The Challenge
Cities increasingly rely on technology-driven platforms to improve the lives of their residents – everything from new apps to increase public transit accessibility to websites that make paying taxes easier. The City of Portland recognized that poor procurement and contracting processes for technology projects like these could negatively impact residents and aimed to improve outcomes from its large technology contracts to provide residents with more accessible and modern technology-driven services.
The Project
With help from the GPL, the City clarified and improved the procurement process for large technology projects and supported two technology RFPs to create new services for residents. In particular, project partners established processes to regularly collaborate on upcoming technology procurements and share best practices; created a guide to connect city bureaus to expertise in order to improve upcoming technology procurements; and developed a results-driven RFP template.
The Innovation
Through improved procurement processes for technology projects, residents will be able to more easily interact with the City and see better results from technology-driven services. Technology projects also help to create new data that can be used to aid in future policy and program decisions. In the long term, the City expects that major technology projects will be delivered faster, consistently meet user and resident needs, integrate with the City’s technology infrastructure, and solve business challenges the City faces.
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