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Approach

Don't automate an undocumented process.

Measure what the current process costs. Write the procedure down. Install it in the system your staff already use. Each phase stops with something the agency owns.

§ 01 Three phases

Measure. Write. Install.

  1. 3 weeks

    Measure the current cost

    Walk the real process with the people who run it. Count volume where it exists. Name the paths that are written down and the ones that aren't. Leave with a recommendation, not a software demo.

  2. Then 8–16 weeks

    Write the operating layer

    Document the workflow, the playbooks, the numbering and the thresholds. Legal reviews the crosswalk. Nothing is configured that hasn't first been written.

  3. Alongside the writing

    Install it in the system of record

    Configure the platform the agency already owns or is buying. Train staff. Hand over the artifacts. The employee still owns the award.

§ 02 The operating model

Five stages, one record.

  1. Request

    A complete request, checked before work starts.

  2. Path

    IFB, RFP, cooperative, sole source or emergency, set by written thresholds.

  3. Record

    An identifier from the first day, so status lives in the system.

  4. Award

    Approvals routed to the authority that actually holds them, wet signature included where required.

  5. Closeout

    A required step, so the file is complete when the auditor asks.

§ 03 Who this is for

Purchasing offices, not transformation programs.

Purchasing directors, finance leads, and city, town and school administrators in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut first, and public authorities with board-approval thresholds and federal money.

  • Two or three experienced people hold the procedure, and everyone else asks them.
  • A procurement platform was bought, but the process it should run was never written.
  • Sole-source and emergency purchases are improvised each time.
  • An audit or grant review found files that couldn't be followed.

§ 04 What we won't do

If you need a citywide program, we're the wrong firm.

  • Sell hourly staff augmentation or a buyer for hire.
  • Configure software around a procedure nobody has written.
  • Leave a binder instead of a guide staff can execute.
  • Keep the artifacts. The workflow, playbooks and crosswalk are the agency's at exit.

Start

Three weeks, sized for a small purchase.

The diagnostic walks your process with the people who run it and ends with one recommended engagement, or a clear reason not to proceed.

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