Actively managing contracts is a crucial technique that helps your government improve the quality of goods it procures and services it provides to residents. Without strong contract management practices, you could see poor-quality service, missed deadlines, unfulfilled deliverables, or unspent sums. This training provided strategies to help you apply contract management techniques appropriately for different types of contracts, as well as new ways of working collaboratively with your vendors, understand strategies for shifting your contract management approach from one that’s compliance-oriented to one centered on improved performance.

This event was designed specifically for cities participating in the What Works Cities initiative and provided ideas and assistance in helping cities to achieve the certification criterion: RDC 5: Using Data to Manage Contracts and Improve Outcomes and Performance.

Procurement data is foundational to running an efficient, effective, proactive, and strategic procurement shop. If you aspire to make the procurement process faster, work with more diverse firms, leverage procurement as a strategic function, or use procurement to advance your government's economic development or social impact goals, you need to track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and setting goals based on these metrics. In this training, governments learned about KPIs commonly used by procurement offices and how to use them to elevate challenges and opportunities to your leaders. They also heard about real examples of using goals and metrics to make change in state and local governments.

It’s frustrating to write a solicitation when you feel like you’re in the dark on the subject matter, but government employees sometimes fear that collaborating with prospective vendors or outside stakeholders crosses over a legal line and creates an unfair advantage. However, communicating with vendors in a fair and open way before a formal solicitation has been released can be an important component of your market research. In this training, governments learned about the spectrum of market research, from simple internet research to Requests for Information to prototype competitions. They also saw examples of what effective market research looks like from real governments.