HHS Accelerator a slow “success story”

Its name befits a tool searching for the Higgs boson particle, but the HHS Accelerator is trying to find something that may be just as elusive: a streamlined, easy way for city government and providers to organize and pay for billions of dollars of human services contracts.

Following years of complaints about the redundancy and inefficiency of the contracting process, the Bloomberg administration launched the online tool in 2013 as a gateway to standardize contracts, pre-quality providers, streamline payments and reduce paper. Contrary to some other high-profile technology missteps, the program has been mostly lauded as a breakthrough.

“It’s definitely a success story,” City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal, who chairs the Contracts Committee, told New York Nonprofit Media.

The city awards billions of dollars to service providers every year. New human services contracts totaled $2.3 billion last year, almost half of which was routed through the Department of Youth and Community Development and the Department of Homeless Services, according to a city analysis.

Before the system went online, nonprofits would typically find RFPs through a patchwork of emails, word-of-mouth and web announcements, then mail their proposals (often in duplicate, triplicate or more) to agencies. Nonprofits contracting with more than one entity were often required to send the same forms to various agencies each time they applied. The new system uses a “document vault” to store forms for use across different agencies and a centralized “procurement roadmap” to track the process.

The Accelerator uses a pre-qualification tool for vendors to manage their relationship with the city. About 2,500 providers have been pre-qualified so far, Mayor’s Office of Contract Service (MOCS) Director Michael Owh said during an October hearing. He said the efficiency and reduction of paper waste has helped smaller, neighborhood-based providers. For example, costs for hiring drivers and printing multiple copies of proposals were reduced by the all-digital process.

“I think in terms of levelling the playing field, I think it has done a ton,” he said, adding that “now, it’s not about how good your grant writer is, it’s about who is providing that answer for that service, that question that the agency has.”

All human services contracts have been required to go through the system, now managed by MOCS, since the 2015 fiscal year. In a survey released last year, HSC reported that “a high level of provider satisfaction” among its members. But getting everyone in city government to adopt the tool hasn’t been easy, according to some nonprofits.

Tracie Robinson, a senior policy analyst with the Human Services Council of New York, said that some agency staffers are still asking providers for copies of documents that have already been shared in the accelerator. “Some are not comfortable insisting that the documents are available in Accelerator, so they honor these redundant requests,” she said in testimony to the City Council.

Daniel Symon, a former procurement chief at the Department of Youth and Community Development who is one of the highest officials managing the Accelerator, said during a recent hearing that city workers often ask for redundant information from providers. “It’s a particular staff member at an agency knowing that they need to go and get something from the accelerator instead of emailing a provider to say, ‘Hey give me your certificate of insurance.’,” he said.  

There’s been some delays getting every agency to use a financials component that streamlines budgets, invoices and payments. To date, 15 agencies are using the roadmap, including the Administration for Children’s Services, Department of Correction, Department of Education, Department of the Aging and the NYPD. Only 10 have adopted the financials tool.

A total of 684 contracts worth $1.1 billion were managed last year, including for the NYPD - which used the system for the first time for a system to place trauma counselors for crime victims - but Owh said there’s been a slower adoption of the module.

Robinson added that getting every agency to adopt the tool would require a “culture shift.”

“Accelerator is still relatively new, and it is not always easy to move large entities in a new direction. We believe it is critically important, however, that agencies use Accelerator as required by the Procurement Policy Board Rules.”

“City agencies might need further training on use of Accelerator, and they should be accountable for using it to its full potential,” she told NYN Media.  

Rosenthal said the user base of about 7,000 was tilted too heavily toward the providers, who are using the tool to access or upload RFPs. “We need to increase the system users on the city agency side and make sure that the entire (procurement) team is nimble with the Accelerator and using it fluently,” she said.

The city has embarked on “roadshows” and trainings to spread word of the Accelerator, but the biggest driver of the program has been new RFPs. This year, the city Council started using it for providers seeking discretionary funding. Rosenthal said the tool could be useful in accomplishing larger sector-wide goals, such as allowing nonprofits to phase in hourly wage increases and a 2.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment, the city promised in 2015

“That’s been bogged down,” she said. “Something like the Accelerator allows those changes to be implemented much faster.”

This story was originally published in the November/December issue of the NYN Media Review.