AMS Inks Procurement Deal With Washington State

By William Welsh, Staff Writer



JUNE 20 ? American Management Systems Inc. announced June 20 that the state of Washington has signed a two-year contract with the company, plus options, to use its automated procurement service Buysense.



Washington is the first state to select the e-procurement service developed by Fairfax, Va.-based AMS. Earlier this year, AMS signed a similar agreement with Arizona State University.



The award, which resulted from a competitive bidding process, validates "our approach, model and solution" for e-procurement, said Gary Lambert, senior principal with AMS.



Using what the company refers as its rapid deployment technology, AMS expects to have Washington making purchases through Buysense within 90 days. "One of our key goals is to bring up any client that signs on with Buysense quickly," Lambert said.



In addition to Washington state agencies, a number of local governments in Oregon and Washington also will be using Buysense through the Washington state contract. The Web address for the procurement site is www.buysense.com.



The Buysense solution is delivered through software developed by Ariba Inc., Mountain View, Calif. By allowing users to shop and place orders online from their desktops, e-procurement solutions such as Buysense help state and local agencies save substantial amounts of time and money.



Upon full implementation, the state expects to have 10,000 users making upwards of 500,000 transactions annually totaling approximately $150 million in expenditures.



For the Washington Buysense contract, AMS' revenue will come from transactions fees charged to both buyer and supplier. The government buyer will pay a transaction fee for each purchase order, while the commercial supplier will pay a percentage of the value of the transaction, according to the company.