Depending on how old you are, peeps like me, remember a very different world of procurement!
I’ll start off by saying, public agencies tended to be late to the table when it comes to new technology; letting others try it out before we dipped our toes in the water.
Back in the day, we used typewriters and carbon copy to create purchase orders, we kept track of inventory on 8 ½ x 4” cards, we were used to the sound of the fax machine, and mechanical calculators.
Filing… omg filing!! There was SO MUCH PAPER! We were surrounded by filing cabinets, full of Bids, and Contracts, Purchase Orders, and Invoices!
The Phone… we were on the phone so much it was a literal pain in the neck!
We called Vendors all day long, and some vendors came in to see us weekly!
Computers, email, printers, and online bidding changed so much for us!!
I received some very good stories about the old days, things people are glad they’ll never have to do again! IF you have any oldies but goodies, keep them coming and we’ll publish them!
Colleen Selkirk CPPO, CPPB – Senior Buyer – City of Burlington
OMG Colleen…I’m sitting here reading your email & laughing to myself & saying, yep, yep, yep….
You mentioned about spending time on the phone. I do not have a pic of the actual rotary (NOT a typo) phone that I started with, but it did have one of these holders on it! Thanks Google for the pic.
Another thing I remember (because I recalled the fella I replaced), was smoking in the office. He was a heavy chain smoker to the point where you couldn’t see him in the corner for smoke. I sure don’t miss that!
All the best Colleen
Regards
Gord Deacon BA, MMP – Manager of Purchasing & Fleet – City of Timmins
Hi Colleen,
When I first started in Purchasing our bid deposit box was a wooded box handcrafted by a weekend warrior.
We proudly secured that Thompson’s WaterSeal stained bid deposit box to a waterpipe in the main lobby with all the confidence that a single bike lock could provide. No one messed with Purchasing’s bids!
An 8 ½” x 11” sheet of paper with the words “TENDER DEPOSIT BOX” taped to the wall let bidders know they had arrived to the right place.
A white plastic kitchen clock (if you know, you know) hung always slightly crooked on a nail above the bid deposit box.
I distinctly remember an afternoon closing that was within minutes of the Closing Time and watched with slight confusion as the Purchasing Manager looked at his watch then took the clock off the wall and adjusted the time in front of a lobby full of bidders who were waiting in anticipation of the public opening. It was important to be ON-TIME even back then!
Last week I signed an electronic contract on a beach in Mexico. Awe, progress.
Robin Nechelput, CPPO, CPPB – Manager of Purchasing – City of Brantford
Oh I have a story!!
In the early 2000’s, Whitby operated a “call-in” Tender Hotline. The Buyers had to verbally record all the tenders, (the company names and their respective bid prices).
It never failed, you’d get to the very last bid and make a mistake and have to delete and re-record the WHOLE thing. I would wait until everyone left so I could do my “broadcaster voice” in private and no one would interrupt the fine art of recording the Tender Hotline. If you had a large closing day and a lot of projects or a lot of bidders, you could be an hour trying to get it right. Imagine reading out Tender T-22-2008 Supply and Delivery of xxx, bidder 1 (company name)… one million, five hundred and forty one thousand, three hundred and twenty two dollars and 39 cents, bidder 2….. etc…and then doing that again for the next bid. It was the most hated task as a new Buyer. Digital posting? Yep! We were early adopters.
Michelle K. Trudel, NIGP-CPP, CPPB – Senior Manager, Procurement – Town of Whitby
Hi Colleen!
What a great idea. One thought immediately comes to mind … I do NOT miss in person Closings!! Why? Because of the Horror Show I would have to watch as part of that…the Horror Show I would see from the Procurement office window – you know the one… where the Bidder’s car comes screaming into the parking lot after fighting traffic, dishevelled, sweaty, running with bid submission in hand … and then the beloved sequel to that horror show when they arrive at the time stamp, and little ‘ole me has to tell them “NOPE! You’re one second late. Yes, one second matters. Yes, it was a $1 million bid. Safe travels all the way back to your manager…”
Like the time we were closing a PQ for all electrical contractors when I worked at the school board. It was a 5-year PQ (prior to CETA…) and if you didn’t make the list, you could not work at the board at all during that time frame. Poor guy was a small little company and didn’t make it. We were all sad about it. He was 2 minutes late, and 5 years of business gone. Nuts. And we also had one time where the bidder was pleading, saying he would get fired. Horrible to be the one to say no to these guys.
MaryBeth Meszaros, CSCMP, CPPB – Procurement Consultant – Town of Aurora
Hi Colleen!
This is so fun (and makes me feel old at the same time lol!).
I used to work as a buyer at a hospital and remember my co-workers talking about the days of ordering ashtrays from the Stores department for people smoking in their offices…in the hospital!!!!
That was a little before my time there. When I started in 2003 we did still have paper copies of everything, faxed our orders and spent lots of time talking to company reps on the phone or in person when they were in town.
Looking forward to reading more stores!
Pauline Baker – Procurement Specialist – Limestone District School Board
LOL I’m remembering the good old days at WSIB, with all of the paper copy submissions!
When you wanted one original and then 12 copies…and you had to check all 12 copies to make sure they were complete for the evaluation team…and it was for a service with a lot of interest?
We had one where we had 96 submissions…yes 96 which amounted to 1,248 submissions to look through.
Those were the good old days LOL
Sarah von Bülow – Director, Procurement Services – OCS
When I started in purchasing, there was no internet to search for potential vendors. We had a bookcase with the Thomas Register volumes. Known as the “big green books”. The Thomas Register books were like encyclopedias or Yellow Pages in which you looked up vendors. They were the go-to source for product sourcing and supplier selection. Every year, you ordered a new set to make sure you had up-to-date information on the current suppliers. These massive books were sorted by category. Not sure where to find a vendor that could do electro-plating? Pull out volume 5, scroll through alphabetically to the topic, find the list of suppliers, and start making phone calls! Then you literally spent hours calling companies working your way through the listing, gathering pricing and making friends across Canada and the US. A telephone, a typewriter and an overflowing ashtray on my desk and making $26,000 a year – I thought I had the world by the tail!! <3
(picture of Thomas Register volumes)
Michelle Palmer PMP, DASM, CSCMP, CPPB
Senior Manager, Strategic Initiatives and Operational Effectiveness
Here’s one of mine:
I was closing the tender for gas & diesel fuel (city-wide contract), so, as you can imagine, it was A LOT OF MONEY!
This guy comes up to the counter, and I’m already taking the bids out of the Tender Box.
It seemed he didn’t realize he’s already too late. [He might have just been the courier…]
I heard our receptionist say “Sorry, you’re too late for that one, it’s closed”, my head spun around, he looked shocked! (I was a bit shocked too)
He pushed the envelope back across the counter towards us with pleading eyes, saying ‘oh no, you have to take it’. We slid it back towards him and he looked at it like it was on fire. We told him ‘you can’t leave it here, we’ll just have to courier / mail it back to your company’. He probably did not return to his office that day, if at all.
So glad we don’t have to see that in person anymore…
Colleen Selkirk CPPO, CPPB – Senior Buyer – City of Burlington