With a broad and varied background in consulting, software development, project management, and procurement across several industries, continents, and countries, Walter Lewis brings a unique perspective and valuable experience to his role as Edge’s first and current Procurement Agent. “After graduating from college, I worked for British Petroleum (BP) in the computer department running programs that make calculations for soil, strata, and rock, to determine how much oil they expect to extract in particular areas,” explains Lewis. “After a year, I joined the business equipment company, Olivetti as they launched their computer division where I designed and wrote programs as a software engineer. Later I joined Crown House Engineering, a national electrical heating and ventilation company, and wrote programs for their accounting system, invoices, collections, and general ledger. When I came on, I was a software engineer, and after five years, I was manager of the computing section.”
Next with a move to Jamaica, Lewis worked at the Reynolds Metal Company running their computer division in an administrative building in the middle of an aluminum mine. “After my three-year contract, I moved into banking with a role at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in London,” says Lewis. “Over five years, I worked as a business analyst and software developer and then moved to the oldest bank in the world, Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS). I rose through the ranks during my fifteen years with the company and was tasked in 1993 to open a new branch in Manhattan. This brought me to America and later introduced me to the education sector where I worked for The State University of New York (SUNY) for over eleven years. This trajectory brought me to my current position at Edge where I can share the insights and experience I’ve gained along the way.” Lewis’s procurement experience includes working for vendors, responding to RFPs and requestors in issuing procurement requests.
Evolving Procurement Strategy
As Edge has expanded its footprint from regional to nationwide, its procurement services have evolved to meet the changing needs of the broader community. “Procurement began using more of a procedural approach where procurements were completed based on the member’s needs,” explains Lewis. “We began conducting additional research to see how we could help the wider higher education community. Edge changed from a reactive process to a proactive methodology, or an operational-based model to a thought leadership model.” Operational-based means EdgeMarket follows the lead of current operations in institutions. Thought leadership considers current operations but moves EdgeMarket to look ahead to include what we expect to come in the future.
Part of this evolution included researching trends and gathering feedback from Edge members. “We wanted to anticipate future needs and act on this knowledge in developing procurements,” shares Lewis. “In doing so, we had to make sure what we were doing was going to be relevant to members. For example, for the enterprise resource planning (ERP) procurement in 2018, we had a long list of requirements in the RFP that was sent out to vendors. We have since evolved in a couple of ways. EdgeMarket procurements are now completely electronic. Our early procurements had ‘lists of requirements’, and today we are using the Higher Education Reference Model (HERM) as a basis for new comprehensive procurements. This enables us to cover a larger set of areas, with multiple products or services in a single procurement. The tools we use now help us determine where the market is going. In the past year, I’ve been utilizing AI as a helpful tool to research and inform future direction. Previously this was a manual exercise and this new method has resulted in a massive reduction in our procurement cycle times.”
Lewis says when he joined Edge, procurement could take four to twelve months depending on the size. Now, the procurement process is so efficient that Edge is ready to open it to vendors in an average of six to eight weeks. “In the beginning, our primary objective was to create the most effective procurement process and we spent several months discussing various methodologies. We finally settled on a supply chain model which allows us to rapidly move through the procurement process. We built a process that enables us to fast-track procurements and inherent in this process are the foundations that include building blocks like standards for documentation, how state laws are incorporated, different ways we use partnerships, and the development of a foundation library.”
“The supply chain model enables EdgeMarket to build, review, open to vendors, issue addenda, close, and evaluate each procurement efficiently,” continues Lewis. “We also issue awards and complete contract negotiations, as well as incorporate lessons learned back into our processes. So even though Edge is a small co-op, we are nimble and deliver top-notch quality. We are now in a position where we consider ourselves one of the top co-ops in the nation.”
Providing Safe and Reliable Procurements
Edge continues to refine the procurement process and understand how different tools, templates, programs, and human decision-making can influence the overall lifecycle. “Human interaction helps us to adapt, and we learn from past experiences,” says Lewis. “We adjust our behavior and refine our decision-making processes, and this type of adaptability has been a constant throughout human history. Progress is achieved by learning from our mistakes and by adopting new technologies—and we certainly have done that in EdgeMarket.”
To help advance EdgeMarket’s mission of accelerating procurement for members, Edge developed the Technology Contract for Hardware and Software (TeCHS) procurement. TeCHS is one of the most comprehensive technology and services purchase vehicles available in the country. TeCHS provides access to a large variety of product offerings, including data centers, end-user compute (EUC), security, and cloud solutions. “This comprehensive catalog has an enormous scope and brings great value,” says Lewis. “The TeCHS catalog is administered by SHI and along with providing easy access through EdgeMarket, members can connect directly with highly experienced experts. SHI also has an innovation center which allows organizations to do a complete setup or test out new ideas before bringing them to their campus.”
Common to all Edge contracts, Lewis says members can count on safe and reliable procurements. “Edge uses a rigorous public bidding process to ensure that all procurements are audit-proof. Members can feel confident knowing each contract is going to comply with all regulations and standards. By leveraging an EdgeMarket contract, purchasing is also greatly simplified because participants can work directly with vendors—helping members to accelerate their purchasing.”
Taking EdgeMarket into the Future
To further advance EdgeMarket and ensure the products and solutions keep pace with members’ needs, Edge conducts ongoing proactive research and investigates how the market is moving. “Going forward, AI is going to have a great impact on procurements,” says Lewis. “While we don’t fully know how this advanced technology will influence the procurement process, we’re keeping our eyes on how it is being used and developed. AI will make a tremendous difference in the educational sphere and bring new opportunities to colleges and universities. We aim to find ways to use AI that allows us to be more efficient and expand our capabilities for member institutions.”
The Six-Year Evolution of EdgeMarket
“We wanted to anticipate future needs and act on this knowledge in developing procurements. In doing so, we had to make sure what we were doing was going to be relevant to members. For example, for the enterprise resource planning (ERP) procurement in 2018, we had a long list of requirements in the RFP that was sent out to vendors. We have since evolved in a couple of ways. EdgeMarket procurements are now completely electronic. Our early procurements had ‘lists of requirements’, and today we are using the Higher Education Reference Model (HERM) as a basis for new comprehensive procurements. This enables us to cover a larger set of areas, with multiple products or services in a single procurement. The tools we use now help us determine where the market is going. In the past year, I’ve been utilizing AI as a helpful tool to research and inform future direction. Previously this was a manual exercise and this new method has resulted in a massive reduction in our procurement cycle times.”
— Walter Lewis
Procurement Agent, Edge
“Research showed that members had an important need for IT professional services,” continues Lewis. “Along with network engineering, operations, installation, and configuration, many members wanted to move to the Cloud. Edge now has contracts with several vendors who can assist these institutions with cloud migration, including master data management and data warehouse services. EdgeMarket also has contracted vendors who can support and provide software selection services, physical learning spaces, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM) implementations, upgrades, and integrations.”
To expand EdgeMarket’s services, Edge is focusing on the higher education ecosystem and offering products and services that enhance business capabilities. “Our higher education ecosystem RFP explores the functional in-school perspective, as well as institutional business outcomes,” explains Lewis. “We’re using the HERM to serve as the foundation and functional scope of the next iteration of our procurements. The Higher Education Business Capability Model (BCM) in particular will allow us to develop more effective strategies and determine how we can help institutions identify the technology and resources that will allow them to meet the demands of their business environments successfully.”
To learn how EdgeMarket can provide safe, simple, smart procurements for solutions that drive positive outcomes, visit edgemarket.njedge.net/home.
