NORTH JERSEY NIGP CHAPTER #7 - MINUTES

PAST MINUTES ARE POSTED BELOW

NORTHERN NEW JERSEY NIGP
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING – MARCH 16, 2017
VENUE 1850 CONFERENCE CENTER, SOMERSET NEW JERSEY

The meeting was called to order at 10:04 A.M. by President James Jorgensen.
After the flag salute, a moment of silence was observed.  New guests were welcomed and self-introductions were made by the attendees.
There was a joint motion to approve both the Treasurers Report and the previous meeting’s minutes which had been posted to the website. The motion was approved.

Brian Gallagher from New Jersey State Division of Purchase and Property
New Jersey start has now been activated. First thing that using agencies should do is walk through it.  Go to the home page; on there are still special notices and updates, as before.  For an unknown but hopefully short duration users will need to use two systems, the legacy system and New Jersey Start.  All new contracts awarded will be posted on NJ Start.

The system had a fresh start as far as vendors go, and so far there are over 17,000 registered vendors with information that allows users to look at vendor details, even if just to obtain quotes not off state contract.  NJ Start offers a glossary of terms, as many of the standard terms are changing.  There is ample information or getting oriented available on NJ Start, as well as a help desk.  Online are also agency reference guides.

To fully utilize New Jersey Start local government officials can contact Miss Africa Nelson to obtain a password from her.  This can be obtained online, although Ms. Nelsons email address was not available at the moment.  When you look at the list of open contracts, you need to look at the text which says whether or not the contract is cooperative.   It’s given as a yes or no. 

Without a password users can still search through open contracts (bids, etc.), and look at attachments such as RFP document specs, price schedules, etc. Active contracts on the legacy system will ultimately all migrate to New Jersey start.  New contracts will be listed only on New Jersey Start.  If a performance bond is stated, that performance bond if the contract is cooperative is good for old users.  In NJ Start you can search the text description, or by commodity, or you can search by vendor.

The state is in charge of the pool of vender, but the onus of completing or uploading the due dilligence forms has shifted so that the vendor is totally responsible for providing and supporting of these documents. 

John Minnella, Account Executive, SHI Corporation
John is an Account Executive for SHI Corp., owned by Ms. Thai Lee, SHI President and CEO since 1989.  The company is a WBE, MBE recognized service.  They are not a small organization, and are actually a 7.5 billion company, with over 3500 employees in the United States, Europe and Asia.  They have a 300,000 square foot facility here in New Jersey, which is their main headquarters.
John’s focus is on County government, but there are many representatives that are assigned to the government account section of SHI.  The company monitors all its contracts and especially pays attention to NJ State contracts. 

They proactively send a notice went on product is at the end of life and don’t write a widening reinstatement fees for the customer.  SHI has a large number of staff’s assigned to each specific manufacturer of an application or software.  They handle some or sales were management accounts. SHI has a total of 16 different contracts, most in NJ State, and M0003 is one of the largest.   

Much of the enterprise Software and custom application contracts on New Jersey State originally were promulgated at NASPO.   On the New Jersey State contract M0003, there are five resellers each other resellers are also considered a channel service.  When somebody in local government seeks a software solution through the contract they are supposed to reach out to all five resellers to obtain quotes, according to the method of operation for the contract. 

John mentioned that he brought folders with details for attendees, and his business cards.  All those interested can ask for one after the presentations are done.

Kathleen Cupano, Rutgers Center for Government Services
The Rutgers forum was opening at the Golden Nugget on May 3rd & 4th.  Over 175 were already registered.  Kathi was curious to know if the group liked the idea of a class on information technology terms.  It seemed very welcome by the responses.  Kathy talked about classes that are coming up and left brochures for everybody. 

New Business
Jim Jorgensen, President, talked about new business.  Nominations would be held at the next meeting in June, as the September meeting was a Joint Purchasing Invitational, and as such would not be appropriate for nomination, such that it is Chapter business.  Jim strongly encouraged interested parties to and step up and try, and reiterated that he would be happy to remain helpful.

Next Meeting Date:  June 15, 2017 at 10 AM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jim Jorgensen, on behalf of Mary Richers