State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Chicago's Procurement Modernization Seeks to Better Collaboration Across 29 City Departments

Government Technology: Procurement is one of those areas of government that doesn’t often get a lot of attention. When it comes to technology, people love talking about data analytics, moving to the cloud and any number of overused catchphrases. But too often the simple stuff gets overlooked.

In Chicago, city officials have rallied behind a plan to adjust how its Department of Procurement Services (DPS) does its job. As it stands — and like so many other procurement departments in the U.S. — Chicago’s system revolves largely around a heavily paper-based process that offers little insight into how and why money is spent the way it is. Mayor Rahm Emanuel aims to change all that.

Read article