Executive Summary
Multnomah County delivers a range of public services. As the state’s smallest but most populous county, it maintains bridges and patrols waterways and runs health clinics, libraries, elections, and animal services. Such diversity of offerings brings with it procurement complexity. Multnomah County is comprised of 15+ business lines, each with its own unique needs but all subject to strict public procurement laws and high transparency expectations. Since 2012, the County’s business and development team has worked with JAGGAER to modernize their procurement operations for eProcurement, Sourcing, Contracts+, Invoicing, and Supplier Management. As an ongoing series of projects, the transformation has made Multnomah County a model of seamless, cost-effective operations among Oregon’s 36 counties.
Vertical
Public Sector/County Government
Location
Multnomah County, Oregon
Size
800,000 (residents)
Why JAGGAER
JAGGAER One is an intelligent source-to-pay and supplier collaboration platform, and the catalyst for enhancing human decision-making to accelerate business outcomes. Multnomah County leveraged JAGGAER’s eProcurement, a fully integrated, end-to-end comprehensive and configurable procurement marketplace that ensures adoption, to improve governance and eliminate maverick spending.
The Challenge: Limited Resources
Like many municipalities, it struggled with fragmented procurement intake, with requests arriving via emails, sticky notes and hallway conversations. It was also slowed down by manual contract reviews, no centralized procurement process for Cost and compliance management, and no streamlined process for supplier onboarding and management. At a time when 20% of municipalities were being sued for operational failings (source: City Journal), Multnomah County needed to improve its day-to-day procurement efficiency as well as its responsiveness in times of crisis.
The Solution: “One County” with Customization
Barry Zimmerman, Deputy Purchasing Manager, Multnomah County, led the transformation initiative. JAGGAER was selected based on its reputation for cost-effective, transparent solutions for public sector customers, as well as the converged, intelligent features of the JAGGAER eProcurement, enhanced by the efficiencies of Contracts+, Invoicing, Sourcing, and Supplier Management.
Leaving behind the siloed, inefficient processes of the past, Zimmerman and JAGGAER took a “One County” approach that brought everything into a single, easy-to-use workflow that each business unit could customize according to their needs.
After first modernizing the County’s eProcurement operations and eliminating costly warehouse operations, the team implemented custom intake forms so users could make general requests, sourcing requests and contract requests all from a single location, as well as route requests dynamically, track procurement authority and capture justifications for exemptions.
Other features included template and clause libraries with 14 sourcing templates, 24 contract templates, 54 standard attachments, 250+ clauses, and 200 custom fields—all pre-approved by County attorneys for speed and compliance. For even greater workflow automation and transparency, there was also support for parallel cycle-time tracking and reporting dashboards that could be customized by user.
“Procurement has been shown as a value center, not just a cost-saver. We also have enhanced trust and efficiency across all county departments. JAGGAER has given us a true success platform, both for now and into the future.”
— Barry Zimmerman, Deputy Purchasing Manager, Multnomah County
Results: Capacity Increased, Cycle Time Decreased
The transformation delivered results that extended beyond simple ROI. With JAGGAER eProcurement and Contracts+, Multnomah County achieved:
- 50% reduction in contract cycle time: While processing 1,000+ more contracts annually than five years ago, average cycle time dropped from ~95 days to 47.5 days.
- Improved compliance & audit readiness: Every procurement request now tied to validated procurement authority, supporting quick responses to public records requests, as well as integration with Tableau and other visualization tools.
- Diverse supplier engagement: More than 1,500 registered suppliers, with increased participation from small, minority-owned, and women-owned businesses in sourcing events.
- Emergency agility: The system supports rapid pivoting to alternative supplier networks in crises, leveraging existing workflows without retraining staff.
Looking ahead, Multnomah County is exploring AI to further automate intake routing, risk assessment, and supplier matching. With succession planning in mind, the procurement team is documenting processes and embedding knowledge in the system for long-term sustainability. Upcoming initiatives include integrating grant management into JAGGAER and expanding sustainability/social equity tracking and enforcement.
