Building upon the success of coronavirus-related technology acquisitions, California’s Governor made a $25M fund available to the California Department of Technology (CDT) to demonstrate an accelerated technology project review and funding approval process. Formally known as the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), the Fund saw its first round launch in November 2021.
City Innovate’s experience with our Start-up In Residence (STIR) program – which pairs innovative technology companies together with governments via CBP – and our suite of enterprise applications tailored to manage acquisitions – from project intake and evaluation through market research and ultimately to solicitation and contract building – uniquely qualifies us to continue working with the CDT to build and implement the TMF. We are proud to be working in partnership with the CDT towards the ultimate goal of making immediate investments in IT that will yield quick and meaningful results for the people of California.
The Technology Modernization Fund is a challenge-based approach to surfacing and approving California state departments’ or entities’ business problems. The TMF bridges funding requirements up until the need for a Budget Change Proposal (BCP) by making funds available upon project approval. Using City Innovate’s challenge-based methodology and enterprise applications the CDT digitized a legacy project approval process and reduced funding time from 12 months to 30 days. It should be noted that the Fund works in concert with the Project Approval Lifecycle (PAL) and Service Stabilization efforts; the trifecta intends to help the state government find the best path to delivering efficient, effective, and equitable services to California residents.
City Innovate has worked hand-in-hand with the CDT to develop and operationalize the multi-stage application process to award TMF funding. Below is an approximation of the TMF process within City Innovate’s Business/Stakeholder Analysis module;
The first round of the TMF launched in November 2021 and after 21 project applications saw 4 projects funded by January of 2022. Read more about round one.