Meet Carlos, CIO
Carlos is responsible for evaluating and selecting SaaS solutions for his government agency, ensuring technology investments are aligned with business goals and objectives. He has a deep understanding of the government’s technology needs and requirements and plays a critical role
in helping his agency adopt new technologies that improve efficiency, effectiveness, and service delivery.
Let’s look at what his work includes:
- Identify and assess the government agency’s technology needs
- Evaluate different SaaS solutions and select the ones that best meet those needs
- Ensure consistency across contracts with SaaS vendors
- Oversee the implementation and adoption of new technologies
- Manage the relationship with SaaS vendors and ensure that they are meeting the government’s expectations
9:00 am
Workload Review
Carlos starts his day by evaluating his current workload and prioritizing activities. With City Innovate’s Document Process Automation™ (DPA) platform, dashboards show him exactly what he
needs to do next based on overall project timelines.
This morning, Carlos received a request to collaborate on a procurement document for a much-needed new technology, something his experience and expertise are critical to ensuring the
right solution is acquired for the organization.
9:30 am
Document Collaboration
Carlos sees that the procurement for an ERP system has been initiated and his input and review have been requested by the program team. He clicks on his task and is immediately taken to the
exact location in the document where his contribution is needed. With granular user-based permissions, Carlos is assured that no one can modify his section once it’s finalized. He leaves feedback for the program team directly in line with questions posed to him, eliminating the need to send emails confirming his receipt and input.
It is evident to Carlos that the procurement team already started with the latest standardized IT language his team developed and approved for all contracts going forward, guaranteeing the quality
and consistency of language in this critical solicitation. Carlos can rest assured security and compliance requirements are being met so he quickly approves that section with a click of a button.
10:00 am
Review Backlog of Custom Workflow Development and Maintenance
Carlos and his team are responsible for the ongoing development and maintenance of over 20 custom workflows that enable the agency procurement teams to complete their work. The workflows
involve complex coordination between legacy applications, such as Microsoft Word, Excel, SharePoint, custom applications, and email.
Today Carlos is thrilled that he and his team can deprecate the majority of these custom procurement workflows, as City Innovate’s DPA solution combines the critical use cases for these legacy
applications into one central, purpose-built solution for procurement teams. Configurable templates and workflows are created and managed by procurement program teams, reducing the dependency
on Carlos and his staff to complete their work.
11:00 am
Systems Integrations
After reviewing the list of custom workflows to be deprecated, Carlos determines what new integrations are needed to ensure that agency operations remain smooth. Carlos is pleased to see that City Innovate has a set of easy-to-implement connectors that ensure seamless integration with the agency’s key back office systems like ServiceNow, Workday, and PeopleSoft.
Carlos and his staff also have an advanced security strategy to manage users and enforce multi-factor authentication and single sign-on, and integrating City Innovate seamlessly with these critical
initiatives is easy to configure and maintain.
1:00 pm
Vendor Evaluations
Carlos receives a notice that the ERP procurement’s vendor submissions are already beginning to appear online. As the Subject Matter Expert, Carlos is a senior participant and has been tapped to
participate in the technical evaluation. In the past Carlos would have to hunt for the responses he was expected to review closely, but now City Innovate enables him to go directly to the bidder Q&A, review vendor responses, and propose responses.
3:00 pm
Reporting
At this time of the day Carlos reviews his responsibility to enable insights across the agency, as he regularly receives requests for dashboards and custom reports from his business colleagues, such
as analyzing the status of all active procurements. Now, with City Innovate, Carlos has this information available at the click of a button and ready for program leaders! He uses newly freed-up time to research the latest technology trends and innovations that can help the agency better achieve its goals and objectives.
5:00 pm
Award and Contract
Having concluded the vendor evaluation for another high profile IT procurement, Carlos and the program teams feel confident in awarding a new contract. However, managing contracts can be complex. Carlos knows that effective contract management mitigates risk, maximizes value, ensures compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and organizational policies, and clarifies requirements and expectations – ensuring suppliers or contractors understand and deliver against their contract.
The suite of City Innovate collaboration tools facilitates effective communication and coordination amongst all stakeholders to address any issues or concerns that arise during contract negotiation and creation. Carlos can review deliverables against similar contracts, understand spending, and easily process amendments and renewals with built-in workflows that summarize and manage changes to the contract while ensuring proper audit trail and documentation; all without ever having to
leave the City Innovate platform.
With an awarded contract in hand, Carlos leaves the office with a sense of pride and accomplishment.