Vermont officials assured lawmakers Tuesday the state’s ambitious new procurement system, VTBuys, is working after a rocky initial rollout.
As of this week, the one-stop shop for state contracting and vendor payment has registered almost 10,000 suppliers and processed $24 million in invoices, according to Wanda Minoli, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services, which oversees state procurement.
“It wasn’t smooth for everyone,” Minoli told lawmakers at a Joint Information Technology Oversight Committee meeting, describing the transition to VTBuys. “We got through it.”
VTBuys is a joint project of the Department of Buildings and General Services — which houses the state’s Office of Purchasing and Contracting — and the Vermont Agency of Digital Services. Years in the making, the new digital platform intends to modernize the way state government works with vendors, creating a single streamlined interface for bids, contracts and payments. The state expects the initiative will cost about $8.6 million to implement.
Scheduled to launch July 1, VTBuys hit initial hiccups when the state discovered coding bugs, including security concerns.
At that time, the project’s leadership team delayed the system’s rollout out of a concern that vendors might not get paid, Denise Reilly-Hughes, Agency of Digital Services secretary, told lawmakers.
But what was first feared to be a month or more problem turned into a week, she said, crediting state staff for their work.
State officials are now considering what functions may be added to VTBuys in a second phase, according to the officials. Minoli indicated the project team would take time to assess how the e-procurement platform is working before moving to its next stage.
“I’m letting my staff breathe,” she said.
