2021 is the year of IT procurement. Here on the Research and Innovation Team, we have worked hard to bring to your attention to the newest trends in technology and IT procurement. The pandemic has shown us how important technology is going to be in the incoming decade. Already our way of working has changed to bring you. We have learned to adapt to new technologies, and a lot of the practices we have adopted in 2020 will be with us forever. The IT procurement landscape does not have to be a landmine of uncertainty, we have resources to help you!

Tech Next

The Tech Next series offers an insight into new technologies procurement officials need to be on the look

out for.

Our newest edition of the Tech Next series focuses on new 5^th Generation (5G) Technology and the potential impact it could have on future government work.

Tech Next: The Internet of Things (IoT) is an integral part of future government work. The IoT is already connecting technologies. Once 5G is completely implemented, the networks will be able to move information more quickly.

Tech Next: UAVs will be an integral part of the IoT + 5G network. Connecting drones to the network will allow for continuous surveillance crops, livestock, disaster areas, security systems, and so much more. It will even allow for the creation of drop off drone services.

Tech Next: Electric Vehicles (EV) will be integral to new state fleets. The IoT + 5G network will allow fleet managers to know in real time where vehicles are and even allow them to gauge how much charge each vehicle has.

Challenges

With new technologies, come new challenges. NASPO’s latest paper on that front was written in conjunction with NASCIO concerning cybersecurity Buyer Beware: Integrating Cybersecurity into the Acquisition Process. We have even touched on cybersecurity in this past year with our Cybersecurity + Procurement webinar.

Block-chain technology will be widely adopted to help the government cybersecurity apparatus. As the Executive Director of StateRAMP, Leah McGrath, put it in our Cybersecurity + Procurement webinar, “Cybersecurity is not one and done.”

The subject of eProcurement is as vast as it is complicated. This webinar features NASPO’s Chief Learning Officer Bob Sievert, taking us through what eProcurement is and what it is not.

The George Cronin Awards for Procurement Excellence highlight some of the technology innovations procurement officials have adopted to meet these new technology challenges:

New York Innovates with Online File Requirements System (2019)

Minnesota’s Innovation Begets Innovation: How Challenge-Based RFPs have been a Winning Solution for Minnesota (2019)

Oklahoma’s E-Government Revolution (2018)

Michigan’s KPI System and Analytics (2018)

Utah ValuePoint Cloud Solutions Procurement (2018)

Tennessee’s Radio Equipment and Services Contract (2017)

New Jersey’s eProcurement System (NJSTART) (2017)

No matter what the future holds, we at NASPO have our eyes on the horizon. Let us know what next technologies or IT procurement topics you want us to dive into next!