Case Study: City of Philadelphia achieves procurement modernization and cost savings with Periscope Holdings' PHLContracts

How Technology Is Driving Procurement Modernization

The City of Philadelphia, responsible for roughly $3.1 billion in annual spending and working with about 1,900 suppliers, needed to modernize procurement to increase competition, improve supplier access, and allow awarding on factors beyond price. To enable that change — including a Home Rule Charter amendment to permit Best Value awards — the City adopted the BuySpeed eProcurement system from Periscope Holdings (now rebranded as PHLContracts) for its first electronic bidding platform.

Periscope Holdings implemented the web-based PHLContracts platform with online bidding, supplier registration and management, an expiring-contract log, and reverse-auction integration. The results included a projected nearly $1 million in first-year reverse-auction savings, supplier registration growth to more than 2,800, a 200% jump in outreach participation, a public works solicitation response increase from 1 to 3 (300%), and an increase in average bidders per public works contract from 3.74 to 4.92 — driving greater competition, cost savings and access for M/W/DSBE firms.

City of Philadelphia