The time has come to share one of our most innovative, pioneering, and groundbreaking projects for the world of government procurement in Latin America, and it was none other than with Mexico City, the largest Spanish-speaking population in the world. For several years now, Mexico City has been our Latin American partner, collaborating with us on the design, modeling, development, and implementation of new functionalities and landing pages for its official government procurement platform, Tianguis Digital. Additionally, we created two major components that forever changed the way the city handles its government procurement and interacts with its citizens: Pre-Bases and Concurso Digital. In this blog, we tell you all about this pioneering government tool in the region and why it's so revolutionary for government procurement teams around the world.

Tianguis Digital and Its Pioneering Features For Government Procurement

In 2019, the Digital Agency for Public Innovation of Mexico City unveiled its government procurement platform, Tianguis Digital. Former Head of Government of the City, Claudia Sheinbaum, outlined the main objectives of this tool: to tackle corruption, streamline administrative processes, and ensure that every peso spent by the city yields more and is better utilized.

During this initial presentation, two essential components of the digital platform created for suppliers were announced. The first was the "Padrón de Proveedores," where anyone wishing to do business with the city should register. The second was "Oportunidades de Negocios,” through which suppliers can access current opportunities and submit their procurement bids to various departments of the local government.

Discovering The Pre Bases Module 

The success of the first two components for suppliers made it possible for the Digital Agency for Public Innovation of Mexico City to collaborate with GLASS for the development and implementation of a third component: Pre-Bases (Pre-Bidding, in english.)

The Pre-Bidding Module stands out as a pioneering and innovative tool in government procurement, unique in its class. It is the first digital solution in Latin America that allows citizen participation prior to the publication of the call for the bidding process.

This is important because government procurement processes generally do not include a stage where citizens actively participate in drafting the terms and conditions of the procurement processes. The Pre-Bidding Module offers this possibility: once government agencies have drafted the terms and conditions of the procurement process, they publish the document and open the debate with the citizens themselves, who are able to ask questions, recommend, ratify, or clarify any point in the document.

This not only promotes citizen participation but is also a very useful tool for government administration itself. By obtaining the opinion of citizens and potential suppliers, it ensures a successful procurement process, compliant with regulations, with clear and precise conditions of what is to be acquired.

To design and build this tool, Mexico City’s government agency conducted a series of interviews with a diverse range of stakeholders, including citizens, civil society organizations, suppliers, and public servants responsible for procurement procedures. The approach followed the design thinking methodology, which aimed to identify needs, additional functionalities, desirables, and potential risks for the tool's construction.

On February 4, 2022, the very first pre-bid discussion procedure was published on Tianguis Digital. Since then, a total of 16 procedures have been initiated, accumulating over 800 interactions. These interactions have granted access to suppliers registered in the City's Supplier Register (“Registro de Proveedores”), along with all civil society organizations and citizens who possess a city’s key account.

At GLASS, we are extremely proud to have developed this pioneering and unique governance tool in Latin America, which invites all governments to build more transparent and citizen-centric government procurement processes. But our involvement in building Mexico City's official public procurement platform, Tianguis Digital, did not stop there.

Introducing The Concurso Digital Module

Alongside the launch of the Pre-Bases Module, we collaborated with the city to fully digitize one of the city's government procurement processes, developing and introducing a fourth component: Concurso Digital.

This development marked a before and after in the way the city conducted this government procurement process. Through the "Concurso Digital," it's possible to handle public tenders or restricted invitations, as outlined in the regulations and norms of Mexico City. Prior to the development of this new component, Mexico City conducted this process in a traditional manner, using paper format. This new component enables the entire process to be carried out through digital means. We’ve digitized the whole Concurso Publico’ process.

It offers functionalities for suppliers and for government agencies. On one hand, suppliers can search for current bids, access all relevant information for each of them, acquire the terms and conditions, and enter the bids they consider. On the other hand, government agencies can add a digital bid, along with their terms and conditions, so that they can subsequently be viewed by interested suppliers.

Changing the Tianguis Digital Website

Collaborating with Mexico City on the development of the official government procurement platform’s components was undoubtedly a unique opportunity for us. Not only are we extremely proud of our work developing the "Pre Bases" and "Concurso Digital" modules, but we also designed, modeled, developed, and implemented new features and landing pages within the main Tianguis Digital website.

To achieve this, we not only took into account the suggestions of the government agency and its main needs but also aimed to create a user-friendly website, easily accessible and navigable, with all functionalities readily available: We readjusted the original sections and created new ones that display relevant information for users and those who are encountering the platform for the first time; we enabled user-friendly functions for administrators without the need for intervention from a technical specialist, and we implemented pages that load quickly, are lightweight, and easy to understand for any user.

Honoring Achievements: Awards & Recognitions

This platform, pioneering and unique in its class, has received multiple awards and recognitions from globally recognized institutions, such as the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) and the OECD’s Observatory of Public Sector Innovation.

In 2022, u-GOB, the communication and interaction platform for Spanish-speaking government officials in the areas of innovation, modernization, and digital government, awarded the u-GOB 2022 Prize in the category of Innovation in Economics to Mexico City for its Tianguis Digital platform at the state executive government level.

During the same year, at the Smart City Expo Latam Congress, the Tianguis Digital project was announced as the winner of the Digital Transformation category "for the innovation and progress it represents in the region in terms of openness and competition in serving citizens."

Additionally, Fabián López Xochipa, Former Director of Open Government & Institutional Affairs of the Mexico City Digital Agency of Public Innovation and the one that led the development of Tianguis Digital, was selected as one of the 2022 Open Contracting Champions by Open Contracting Partnership (OCP).

Furthermore, the Tianguis Digital Pre Bases Module has earned a place in the Observatory of Public Sector Innovation’s Case Study Library, highlighting its status as an innovative government strategy. The Case Study Library contains over 800 case studies from different countries and regions that highlight various aspects of public sector innovation. 

In 2023, the Tianguis Digital platform was nominated for the EMEA, Americas, APAC, and Global Personal Initiative categories for WorldCC’s 10th-anniversary Innovation & Excellence Awards, specifically recognized for delivering social and economic benefits.

Finally, Tianguis Digital emerged as the winner of the Red Interamericana de Compras Gubernamentales (RICG) Award for Innovation in Public Procurement, in the category "Innovation in the implementation of new technologies and digital tools," and as the Overall Winner across all categories of the 2023 Edition of the Award.

The Next For Tianguis Digital

Tianguis Digital emerged as an innovative, one-of-a-kind tool in government procurement, pioneering in the region. Not only does it introduce new ways of conducting the procurement process, but it also encourages local, state, and federal governments to rethink how they navigate their procurement processes, identifying opportunities for improvement and citizen inclusion at various stages of government procurement. 

At GLASS, we will closely monitor the evolution of Tianguis Digital and the team behind the platform to contribute to further enhancing this pioneering government tool in the region and replicating its strengths elsewhere in the world.

This blog was written by Gisela Montes, GovTech Community Lead at Glass.