By law, the city cannot give any preference to local companies during a competitive procurement process, but it can help them submit the best bids possible.
On Friday, the city and the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation are hosting almost 100 local information technology companies at a vendor information session to help them prepare to bid for municipal contracts.
“We want to make it easy for local companies to participate in the procurement process,” said Kanata North Coun. Marianne Wilkinson. “It doesn’t mean that they’re going to get it, but we don’t want to shut them out.”
Wilkinson, the chair of the city’s information technology sub-committee, said some companies have difficulty submitting bids with the city because they don’t know what the city is looking for.
Wilkinson said the session will give some smaller companies a chance to make partnerships and share expertise in order to bid on some of these contracts.
The city will also present its five-year technology roadmap at the session, which outlines future large-scale technology investments.
