NASPO Awards

The NASPO Awards celebrate the outstanding contributions of individuals to the field of public procurement. These awards recognize excellence in various aspects of procurement, including innovation, leadership, and service to the profession.

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Create a Winning Submission


To guide you to success, we've put together some tips and guidelines that will help you build a strong submission.

Please note that submissions are limited to four pages, although optional supporting material can also be submitted as a separate document when needed to showcase images, examples, or documentation that is too large to fit within the four-page submission itself.

Need Inspiration? Check out Past Winners

Download Submission Template
Warning
2024 Submissions Are Now Closed

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Write an Executive Summary

Your submission will benefit greatly with the addition of a short executive summary/introduction that describes the purpose and scope of the project and gives a brief overview of the implementation process.

Key Tip

What to include:

  • A summary statement of the content of each of the four categories
  • A comment on the results of the project
  • Anything to which committee members should pay particular attention

This executive summary should not exceed one page and is
included as part of the total pages for submission.

Scoring Categories

Cronin Scoring Methodology

Below are the categories you should ensure are covered within your four page nomination. Each category examines a different aspect of the project’s impact and is weighed separately to provide an overall score.

Puzzle

Innovation

30 Points

Unusual or unique approach, scale, or magnitude of effort; conceptual originality. This category should answer the question, “What makes this project stand out as a notable contribution to the procurement function?” It is intended to capture the nature and impact of changes in your state operations, but it also rewards path-breaking ideas or efforts that may not have been considered or attempted elsewhere.

Because substantial originality is so rare, this category offers the highest potential point total to a submission that is able to point out differences and to distinguish itself from closely similar projects completed or underway in other states.

Arrows

Transferability

30 Points

Primarily an external focus that assesses the practical ability by other states to replicate or use as a benchmark, considering expected resources required and generality of the legal or structural environment in which the entry was implemented.

A project or initiative that can be used broadly by other states as a template will receive a higher score than one with benefits that appear to depend on the particular geography, environment, governmental structure or particular needs of the submitting state. In some cases, it may be necessary to explain how an apparent state-bound effort can be adapted for greater transferability.

Bar Graph

Service Improvement

25 Points

An internal focus that assesses the extent to which transactions or service delivery is made more effective; includes consideration of nature of stakeholder involvement by agencies/users in development & implementation of program or project; change management strategy sufficient to promote adoption. Every purchasing organization provides a service to other state agencies, and this category is intended to assess results—the impact of the project on improving the delivery of those services.

More weight is given to specifics than to generalities. When metrics are provided, it is beneficial to include a short (non-technical) explanation of how those metrics were produced. Also, committee members look favorably on descriptions of the input, participation and adoption by stakeholders.

Dollar and Down Arrow

Savings & Efficiency

15 Points

Validated or potentional for cost reduction, resource savings, and improved efficiency. Although these savings criteria may not be quite as highly weighted as the other three categories, well-documented estimates or projections of savings are often then determining factor between otherwise generally equal submissions. Savings and efficiency figures are given more weight when they are objective, supported by evidence, and include an explanation of how they are derived.

Although increases in efficiency are less open to precise calculation, the manner or method by which the increase is realized should be described. In general, undocumented claims of very large cost reductions are less likely to receive higher scores than smaller, but significant and well-supported cost savings estimates.

Methodology

The Top 5 submissions are recognized at NASPO’s annual conference, will participate in the Cronin webinar series, and have
bragging rights for the next year!

Tier 1

Choosing the Top 10

The Committee scores the Innovation and Transferability categories only to narrow down submissions to the top 10.

Tier 2

Honing In with Custom Questions

To choose the next tier of applicants, the Committee develops several clarification questions for the submissions to be answered by the award applicant.

Tier 3

Choosing Five Finalists

At this stage, the Committee scores the Service Improvement and Cost Reduction categories. Scorecards are calculated and the five finalists are determined.

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Winners
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Resubmissions Are Allowed

Resubmittal criteria:

  • The resubmittal cannot have received any level of Cronin award (e.g., Gold, Silver or Bronze) from a past year
  • The resubmittal must contain new information from the previous submission
  • The resubmittal must clearly describe the significant changes/circumstances that make this program viable for resubmission

The Cronin Awards Committee will review the resubmission justifications to determine whether the submission will be included with those to be scored. If the committee determines the reasons for resubmission are substantial, then the entire document will be reviewed along with the other submissions. If the committee determines, based on the justification, that a resubmittal does not merit inclusion, the resubmittal will not be scored.

All states involved with a resubmittal will be notified of the committee’s decision to include or exclude their submission from scoring following the committee’s decision.

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Please note:

Nominations for the George Cronin Awards for Procurement Excellence are intended for state central procurement offices, and must be submitted by, or with approval from, the NASPO voting member (CPO) within your state.

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