Regional Procurement

Introducing the "OC Regional Contracting Alliance" (RCA)

As Procurement Professionals we are committed to receiving the best possible products and services from the most responsible and competitive suppliers available in the market. It is our duty to be committed to assisting the public sector organizations we work for with stretching each public tax dollar to its furthest extent. To that end, the County seeks to partner with our local OC cities and special districts to pursue cooperative purchasing opportunities in an effort to better leverage volume discounts and increase efficiencies.

In order to accomplish this goal, the County is establishing the "Orange County Regional Contracting Alliance" or OC-RCA that will serve as a purchasing portal for each of our 34 cities and special districts located within Orange County. The primary function of this program will be to coordinate purchases and promote cooperation between all public sector agencies within the county. By achieving results from this program, the County hopes to realize costs savings and reduce procurement costs for all participating public agencies.

Here's How The Program Will Work

Concurrently with the implementation of the OC-RCA program, the Procurement Office is also implementing a new On-Line Bidding Application that will increase functionality considerably in comparison to the current in-house OLB system. This new application will allow us to coordinate all of our large volume purchases, not only with each other, but also with each of our participating cities in a fully automated fashion. Both of these programs will be hi-lighted at our next Purchasing Council/DPA meeting on 2-19-09. Below is a list of what will happen after these programs are fully implemented over the next few months:

• All DPA's will be trained on new bidding system during the month of March.

• During April '09 we will disengage from the current OLB System.

• Procurement Office will host a meeting between all city purchasing managers to discuss the OC-RCA program.

• The County will host annual meetings thereafter with all OC-RCA participants to discuss additional opportunities for cooperative purchasing arrangements.

• The County Procurement Office will pursue and make available other cooperative purchasing arrangements outside the County of Orange.

• OC-RCA will encourage the procurement of environmentally preferable products in all bids and solicitations, where practical.

If you have any questions in regards to these exciting new programs, please contact Maria Pirona at (714) 567-7369.