DGS Wins Innovation Award for RFI2 Procurement Model Using GenAI

California’s Department of General Services (DGS), the business manager for state government, has won a national award for its collaboration with other key state departments on a project or initiative.

DGS was awarded the inaugural Procurement Impact Award, bestowed by the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) in collaboration with the National Association of State Chief Administrators (NASCA) and the National Governors Association (NGA), according to an email news release from the department.

Specifically, DGS was recognized for Request for Innovative Ideas, or RFI2, a variation on the traditional vendor solicitation process that poses “problem” statements to vendors and asks them to offer solutions. RFI2 is a departure from the traditional procurement model, in which a government agency requests specific goods or services from vendors. Its entry was the “Generative Artificial Intelligence in Procurement Operations Project,” according to NASPO.

Rather than issue a request for proposals for specific hardware or software to improve customer service at a state agency call center, for example, RFI2 instead spells out the problem and challenges for vendors to devise and propose their own solutions.

DGS was recognized for its work with other state departments in creating “problem statements” for which generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) might offer a solution. DGS worked with the California departments of Technology (CDT), Transportation (Caltrans), Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) and Public Health (CDPH), the Government Operations Agency (GovOps), and the California Health and Human Services Agency (CalHHS).

“As a result, five solicitations were released in January in the form of Requests for Innovative Ideas, or RFI2s,” the DGS announcement says. “Ten proof-of-concept contracts were awarded this past spring, allowing each awarded vendor to work side-by-side with state teams to test the proposed GenAI solutions using real, publicly available data to create a realistic representation of state operations,” the release adds. “This innovative GenAI RFI2 process keeps California at the forefront of technology and AI advances that can help streamline state functions.”

During a panel discussion last month at the California Government Innovation Summit,* state government tech leaders praised the inter-departmental collaboration that has resulted from the RFI2 process. Panelists included the state’s chief procurement officer, Angela Shell, who is also DGS’ deputy director for procurement.

Panelist Scott Gregory, deputy director of technology for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), said the RFI2 process strengthened the relationships among state departments and also enhanced “an understanding within our organization about how we can work together, oddly enough, through a new procurement vehicle, a new procurement path, to focus directly on the mission that was at hand.”

Gregory added: “The RFI2 process kicked off a brand-new unit within CAL FIRE. Our intel group is a part of the organization that does fire intelligence, everything from weather monitoring to law enforcement monitoring around arson to fuels mitigation, to be able to fuse that information together, to be able to paint what the fire threat picture is.”

Panelist Tiffany Angulo, deputy director of statewide procurement for CDT, said RFI2 fosters collaboration and can also fill gaps.

“If you’ve done procurements that have not been successful, that’s a good opportunity to look at RFI2,” she said. “Because maybe there’s something that we don’t know, but the innovator pool, the industry pool, can tell us in a different way than what we’re used to. So that’s kind of how we’re continuing to use RFI2.”

*The California Government Innovation Summit was hosted by Government Technology, sister publication of Industry Insider — California.