Peeling away ‘unnecessary bureaucracy’ helped streamline IT procurement in Pennsylvania

Collaboration among state agencies in Pennsylvania and peeling away “unnecessary bureaucracy” have been key to the commonwealth’s efforts to modernize its procurement processes for information technology projects, state officials said Wednesday.

Particularly, two state agencies — the Pennsylvania Department of General Services’ Bureau of Procurement and the Commonwealth Office of Digital Experience, or CODE PA, within the Office of Administration — have worked together over the last six months to review, streamline and standardize the state’s IT procurement practices. By “peeling away layers of unnecessary bureaucracy that slow the pace of progress and innovation,” officials said in a news release that improvements made by the two agencies have increased competition for state contracts and protected taxpayer dollars from IT project delays and cost overruns.

The work, guided by a steering committee of six state agencies, has increased speed of procurement, reduced costs, reduced risk and improved transparency of the process for vendors, officials said.

Some of the changes included repealing a policy that required state agencies to negotiate software license agreements with vendor before discovering software costs. This month, the two agencies also launched a new, streamlined process that reduced the number of questions agencies must answer before purchasing IT by 75%, while still gathering the necessary information.

Officials said the new process can support faster decision making, as it has eliminated repetitive steps, and incorporated automation and to enable better tracking of pending requests.

Last month, the state Office of Administration also consolidated its 93 policies IT vendors were required to comply with — which spanned over 500 pages — into 34 policies, and renamed them with simple titles. In the coming months, the state agency is scheduled to review and rewrite all of its IT procurement policies to align with common compliance frameworks that most vendors follow already.

“Technology is evolving at a breakneck pace, and we need the ability to respond quickly to new innovations and changes in the marketplace,” Pennsylvania Secretary of Administration Neil Weaver said in a release.

During this process, the agency said it will pilot the use of generative artificial intelligence to accelerate drafting of revised policies for editing and review by subject matter experts.

Additionally, rather than contracting with a single vendor for IT projects, general services and administration staff are breaking down projects into smaller pieces with clear, manageable scopes of work, officials said. They said the new approach reduces potential costs and risks if a vendor cannot deliver, as well as creating new opportunities for smaller companies to win contracts.

CODE PA and the general services department are also creating a new digital service, called the Invitation to Qualify, or ITQ. It’s designed to allow vendors to partake in a “pre-qualification” process, allowing them to receive requests for quotes or projects within a particular category, rather than a full proposal on a specific project. The ITQ will allow vendors to demonstrate their qualifications to be considered for future contracts.