IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The council is investing £15m in an Oracle-based financial ledger and procurement system that will allow the council's main suppliers to receive orders and send invoices over the internet.

Governments and vendors can learn a lot from each other. The procurement process ought to start long before the RFPs are issued.

Do you remember your first middle-school dance? The boys on one side of the gym, the girls on the other, both too afraid to approach each other. Many of those fears evaporated as we came to know more about each other.

Too often, the government procurement process is like that dance. Government officials are reluctant to engage with potential private-sector vendors outside of the formalized bidding process, fearing that their ethics might be questioned or they might end up spending taxpayer money on products or services that cost too much or don't work as advertised.

Procurement is at the heart of almost everything a government does. But states vary widely when it comes to how well they manage the things they buy.

Governments buy a lot of stuff. Every year, one out of every three dollars governments spend goes toward purchasing something -- from photo copier ink to new vehicle fleets -- to help provide services. This very large chunk of the budget would seem to make procurement the most obvious area to look for new ways to save taxpayer money. Yet for the billions spent every year in state procurement, many central offices have long remained mired in old techniques. They’ve been unable to take a big-picture view when it comes to spending, and they’ve only dabbled in using data and new technology for more efficient purchasing.

Buying with public money is difficult by design, but are there fair ways to fix it?

Greg Veatch just wanted to buy some software. How hard could that be?

As senior legal technology specialist in the Ohio Attorney General’s office, Veatch needed digital tools to better enable review of legal documents in the discovery process. Procurement took nine grueling months.

But the downside is these rules can be so restrictive that they choke off competition and innovation. The number of vendors who are able to respond to complex procurements is limited, and that can leave agencies with fewer choices and less creative technology options.

Still, some agencies are finding creative ways to purchase more innovative technology while staying in harmony with procurement laws. Here’s a look at some of the procurement rules that most often stifle innovative technology and how some agencies are working to improve the situation.

Traditional public-sector procurement processes have been criticized for being slow, inflexible, and limiting the size of the vendor pool that government can fish in. While challenges in government procurement persist, years of shrinking budgets have led many organizations to devote some energy to improving the process.

David Graham, Chief Innovation Officer in Carlsbad, spoke to Jonathan Andrews about how the Californian city is seeking to redefine communities through its recently approved innovation roadmap.

Most cities that can boast a chief innovation officer tend to be large metropolises like Boston, San Francisco or Los Angeles. Only a handful of smaller cities have been in a position to add the role to their governance structure.

Representatives from 10 states and localities met with some of the technology industry’s biggest service providers last week to start bringing government purchasing rules in line with an increasingly cloud-based world.

The way state and local government buys technology is changing. But how?

Flexibility. If there’s one thing that everybody involved in government procurement — chief information officers, procurement officials, vendors and civic tech folk — appear to agree on, it’s that the future of government’s technology-buying should be more flexible.

A new open source tool being built for Philadelphia could solve many of government's procurement worries.

Traditional government procurement is esoteric and the results are bad for everyone. Fewer vendors in the selection pool leads to higher costs for government, inferior project results and fewer opportunities for startups that don’t have the knowledge and experience to participate. But one startup seeks to remedy this problem.

The leaders of Georgia’s purchasing office on saving money, realizing the importance of data analysts and being underappreciated.

In February, Governing released a report ranking 39 states based on their procurement policies. They were ranked in 10 categories, including their use of technology, how they engage with vendors and how effectively central procurement offices work with agencies.

Open Procure is looking to speed government adoption of breaking technologies and ease startup entry into the government sector.

A new website may help drive down government procurement costs and make it easier for startups to sell their goods and services.

The website, called Open Procure, launched earlier this month and is the latest side project of Alan Mond, CEO and co-founder of Munirent, the inter-jurisdictional equipment sharing service. Mond says the website is an experiment that he hopes will start conversations about procurement and ultimately prove beneficial for government and startups alike.

Building out digital infrastructure raises a host of complex questions, from avoiding obsolescence to sorting through funding options.

City officials face difficult challenges as they begin to weave a digital fabric through their streets and buildings. Not only do they need to confront questions of what pieces of infrastructure belong to that fabric -- whether street lights, broadband kiosks, parking meters or other fixtures -- but they must also consider compounding complexities such as the role of the private sector, liability issues and equity for underserved communities.

While the typical procurement process has been around for decades, three states are breaking the mold when it comes to how vendors can respond to RFPs.

An integrated system like Virginia's is a must for states that want to procure goods and services efficiently, and it's good for suppliers as well.

Virginia officials knew that their traditional, decentralized procurement system wasn't working -- for either buyers or sellers. Suppliers were frustrated: companies had to first identify all of the purchasing offices to market their goods, then travel to in-person meetings to identify and track opportunities. State officials lamented a lack of transparency, consistency and availability for small and diverse businesses to participate.

The General Services Administration’s SmartBuy award for securing stored data could provide more value to federal agencies than the potential savings expected from the governmentwide buy. The award, to be officially announced Monday, will provide standard encryption products for federal agencies and state and local governments, which could significantly improve government data security, security experts say.