Beta procurement tool for cities to safeguard autonomy

Cities increasingly rely on technology provided by market parties, also when it comes to procurement decisions. We developed a prototype decision aid to help municipalities incorporate strategic autonomy into their procurement processes for digital services.

Local governments increasingly rely on technology provided by market parties, which can create dependencies and pose risks to their sovereignty. To address this challenge, our team at Responsible Sensing Lab developed a prototype decision aid to help municipalities incorporate strategic autonomy into their procurement processes for digital services.

The tool supports key municipal roles, including the ‘Client,’ ‘Purchaser,’ and ‘Tender Team,’ during decision-making and vendor selection processes.

Download prototype here

Context: tech dependencies and risks

Municipalities increasingly face challenges such as:

Vendor lock-in: Difficulty in switching providers due to interoperability issues or high costs.
Surveillance risks: Potential for external entities to misuse sensitive data.
Limited control: Reduced capacity to independently maintain or modify critical functionalities.

It’s important to ask ourselves what ‘dials and buttons’ we can use to become more strategically autonomous as a city? This decision aid helps cities to navigate complex procurement processes while safeguarding their technological sovereignty.”
— Pieter Legerstee, Head of Strategic Partnership Management, City of Amsterdam

Key features

This decision aid tool is designed to identify critical functionalities, assess internal and external factors affecting strategic autonomy, and guide municipalities in selecting strategies and vendors that align with their autonomy goals.

The tool is structured into three parts:

1. Defining and assessing criticality

Identify the functionality the municipality aims to realize;
Assess the criticality of this functionality using a scoring system;
Establish the necessity for strategic autonomy based on criticality scores.

2. Choosing a strategy

Evaluate internal and external factors to determine whether to develop the functionality in-house, outsource it, or pursue a hybrid approach;
Provide recommendations based on municipalities’ capacity to maintain control.

3. Evaluating vendor options

Assess potential vendors based on strategic autonomy considerations, including data sovereignty, replaceability, and legal leverage;
Recommend vendors that meet sovereignty and functionality criteria.

45 questions to safeguard procurement decision making

The prototype comprises several questions, which are organised into three parts.

Part 1 represents the starting point of the decision aid and focuses on clearly defining the functionality that the municipality aims to realise and assessing its criticality.
Part 2 is intended to aid in choosing a strategy to realise the functionality.
Part 3 is intended to assess specific vendor options regarding technological sovereignty.

The decision aid includes 45 questions divided across two phases. The prototype is available for free below:

Download prototype here

Dimensions of strategic autonomy

The decision aid evaluates internal and external factors:

Internal: Technical knowledge, legal and financial leverage, capacity to maintain and grow capabilities.
External: Market conditions, supplier location, regulatory environment.

Example questions

Phase 1: Strategy selection

Do you need support from an external consultant to outline the technical requirements, or can your team manage it independently?
Do you have the resources (e.g., tech know-how, capacity, leverage) to deliver the functionality yourself?
Are there organisations within the EU that can provide this functionality?

Phase 2: Vendor evaluation

Do you have the resources (tech. know-how, capacity, leverage over (sub-) suppliers,...) necessary to enforce or avoid practical changes to the functionality?
Can you ensure that the organisations that could provide this functionality comply with potential regulatory frameworks?
Has the supplier agreed to comply with the GIBIT (checklist from VNG for procurement)?