How prenegotiated, cooperative procurement helps drive innovation for governments
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The Texas Department of Information Resources is leveraging state-level procurement negotiations to help deliver innovative solutions to local public safety organizations.
Texas — home to more than 31 million people across 254 counties — is ramping up its public safety network by adopting the Oracle Public Safety Suite of technology through the state’s Department of Information Resources.
First responders across the state, including law enforcement, emergency departments, public safety agencies and educational institutions, are able to obtain Oracle’s services through DIR under a prenegotiated procurement agreement between the state agency and the tech provider.
By allowing local organizations to purchase services directly through DIR, the state aims to increase the cost-effectiveness and accessibility of the innovative public safety tech, said Steve Seoane, senior vice president and general manager of Oracle Local Government.
The Oracle Public Safety Suite, for instance, aims to improve response coordination across public safety entities, reduce administrative burden, like manual data entry, and strengthen data security and transparency for users, he said. One feature of the suite provides a records management system that leverages generative artificial intelligence to create draft police reports, for instance, from data sources like body camera footage and CAD systems.
Such services are likely harder for small counties and cities across the state that haven’t had the budget or resource capacity to implement major upgrades to their public safety systems for years — even decades — without the help of purchasing power from the state, Seoane said.
“Prenegotiated procurement agreements at the state level, such as cooperative purchasing contracts, offer significant benefits to smaller, local organizations,” said Solomon Kingston, interim chief procurement officer of National Association of State Procurement Officials, in an email to Route Fifty.
The model has become more popular among states, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic strained governments’ budgets and revealed service gaps across jurisdictions, “public procurement professionals increasingly recognize the benefits of volume discounts, streamlined processes and shared expertise,” he said.
This procurement strategy, for instance, can help local governments bypass the lengthy bidding process by enabling them to purchase products directly from the state, which could otherwise stymie governments’ adoption of more innovative services, Solomon said.
More modernized tech that can help automate and streamline tasks is particularly important for the public safety sector, which needs to be able to respond quickly and efficiently to emergencies within their communities, Seoane said.
Under the cooperative procurement approach, state-level agencies can also typically negotiate for lower prices than smaller organizations could on their own, Solomon explained.
Collective purchasing also offers local agencies the opportunity to leverage procurement resources and staff expertise from state contracting offices, easing the squeeze on often underresourced jurisdictions. The DIR, for instance, can support local governments’ adoption of more secure, standardized tech solutions by vetting and approving vendors at the state level for them to purchase from, Seoane said.
“Numerous states have robust programs that allow local governments to use state contracts, but the extent of adoption varies by state,” Solomon said. “This strategy is expected to become even more popular as states and localities seek to maximize limited resources, improve efficiency and respond to evolving technology needs.”