TOP NEWS
Three Pieces of Advice for Gov Tech Companies ... straight from the people whose careers reolvearound gov tech. At last week's TiECon 2017 summit in Santa Clara, Calif., leaders in the field gave some practical and phiolosophical insights into how to position a compnay to win government business.The Company Behind ShotSpotter Is Going Public SST, which offers gunshot-detecting systems to public safety officials, has filed preliminary paperwork for an initial public offering with a proposed fundraising ceiling of $35 million. The move, which put SST's financial details on display, would make the company the seventh on the Gov Tech 100 list to hit the stock market.
Los Angeles Sets Up AI Chatbot Using Microsoft Tech The chatbot, named Chip, is in its beta phase and is making its debut on the city's vendor and bid portal. City employees built the bot, then Microsoft assisted with training the AI and hosting it on its Azure cloud.
Colorado Uses "Mini-Bids" to Streameline IT Procurement State officials are trying out a new system of prequalifying vendors for specific work, and then sending out "mini-bids" to that pool in order to expedite IT work.
Chicago CIO Leaves Post to Push P3s Brenna Berman, Chicago's chief information officer, has left her position to join UI Labs, where she will work to encourage public-private partnerships in order to facilitate tech adoption.
MARKET SPOTLIGHT
The Biggest Cities Don't Always Have the Biggest Budgets ... and sometimes the disparities between population ranking and budget ranking are pretty huge. We take a look at the biggest city budgets and then break out the chief information officers in those cities.
WATCHLIST
GovTech companies on our radar this week:Acivilate: This startup has built an appto help convicts re-enter society.
Run a GovTech company? Get on our radar here.
WHAT WE'RE READING
Formula for Gov Tech Success (Nick Bowden)How AI Could Transform Government (Deloitte University Press)
Axon's Strategy Is Starting to Look Like Predictive Policing (The Intercept)
Private Equity Flocks to the Tech Sector (Institutional Investor)
Women Are Using Savings, Not VC, to Fund Startups (Fortune)
GovTechBiz is our weekly newsletter covering the companies, deals and trends in the business of gov tech. Got a news tip? Other feedback? We're listening. Send it to GovTechBiz Writer Ben Miller at biz@govtech.com.