Transforming The City of Boston’s Procurement: Cultivating Strategic Relationships for Streamlined Solutions

The second event in the Digital Service Network’s summer event series, Let’s Get Digital, focused on the City of Boston’s transformative journey to streamline its procurement processes. We heard from Laura Melle, director of planning and procurement services, and Julia Gutíerrez, chief digital officer (CDO), on how the City is evolving its approach to better serve its departments and residents. 

 

Boston’s Historical Procurement Model

Boston’s procurement system has traditionally centralized the acquisition of goods. From firetrucks to office supplies, a centralized procurement department managed these needs across various departments. However, when it came to services—which encompassed procurement done by the Digital Service Team (DST)—procurement was decentralized. This approach meant that each of Boston’s 60 departments handled their own service contracts,  leading to varied levels of expertise and capacity for conducting procurements. Recognizing the need for greater efficiency, Boston is now transitioning to a more balanced approach that integrates centralized oversight with departmental autonomy. Melle highlighted that this new centralization-decentralization approach enables the procurement team to offer the “best of both worlds” in terms of support to each department.

 

Embracing a New Procurement Structure

In the past year, Boston’s procurement department has undergone significant changes. Melle shared that her team’s focus has shifted toward creating a “one-stop shop” to support not just goods procurement but also services like consulting and software-as-a-service (SaaS) contracts. This strategic overhaul is intended to provide a more cohesive and efficient procurement experience. The procurement department includes three main teams:

• Goods Procurement, the largest team, is tasked with managing advertising, vendor support, and training; 
• Procurement Planning, is composed of procurement analysts and data analysts to support departments with planning and guidance; and
• Grantmaking is a small but impactful team focused on distributing grants to community organizations and department-led projects. 

This reorganization aims to balance centralized support with departmental control, offering departments the autonomy to manage vendor relationships while benefiting from centralized resources.

 

Building Effective Relationships with the Digital Services Team

DST, part of the Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT), works closely with departments to enhance digital products and services. Gutíerrez discussed the challenge of balancing procurement timelines and goals, especially in a dynamic environment. She emphasized the importance of “building the plane while flying it,” iterating on contracts and processes to implement broader improvements incrementally. 

As CDO, Gutíerrez wears two hats in her relationship with the procurement team. First, as a customer, she noted that the procurement team is currently supporting the DST in a couple of active procurements, ensuring that digital initiatives align with the City’s strategic objectives. Second, in the realm of policy and governance, Gutíerrez works closely with the procurement team to create templates and guidance that bake in experiential and security guidelines. This interdepartmental collaboration between the procurement team and the DST fosters a culture of partnership, open communication, and mutual trust. By working closely together, these teams share a unified vision, ensuring that digital solutions are user-centric and truly reflective of the City’s priorities.

 

Key Takeaways

• Interdepartmental collaboration — Boston’s departments are aligning their efforts by focusing on their shared goal of serving residents, despite differences in financial systems and priorities. By regularly coordinating on hiring, restructuring, and budgets, they identify common priorities and work together more effectively. Enhanced visibility and communication efforts are also helping departments better understand unmet business needs, fostering a culture of collaboration that reduces bureaucratic hurdles and ensures all actions are in service of making Boston better for its residents. Gutíerrez emphasized the shared end goal of improving government for Bostonians, visitors to Boston, and “making the City of Boston a city for everybody.”
• Centralized support with decentralized procurement — Boston’s new procurement structure skillfully merges centralized and decentralized approaches, enabling departments to maintain direct control over their vendor relationships while leveraging centralized resources for efficiency. This dual approach aims to provide the best of both worlds—offering departments the autonomy to manage their unique needs while benefiting from streamlined, city-wide support systems. The reorganization seeks to reduce redundancies and enhance the overall procurement process by ensuring that departments have both the flexibility and support they need to operate effectively.
• Adapting to change with agile principles — The DST plays a critical role in Boston’s procurement evolution by balancing agile principles with long-term strategic goals. Their commitment to continuous improvement and adaptability ensures that procurement processes remain responsive to evolving needs and challenges. By incorporating incremental changes and emphasizing flexibility, the DST is able to address emerging requirements while maintaining alignment with the broader objectives of the City.

 

Conclusion

The event highlighted Boston’s progress in reimagining its procurement processes to better serve the City’s needs. By integrating centralized support with decentralized control and emphasizing strategic relationships between the Procurement team and the DST, Boston is setting a new standard for agile procurement.  With both teams expanding and growing in capacity, the procurement and digital service teams have capitalized on this unique opportunity to align capacity and work toward shared goals, all centered on improving government services across the City. 

The focus on collaboration, storytelling, and policy responsiveness positions the City of Boston to achieve its broader goals and enhance service delivery for its residents.

 

Watch the full webinar on the DSN’s YouTube channel.