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

The Chicago Mayor's Office and Department of Procurement Services have combined to announce a new plan to switch over to an online e-procurement system to handle the city's government purchasing.  As reported by GovTech, on June 14, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office announced plans to revamp the current outdated system the city uses, which is largely paper-based and offers low transparency into how and why funds are spent by the city's various departments.  

Transparency and efficiency have been key points for the Mayor's administration.  According to Catherine Kwiatkowski, communications director for the Department of Procurement, "Mayor Emanuel has prioritized transparency and implementing solutions to make it easier for business to participate in the business of city government."  The new online tools are expected to facilitate communication and collaboration across 29 city departments, as well as improving the ability of the city to handle the full spectrum of the procurement cycle.  Responding to bids, requests for proposals (RFP), invoicing, and vendor payments are also expected to be expedited with the new service. 

The city expects to begin the process of switching over to the new eProcurement system with an RFP coming by the beginning of August.  The press release for the announcement can be found here.

To see the tracked opportunity for this system in GovWin IQ's SLED database, please go here.