Tag: Deloitte

Emergency Procurement & Risk Management

What You Should Know about Contact Tracing

What happens when someone tests positive for a dangerously contagious disease? Contact tracing is already a daily task for public health departments and organizations nationwide. Nearly 100 infectious diseases are currently tracked. Now, Covid-19 is forcing a rapid expansion of contact tracing capabilities as agencies seek to monitor its spread.

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Emergency Procurement & Risk Management

CORONAVIRUS and Supply Chain Risk

The World Health Organization has declared a global state of emergency due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). The ramifications of the travel bans relating to the outbreak and slowed manufacturing due to shortages of labor and raw materials means vendors in your supply chain may be affected.
To learn more on what to expect and recommendations on managing risk in the supply chain, keep reading.

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Professional Development

Succession Planning: Don’t Just Plan for Your Future

As a greater proportion of the workforce reaches retirement age each year, the importance of succession planning has never been more apparent.  Talent management and succession planning ranked #6 on NASPO’s Top Ten priorities for 2020 .  Never fear!  Pulse is here to help with some tips and tricks for a successful planning process. Read more “Succession Planning: Don’t Just Plan for Your Future” →
Technology & IT Procurement

The State of Cybersecurity: 3 Bold Plays for Change

In March 2018, the city of Atlanta suffered a ransomware attack that compromised the data of their employees and anyone who conducted business with the state and ended costing $2.6 million in emergency contract efforts[1]. When Louisiana was attacked in November of 2019, 10% of the state’s servers were infiltrated and some 1,500 computers were damaged.  These examples demonstrate cybersecurity should be a top priority for procurement officers to protect the sensitive information of both vendors and staff. Understanding the issues and goals of your state Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) can pave the road toward a more productive working relationship and allow procurement officers to address increasing cybersecurity threats as partners.

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Technology & IT Procurement

Blockchain: The Public Sector Big Picture

The private sector has invested more than 1.4 billion dollars in blockchain since 2014. To put this number into context, this is on par with the amount of money spent on internet investments during the early 90’s! What do you know about blockchain? Personally, I knew almost nothing besides the fact it was a technology people were excited about and that it had something to do with Bitcoin. Luckily for me, Procurement U recently released a free course entitled “Blockchain: The Public Sector Big Picture”. This course provided me with a basic understanding of how blockchain works and explains it in a simple, approachable way through videos and interactive graphics.  As someone who is not the most technically savvy, I can say that this course helped me understand blockchain and made me excited about its potential uses. This course goes over how blockchain works and how it can be used in procurement. Take this Procurement U course to start exploring blockchain and its uses in your office!

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