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Rodney Ruffin, Amtrak's director of supplier diversity, notes that the program has had different names and different corporate locations in its history with the intercity passenger railroad.
"It has been called minority business development and minority business opportunities. It's been part of our procurement organization and part of the finance group. Now it's in the diversity department," he says.
The business diversity umbrella
The diversity department has existed since 1999, headed by Gerri Mason Hall, a VP of business diversity. Hall reports directly to Amtrak's CEO and president, David Gunn.
Ruffin arrived at the same time, with the title of director of corporate diversity outreach. He was one of four directors at the time; the other three handled employment diversity, diversity dispute resolution and supplier diversity.
These functions, Ruffin notes, existed throughout the history of Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corp (Washington, DC), which is mostly owned by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and receives operating subsidies from the Federal government. But this was the first time all these diversity-related functions were placed under the umbrella of business diversity.
When Ruffin arrived, supplier diversity was headed by Roscoe Swann, "very well known throughout the supplier diversity arena." Swann had been at Amtrak for about twelve years, handling most of the company's diversity outreach. "If you called on the telephone and used the word "minority,' then Roscoe's phone rang," Ruffin declares with a smile.
Wearing a couple of hats
Roscoe and Ruffin "worked the trade show circuit together for almost three years, because our areas overlapped." When Roscoe retired, supplier diversity was added to Ruffin's corporate diversity outreach area.
"You have to wear a couple of hats so that's how we do it," Ruffin says. "On the suppler diversity side it's about finding out what we're buying and when, and finding ways to get MBEs and WBEs into that stream. It's about building our profile. That's something all our constituencies: passengers, government officials and representatives in Congress, always ask about."
Savvy about diversity
"Consumers have gotten very savvy about diversity," Ruffin adds. "They're saying, "Well, what is this company doing to be a responsible citizen?" Supplier diversity, tied back to the business case, is one of the indicators.
"Minority- and women-owned businesses do a tremendous job of enhancing your supplier base," Ruffin explains. "Minority suppliers offer an opportunity to widen the net so nobody can take all your business for granted."
They'll do good business with you, he adds. "These folks are very astute and very good at what they do. They've had to be, just to meet the challenge of survival."
Program structure
Amtrak's goal is to place at least 15 percent of its purchases with certified MBEs and WBEs. Last year's total was better than 17 percent, which came to $89 million. "That's particularly lofty when you consider that there are no MBEs supplying our core purchases, which are the trains themselves," Ruffin says. The percentage includes the second tier spending that Amtrak asks of its suppliers.
The railroad corporation has 6,000 certified MBEs and WBEs in its database and did business with about 1,500 of them last year. They are certified by the DOT, although Amtrak is also a member of NMSDC and the Women Presidents' Educational Organization, an affiliate of WBENC.
Matchmakers preferred
While Ruffin does put in an occasional appearance at a trade show, he prefers matchmakers. "The work at a matchmaker happens at the front end, with prescreening," he says. "The MBEs and WBEs know what corporations will be there, and they sign up to talk with the ones they think they can do business with.
"When I attend a matchmaker I'm given a list of everybody who wants to see me, with a brief profile of what they do. Sometimes I look down that list and say, "Sorry, we're just not buying what you're selling.' It's a better use of everybody's time."
Networking
Another timesaver is comparing notes with contemporaries. "I've recently become involved in a private industry rail group which is part of NMSDC," Ruffin reveals. "There are people from Union Pacific, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), Norfolk Southern and CSX, and we compare notes on diverse suppliers." Amtrak is the only passenger railroad in the group, "but railroad is railroad.
"If we have a crackerjack supplier of rail ties and the firm is doing a great job for us, why in the world aren't we letting other people know about them so they could be doing that same great job for another railroad."
Besides, Ruffin notes with a smile, "In most of the country we run over track owned by the freight railroads anyway."
ICSI does IT for Amtrak
ICSI (Annapolis, MD) is an eighteen-year-old IT company. It started as a consultant and diversified into outsource consulting, patch management for software infrastructures, and SAP consulting.
Douglas Burkhardt, VP for business development, sales and marketing, joined ICSI more than ten years ago. Amtrak was already a client then, brought in by Mohammed Sedghi, VP for technology and one of the founders of ICSI.
"When we were a very small company, Amtrak selected us to work with other consultants and employees on its labor management system," Sedghi explains.
As other jobs followed, ICSI built a network of small IT companies and became a certified WBE. Amtrak took an interest in the group, asking them to put a team of network admins together for the rail line's Manassas, VA data center.
"We've also worked for Amtrak in Washington, DC and Philadelphia, PA. We've had up to twenty-five consultants at a time at Amtrak," Sedghi says.
The company has also agreed to let some of its consultants go to work directly for the railroad. "We have had such a great business relationship with Amtrak that we're glad to work out things like that to build a stronger relationship."
Into SAP consulting
In 1998 ICSI started doing SAP consulting for Amtrak, helping the railroad make a transition from mainframe into SAP apps. Eventually the consultant developed an SAP application and job monitoring solution called
"ESPatrol" that is really unique in the industry, Burkhardt says. Amtrak is the company's largest client, but ICSI is growing other governmental and commercial clients as well.
The company fluctuates in size depending on its projects, "But typically we're sitting around twenty to thirty-five techies," Sedghi notes. They are a combination of employees and contractors, depending on the length of the job.
"Our Amtrak folks are probably 50 to 60 percent employees," Burkhardt says.
Meet Mohammed Sedghi, ICSI VP
ICSI's Mohammed Sedghi was born in Tehran, Iran, and came to the U.S. at the age of sixteen. He received his BSCS with a minor in math from Towson State University (Baltimore, MD) in 1984.
He worked for a small software firm in Annapolis, MD right after college, and the next year moved on to two years with a consulting firm. In 1987 he and his wife, Paula, started ICSI. Paula, a business major, ran the business and did the bookkeeping; she's now president of the company.
"It's worked out real well," Sedghi says. They have three children, a girl in college who's planning to join the business, and a boy and a girl in high school.
Help from Amtrak
A lot of big opportunities are coming up in the SAP world, and Amtrak's supplier diversity office may help ICSI bid for a share, Burkhardt believes. "The Amtrak office is committed to making things happen. They advocate for organizations like ours," Burkhardt says.
"The office has helped facilitate communications to ensure that diversity objectives are met at the higher Amtrak levels. And that benefits firms like ours."
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