Businesses that found themselves locked out of vendor contracts with city halls in Cambridge and Boston are being welcomed in, with leaders from both cities joining Monday in a ceremony to launch a Boston Cambridge Certification Compact.
Business that are minority-owned, veteran-owned, women-owned or otherwise historically disadvantaged will benefit from the compact signed by Mayor E. Denise Simmons and City Manager Yi-An Huang with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, a spokesperson for Cambridge said.
After a business is certified, they will be included in outreach overseen from departments in each city: in Cambridge, Community Development, and in Boston, Supplier Diversity. The businesses will also be connected to resources inside and outside the cities, said Jeremy Warnick,
director of media relations for Cambridge.
“We are deeply committed to creating a more equitable and welcoming procurement process, while more broadly supporting and uplifting many diverse businesses in our area,” Huang said in a press release from the city.
A report in December – the culmination of work begun by the Cambridge City Council in 2018 – analyzed municipal contracting habits between July 1, 2016, and June 20, 2021, and found that of the professional services firms who became vendors, only 1.3 percent were certified as minority-owned. About 5 percent were certified as white women-owned.
The numbers could have been blurred by the city’s reliance on large, publicly held vendors such as Staples over small businesses, officials said this year.
Still, the findings led to as series of efforts to diversify the city’s vendor list, including free workshops by the Economic Opportunity & Development Division to support business development. Upcoming events in the series look at access to capital and mentorship; a recurring event gives specific guidance on how to do business with the city. (A Supplier Diversity website and procurement guide are other resources that can prepare businesses to bid on city contracts.) Cambridge also relaunched a Business Diversity Directory in 2022 and introduced an e-procurement portal on which vendors can register to learn about large city bids and contracting opportunities.
Cambridge also held its second annual Supplier Diversity Fair with MIT on Oct. 22, connecting more than 100 business owners with more than 20 buyers, including the Cities of Cambridge and Boston, MIT, Harvard and Takeda.
The work responds to reforms called for in the December study, said Pardis Saffari, Cambridge’s director of economic opportunity and development.
Businesses can submit a request for inclusion in the directory and are reviewed and accepted by Cambridge city staff based on eligibility requirements. To learn about becoming a vendor and review events and workshops, click here.
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