Introduction:
Government contracts and procurement processes often involve manual evaluation and vetting of suppliers. However, Procurated, a company launched in 2019, is changing the game with its online tool that acts as a “Yelp” for government agencies. Now, with its new AI-powered platform Canary, Procurated is enabling agencies to aggregate reviews and scores of potential contractors or suppliers. This article explores how Canary enhances supplier evaluation and monitoring using AI, the benefits it offers to government agencies and suppliers, and its potential impact on the procurement process.
The Difficulties of Government Procurement and Vetting:
Founder and CEO David Yarkin, who previously worked as the Deputy Secretary for Procurement for Pennsylvania, understands the challenges government agencies face when it comes to vetting suppliers. Traditionally, the evaluation process relied heavily on asking for references, which may not provide an accurate representation of a supplier’s reliability or performance. Yarkin recognized the need for a solution that would provide more comprehensive and trustworthy information about suppliers.
The Vision of Canary:
Inspired by online review platforms like Yelp, Yarkin envisioned a platform where government agencies could access reviews and ratings of suppliers before entering into contracts worth millions of dollars. Canary, Procurated’s web app, uses AI to aggregate 47,000 reviews from public sector purchasers and supplier performance insights on 15,000 suppliers. Each supplier receives scores on a 1-5 star scale, both nationally and at the state level. This allows contract managers to identify any potential issues with suppliers and make informed decisions.
Verified Reviews for Trustworthiness:
To ensure the authenticity of reviews, Procurated verifies that they come from government employees by checking their government email addresses. This eliminates the problem of fake reviews commonly seen on platforms like Amazon. While Procurated has a large community of government employees, only a fraction have written reviews so far. However, the platform already has 295,000 supplier profiles, many of which are yet to be reviewed.
Key Features of Canary:
Canary offers several features to enhance supplier evaluation and monitoring. It includes performance review dashboards that visualize trends over time, instant risk alerts that notify contract managers of poor performance, asynchronous business reviews for digital feedback and performance management, and competitive analysis to compare suppliers’ performance on the same contract. These features are powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 and GPT-4.
Future Enhancements and Context Processing:
Procurated plans to deploy a retrieval augmented generation (RAG) system in the coming months to further enhance Canary’s context processing capabilities. This will ensure that the platform provides even more accurate and relevant insights for state governments managing large annual expenditures.
Benefits for Suppliers:
Canary is not just beneficial for government agencies; it also offers advantages to suppliers. Suppliers can access their own scores and compare them to competitors in their area, giving them valuable insights into their performance. Procurated monetizes the platform through a software-as-a-service annual subscription model, with prices varying based on the amount of data suppliers want access to. This robust data enables suppliers to understand their performance relative to their competitors and make improvements where necessary.
A Win-Win-Win Situation:
By providing instant AI-driven insights into supplier performance, Canary creates a win-win-win situation for government agencies, suppliers, and Procurated. Government agencies can make better-informed decisions, suppliers can assess their performance and make necessary improvements, and Procurated can reap the benefits of its unique platform.
Conclusion:
Procurated’s Canary is revolutionizing government contracts and procurement by offering an online tool that aggregates reviews and scores of potential contractors and suppliers. With AI-powered features, verified reviews, and a focus on transparency and trustworthiness, Canary provides government agencies with valuable insights for supplier evaluation and monitoring. Additionally, suppliers can benefit from the platform by accessing their scores and comparing them to competitors. Overall, Canary has the potential to transform the procurement process and ensure that taxpayer money is spent responsibly while delivering quality services to the people.