Purchasing routes for technology services: a summary for agency staff
The purchasing routes available to public agencies for technology work, and when each fits.
Articles
Reference articles for agency staff on procurement, technology, sectors, and compliance.
Contracts & Procurement 57
The California Multiple Award Schedule: how agencies use it
What CMAS is, which agencies can use it, and how a purchase through it works.
Cooperative purchasing: using contracts other agencies have already competed
How agencies buy through cooperative and piggyback contracts, and what to check before doing so.
Writing a technology RFP that gets good proposals
How agencies structure a solicitation so that vendors can price it accurately and evaluators can score it fairly.
Choosing a pricing structure for technology work
When an agency should buy on a fixed price, when time and materials fits, and how to manage each.
Due diligence before contracting with a technology vendor
What an agency should verify about a vendor's registration, insurance, security, and capacity before award.
Federal grants that fund local technology, and what they require
Where technology funding comes from and the obligations attached when federal money pays for a local project.
Contract terms agencies should include in technology contracts
The clauses that protect an agency's data, budget, and ability to change vendors.
What an owner's technical representative does on an IT project
Why agencies hire independent technical oversight for large implementations, and what the role involves.
All 57 articles in Contracts & Procurement
Technology 109
IaaS, PaaS, SaaS: cloud service models for public agencies
What each cloud service model means, who is responsible for what, and how agencies typically use them.
StateRAMP and FedRAMP, explained
What the two cloud security authorization programs are, how they differ, and what an authorization actually tells an agency.
Zero Trust architecture for public agencies
The principles behind Zero Trust, the maturity model, and a realistic sequence for a small security team.
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework for local government
How the framework is structured, why agencies adopt it, and how to use it without drowning in paperwork.
The CJIS Security Policy: an overview for agencies and vendors
What the policy covers, who it binds, and the areas that most often cause compliance findings.
DevSecOps pipelines for government software
The stages of a secure delivery pipeline and the evidence it produces for auditors.
Legacy modernization strategies: rehost, refactor, rewrite, replace
The main approaches to modernizing an old application, and how to choose among them.
API design for public-sector integration
Principles for designing interfaces between agency systems that will be maintained for years.
Low-code platforms in government: benefits, risks, and governance
Where low-code tools help agencies, where they cause trouble, and the governance that keeps them useful.
All 109 articles in Technology
AI & Automation 36
Responsible AI in the public sector: principles and practice
What responsible use of AI means for agencies, the frameworks that guide it, and concrete practices.
Generative AI in agency operations: where it helps today
The agency tasks where large language models are already useful, the ones where they are not yet, and how to tell the difference.
Retrieval-augmented generation: AI assistants that cite agency sources
How an assistant can answer questions from the municipal code, policies, and records without inventing answers.
AI-assisted redaction for public records requests
How machine learning can find personal information, criminal justice data, and other exempt content faster, with a person making the final call.
Intelligent document processing: turning forms and PDFs into data
How agencies extract structured data from applications, invoices, and scanned records with modern document AI.
AI security: prompt injection and other risks agencies should plan for
The new attack surface that language model applications create, and the controls that address it.
Automating agency workflows with integration and AI
Where automation removes manual steps between systems, and where AI extends it to tasks that used to need a person to read.
Virtual agents for 311 and resident services
What a well-designed AI assistant for residents can do, the failure modes to avoid, and the requirements to set.
Building an AI inventory: tracking where AI is used in your agency
What belongs in an agency AI use case inventory, how to find AI already embedded in licensed products, and who keeps the record current.
All 36 articles in AI & Automation
Sectors 54
Technology in county health and human services
The systems, data, and privacy rules behind eligibility, case management, and public health at the county level.
Municipal permitting and licensing systems
How cities manage permits, inspections, and licenses, and what a modern system needs to do.
Public safety data transparency: reporting that informs without exposing
The state mandates and community expectations for public safety data, and how to publish it responsibly.
Smart meter data: what utilities can do with it
Advanced metering produces far more data than billing needs. Here is how utilities use the rest.
Student data privacy for school districts
The laws governing student data, the vendor agreements they require, and the practices districts need.
Shared IT services and joint powers authorities
How small agencies pool technology through shared services, and what makes those arrangements work.
Transit technology and open data
The systems transit agencies run and the data standards that connect them to riders and planners.
Parks and recreation registration and reservation systems
How cities and counties evaluate recreation management platforms: registration, reservations, permits, payments, and finance reconciliation.
Asset management and work order systems for public works
How public works agencies tell a work order CMMS from a GIS linked enterprise asset management system, and what to require.
Government & Compliance 60
Public records law and technology systems
How public records obligations shape system design, from retention to search to redaction.
Open meeting laws and technology projects
How public meeting requirements affect approvals, timelines, and the technology used to run meetings.
Fiscal year cycles and technology project timing
How annual budgets, encumbrances, and grant periods determine when agencies can start and pay for projects.
Cybersecurity grant programs for local government
The federal and state programs that fund local cybersecurity improvements, and how agencies use them.
Vendor security questionnaires: what agencies ask and how vendors should answer
The purpose of security questionnaires, common questions, and how to make the process useful for both sides.
Digital service standards: what good public services look like online
Principles that governments have adopted for designing online services, and how agencies can apply them.
HIPAA for public agencies: who is covered and what it requires
When the health privacy rules apply to government entities and what the security rule expects of their systems.
Election technology security: what county IT should know
The systems involved in administering elections and the security practices that protect them.
Prevailing wage and public works rules in technology contracts
When technology work crosses into public works territory, and the prevailing wage, certified payroll, and bonding rules that follow.
All 60 articles in Government & Compliance
Guides & Checklists 67
Cloud, SaaS, colocation, or on-premises: choosing where agency workloads run
How public cloud, vendor-hosted SaaS, colocation, and on-premises infrastructure differ, and the criteria an agency uses to choose.
Build, buy, or configure: choosing an approach for an agency system
How custom development, commercial products, low-code configuration, and open source compare for an agency system, and how to decide.
Integrated suite or best-of-breed systems: how to decide
A comparison of single-vendor suites and best-of-breed systems, with the questions an agency should answer before choosing.
Who does the work: in-house staff, a managed service, or project vendors
Hiring staff, contracting a managed service, or buying project by project: what each model costs an agency in money, risk, and retained knowledge.
Replace the system or modernize around it: a decision guide
Full replacement, incremental modernization, re-platforming, or an API layer: how to compare four options for an aging system.
Run your own security operations or buy monitoring as a service
Four models for continuous security monitoring, what each asks of staff and contracts, and how response decisions stay with the agency.
Where to run a language model: a decision guide for agencies
How agencies choose among a commercial AI service, a provider model in their own cloud tenancy, and a self-hosted open model.
A go-live readiness checklist for a new agency system
A checklist for agency project managers and department leads deciding whether a new system is ready to go live on its scheduled date.
A pre-solicitation readiness checklist for technology purchases
A readiness checklist for IT and program staff to work through before drafting a solicitation for technology products or services.