PPG Tech: Our Next Step to Power Effective Government

Recently, we worked with a procurement team in Jackson, Miss. that was struggling to attract enough bids on high-stakes contracts. Many vendors were reluctant to work with the city, and the community wasn’t getting what it needed.

When we dug in, it became clear that the challenge wasn’t procurement alone. Intersecting back-office systems were breaking down in ways that made it harder for everyone to do their jobs. Contracts were taking too long to execute. Paper invoices were being routed to the wrong places or getting lost in desk drawers. Vendor payments were delayed. And all of this made it harder for the city to manage its budget. Over time, those breakdowns strained relationships with vendors, leading fewer of them to bid on city contracts.

The problem crossed procurement, legal, budget, accounting, and technology. But because those functions sat in separate lanes, the full picture was hard to see from any one vantage point. Our role was to help connect the pieces, make the pattern visible, and support the city in addressing a system that was failing residents, vendors, and staff alike.

With our support, the Jackson team cleared a payment backlog equivalent to 10 percent of the city’s entire budget. We didn’t set out for this to be a technology project, but technology was a critical throughline. The Jackson project confirmed something we’ve seen many times since: in government, the back office succeeds or struggles as a unit. Progress requires all of it to move together. And technology is a core piece of this operating system.

Technology Is No Longer Separate

From the beginning, we knew Partners for Public Good would need to grow into the full back office. Technology was always going to be part of our work.

Procurement officers are now on the front lines of IT governance, figuring out how to buy, pilot, and contract for tools that didn’t exist a few years ago. CIOs have become Chief Change Managers, responsible not just for systems but for organizational readiness and risk. Budget and technology leaders are being asked to find value together under real fiscal pressure. HR teams are managing roles that AI is actively reshaping.

The silos aren’t just inconvenient anymore, they’re costly. And the convergence happening across government back offices isn’t a trend: It’s the new baseline.

Building the Team

When we decided to stand up PPG Tech, we deliberately looked for someone who understood technology the way Partners for Public Good understands procurement: from the inside out.

Denise Riedl spent seven years as CIO for the City of South Bend, Ind. On paper, that meant IT systems and infrastructure; in practice, it meant change management, cross-department trust, procurement strategy, and answering to residents who just wanted things to work. Denise knows what it feels like when the foundations aren’t there, and what it takes to build them.

Before designing anything at Partners for Public Good, Denise spent two months talking to more than 75 government technology leaders, vendors, peer organizations, and funders. Not pitching, just listening. That instinct, to understand the problem before reaching for a solution, is exactly why she’s leading this work and I couldn’t be more excited for all that’s ahead under her leadership.

What Comes Next

Launching PPG Tech has felt less like a new direction and more like catching up to where the work was already going. You can’t get the back office right without getting technology right too. And now, that means grappling seriously with AI. Governments are being asked to adopt, procure, and govern AI tools faster than the frameworks to support that work are created.

If procurement is how governments decide what to buy, AI is rewriting the question entirely. Government has more prototyping power than ever, and the stakes of getting it right have never been higher. If democracy is experienced through reliable services and fair systems, then the infrastructure behind them matters more than ever.

We’ll be sharing more from Denise about what she’s seeing across the field, what PPG Tech is building, and what government technology leaders need to succeed.

For now: If you’re a government leader trying to figure out how technology fits into your operations, your budget, or your team, we’d love to talk. Beyond that, I encourage you to meet Denise and her team, and learn more about PPG Tech.