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Explore the journey behind one of the largest procurement transformations in state governments. In this exclusive session, hear directly from the State of Ohio’s eProcurement Program Leader on how they modernized procurement across multiple agencies, achieved $11M in savings, and cut Req-to-PO cycle times by 83%. If you’re managing large-scale procurement or preparing for a similar upgrade, you won’t want to miss these critical insights.

Join Andrew Cochran, the State of Ohio’s eProcurement Program Leader, Yash Acharya, KPMG’s State & Local government transformation leader, and Paul Zammit, Ivalua’s Public Sector Senior Product Marketing Manager, as they reveal the strategies that led to faster processes, increased supplier engagement, and valuable lessons that can guide your modernization efforts.

Why Attend?

  • Learn how Ohio achieved $11M in annual savings and how strategies like automation and consolidation delivered results.
  • Get a first-hand look at the challenges and solutions Ohio faced managing procurement across large state agencies, and how they reduced cycle times by 83%.
  • Walk away with proven leading practices to streamline your own procurement modernization—directly from those who’ve done it at scale.

Speakers

Steve Towns headshot

Steve Towns — Moderator

Director of Content Strategy, Government Technology

Steve Towns is the former editor of Government Technology, and former executive editor for e.Republic Inc., publisher of GOVERNING, Government Technology, Public CIO and Emergency Management magazines. He has more than 20 years of writing and editing experience at newspapers and magazines, including more than 15 years of covering technology in the state and local government market. Steve now serves as the Deputy Chief Content Officer for e.Republic.

Andrew Cochran headshot

Andrew Cochran

State of Ohio eProcurement Manager

Andrew Cochran, State eProcurement Manager, State of Ohio Department of Administrative Services, directs the State of Ohio’s award-winning OhioBuys eProcurement solution. Initially introduced to government finance and procurement in 2013, Andrew’s career began with exposure to large-scale financial and procurement initiatives struggling to achieve desired outcomes and analyzing what these initiatives must do to be successful. After playing a pivotal role in developing the strategic vision for procurement transformation in state government, he was selected to establish and lead the State’s eProcurement program in 2018. Over the past six years, he has driven policy changes to incentivize program adoption, sold the strategic vision to stakeholders, and led system design, change management and rollout, sustainment, and continuous improvement activities. OhioBuys is now used by more than 60 state agencies to conduct procurement activities with tens of thousands of suppliers, delivering value to the State in terms of lower cycle times, increased competition for State contracts, and high rates of adoption leading to the retirement of outdated applications and business processes.

Paul Zammit headshot

Paul Zammit

Senior Industry Product Marketing Manager, Ivalua

As Senior Industry Product Marketing Manager for Ivalua, Paul works closely with US Public Sector customers to ensure that Ivalua’s purpose-built Public Sector Source-to-Pay platform continues to meet the needs of the PubSec market, while championing the adoption of innovative technologies such as AI and machine learning. Prior to Ivalua, Paul worked as a PMO consultant side-by-side with state procurement officials to deliver source-to-pay technology transformations and continued operations of state procurement technology programs. Paul believes public sector procurement can be as cutting-edge as the private sector, and that technology has the ability to automate regulatory compliance, simplify transparency, and empower procurement officials to be exceptional stewards of taxpayer dollars.

Yash Acharya headshot

Yash Acharya

U.S. SLED Corporate Services Transformation Leader, KPMG

Yash is the U.S. State, Local, and Education (SLED) Corporate Services Transformation Leader for KPMG’s Government Line of Business (LOB) responsible for transforming and positioning government back-office operations across finance, procurement, HR, payroll, accounting, and budgeting operations. He has 20+ years of experience leading business operations and technology-based transformation initiatives for public sector entities across the United States. Since, every transformation is grounded in people, process, and technology but with a specific emphasis on “one size doesn’t fit all”, Yash focuses on leveraging process and technology as enablers, bringing deep functional and industry experience to strategy, program management, system implementation, transformation, and organizational transformation initiatives. The guidance and support that Yash provides is strategic and transformational yet grounded in clients’ reality and objectives to help meet their goals. Yash is also a frequent speaker and presenter at several public sector conferences nationally with a focus on modernizing government operations, organizations, and implementing cloud technologies to help governments position for serving their respected communities, enterprises, and residents.

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