UW looks to increase in-state spending

By Daniel Bendtsen
Laramie Boomerang
Via Wyoming News Exchange
 
LARAMIE — University of Wyoming administrators plan to launch a new website in February that will make it easier for Wyoming businesses to sell goods and services to the school.
The plan is a focal point of the university’s new Buy-WY Initiative, which expanded upon an executive order from outgoing Gov. Matt Mead.
In January 2018, Mead ordered state agencies, including UW, to implement procedures that would increase state purchases from in-state technology vendors.
UW leaders decided instead to expand that effort to buying more Wyoming goods and services across all sectors.
The university already offers a 5 percent credit on bids that come from Wyoming vendors.
However, there are other impediments to procurement Wyoming businesses face that administrators a just now figuring out.
When a major project like a Science Initiative building is finished, UW needs to buy a significant batch of furniture and other amenities.
There are only two Wyoming furniture vendors large enough to supply the university’s needs.
However, when the university has put out for bid for furniture, it has specified two different furniture brands — brands that the Wyoming vendors don’t supply.
UW now has made a change, specifying brands in its requests for proposals that Wyoming vendors can produce.
Still, some projects might also be too large for Wyoming vendors to bid on.
It’s blockages like that Buy-WY aims to tear down.
Starting this spring, UW plans to host an annual “vendor fair,” inviting businesses to campus to connect with UW employees who are common buyers.
The biggest block for more procurement from Wyoming vendors has simply been a lack of communication, said David Jewell, UW’s associate vice president for financial affairs. He oversees the Buy-WY Initiative.
In the past few years, Jewell said legislators and UW administrators have been learning about businesses’ needs through lots of informal conversations.
“We’re not done fully learning what their challenges and needs are,” he said.
Buy-WY was a topic of conversation at the Dec. 13 meeting of the Joint Appropriations Committee.
During that meeting, UW leaders proposed to legislators a plan that would sell bonds to fund new dormitories.
Sen. Dave Kinskey, R-Sheridan, took the opportunity to push for more in-state expenditures by the university, noting that UW’s bond financing is typically done through Denver-based banks.
“I think a Wyoming firm could do that work … to recycle those university back into Wyoming,” Kinskey said.
Neil Theobald, vice president for finance and administration, said the ultimate goal of Buy-WY is for UW to have “every year, substantial increases in the amount of dollars” being spent in state.
“It starts with comprehensive marketing — making sure businesses and service industries across the state know what services we need to purchase and the goods we need to buy,” Theobald said.
Like many governments, UW uses Public Purchase to bid out projects.
In coming months, UW plans send postcards and emails to businesses with information about using the website, and launch its own centralized website that will help guide businesses through the bidding process. The university also plans to advertise its procurement efforts through media ads and presentations at business conferences.
Using the university’s new financial system, WyoCloud, Jewell said UW can now easily pull data to track percentages of Wyoming vendors submitting bids and being awarded bids.
Once an initial report of those baseline metrics is produced, Jewell said UW will work to increase in-state expenditures.