provided by: 
Gary Lambert, CGI's 2007 Supply and Demand Chain Executive Pro to Know
Gary Lambert is a vice president within CGI's Spend Management Solutions practice and is a recognized subject matter expert in the area of spend management, procurement and enterprise resource planning, having worked as both a government procurement executive and top consultant. "The best way to improve efficiency in procurement and generate savings is to take a holistic look at spend management across an entire entity. This includes not only processes and organization, but also enabling technologies that facilitate continued cost savings and efficiency improvements," said Lambert. CGI offers solutions that span the procurement value chain and help clients with this holistic approach. One example of this is CGI's spend management work for Virginia.
Virginia Teams with CGI to Transform Its Procurement Environment
Prior to 2001, Virginia's procurement activities were decentralized across more than 180 state agencies, institutions and other public bodies. The autonomous buying entities functioned with a patchwork of outdated, inefficient and redundant systems, which added to the cost of doing business while preventing the Commonwealth from leveraging its purchasing power.
Virginia engaged CGI to provide a comprehensive, integrated solution. The award-winning Web-hosted system, known as eVA, has managed over $12 billion in commerce and created a standard way for suppliers to access business with Virginia, allowing the Commonwealth to obtain goods and services easier, faster and at the best value. The system, for which Lambert served as the solution architect, is considered to be the nation's most successful government e-procurement solution and has reduced processing costs by 50 percent, processing time by up to 70 percent and delivery time by up to 25 percent.
This tool is complemented by an overall solution for sound spend management. On the forefront of a fiscal crisis in 2003, the Commonwealth awarded another contract to CGI, this time to perform spend analysis, strategic sourcing, training and compliance/savings monitoring. The project achieved 12 percent in annual savings on an annual baseline of $309 million from the strategic sourcing alone, while other benefits were gained through the non-sourcing efforts.
CGI's Spend Management Solutions
Founded in 1976, CGI is a leading business process and IT services provider with approximately 25,000 professionals operating in 100+ worldwide offices. Through our spend management practice, CGI has the extensive offerings that support corporations and governments in enhancing their procurement operations and vendor relations. CGI's spend management professionals develop, analyze, implement and manage the procurement solution that best fits clients' needs.
For more information on our spend management offerings, client successes and to access Gary Lambert's recent white paper "Procurement Efficiency in Government: Policy, Process, and Technological Transformation," contact or visit the following:
Email: spendmanagement@cgi.com
Website: www.cgi.com/spendmanagement
Newsletter: www.procurementinsight.com
White paper: http://www.cgi.com/cgi/web/jsp/cpo/registration_form.jsp