AI Readiness Consulting for TIPS Members
Establish whether your organization is ready for AI before you commit budget to it, and use a cooperative contract to shorten the procurement that follows.
LABUSA is an awarded TIPS supplier. We are also a vendor-neutral technology advisor: we do not resell an AI platform, so an assessment that concludes "not yet, and here is what to do first" is a perfectly normal outcome and costs you nothing in the next stage.
Why Assess Readiness Before You Invest
Public-sector organizations face a version of this problem that commercial buyers do not.
The pressure to act is real: staff are already using AI tools, boards and councils are asking what the plan is, and vendors are selling into that gap. At the same time, a public body has to be able to explain a purchase afterwards. It holds records that carry obligations. Its decisions are subject to disclosure. And its budget cycle rarely allows a second attempt in the same year.
An assessment is the cheapest way to make the decision defensible. It produces a written basis for what you bought, why you bought it, what you decided not to buy, and what you did about the risks. That document is worth as much to a governing body as it is to the IT department.
It also tends to change the shopping list. The most common finding in a readiness assessment is not that an organization needs a different AI product; it is that the data the product would need is not usable yet, or that nobody has agreed who may approve a tool. Both are cheaper to fix than to discover after a purchase.
What an AI Readiness Assessment Covers
A LABUSA AI readiness assessment is a structured review of your organization against the seven conditions that determine whether AI can be applied usefully: strategy and leadership, candidate use cases, data, technology and infrastructure, cybersecurity and privacy, governance and compliance, and workforce and adoption.
You finish with a readiness score, findings for each dimension, a prioritized set of use cases, a risk register, and a six to twelve month roadmap with owners and decision gates. The full method, including what we ask you to provide and how long it takes, is on the AI Readiness Assessment page, and there is a plain explanation of the exercise in what an AI readiness assessment is.
If you would like a number before you talk to anyone, the AI Readiness Self-Assessment scores you across the same seven dimensions in about eight minutes. It is an informational benchmark rather than a formal assessment, and it makes that clear on the page.
AI readiness assessment
The baseline review across all seven dimensions, delivered as a written report with a prioritized roadmap rather than a presentation.
AI governance consulting
Ownership, acceptable use, approval routes, supplier review and human oversight, sized to the organization. Our starting position is in an AI governance framework for public-sector organizations.
AI security and risk assessment
The AI-specific exposure: sensitive records reaching third-party services, over-broad access, absent logging, and tools already in use that nobody approved. See AI cybersecurity risks to assess before deployment.
Data and infrastructure readiness
Whether the records exist in a form a machine can read, whether the systems holding them can be integrated, and what running the workload would actually cost.
AI use-case discovery
Candidates identified with the people who do the work, then tested for value, feasibility and risk. Worked examples for school districts and cities and counties.
AI roadmap development
A sequence built around dependencies rather than quarters, with budget per phase and gates that can genuinely stop the next one.
Pilot and proof-of-concept planning
Scoped so it can be stopped, and measured against criteria agreed before it starts.
Implementation and integration
Building the thing once the decision is made: integration, identity, security, monitoring and support.
AI-powered content management
Where the use case is knowledge, search or content operations, our AI-powered content management practice covers it in depth.
Managed infrastructure and cybersecurity
The ongoing work that keeps a production deployment running, through managed IT services and cybersecurity services.
Procurement Through TIPS
TIPS members may be able to streamline procurement of eligible LABUSA technology and consulting services through The Interlocal Purchasing System. Organizations should review the applicable LABUSA TIPS contract and their own purchasing requirements to determine eligibility and scope.
LABUSA holds three awarded TIPS contracts:
Which of them covers a particular engagement depends on the work being purchased, and that determination sits with TIPS and with your organization rather than with us. We will always tell you which contract we believe applies and why, and we would rather you check it than take our word for it. Our contracts page carries the details for all three.
If cooperative purchasing is new to your organization, what TIPS cooperative purchasing is and how it works is the place to start, and how to purchase IT services through a TIPS contract walks through the mechanics. School districts may find how school districts can purchase IT services through TIPS more directly useful.
1. Confirm your eligibility
TIPS membership is free for eligible public and non-profit entities, and eligibility is determined by TIPS rather than by a supplier. If you are not sure whether your organization is a member, TIPS can tell you.
2. Talk through the work first
Tell us what you are considering. This conversation costs nothing and usually changes the scope, because the questions worth asking differ between a district, a county and a community health organization.
3. Identify the applicable contract
LABUSA holds more than one awarded TIPS contract, and which applies depends on the work. We will tell you which one we believe fits and why, and you should confirm it against the contract documents and your own purchasing policy.
4. Request a scope and quote
A written scope of work, the deliverables, the timeline and the cost. Nothing is priced on this page because the work varies too much between organizations for a published figure to be honest.
5. Follow your own purchasing process
A cooperative contract can satisfy a competitive procurement requirement, but your organization's own policy still governs approvals, thresholds and documentation. That is a determination for your purchasing officer.
6. Issue the order
Once the paperwork is in order the work can start. Reporting to TIPS happens on the supplier side.
Next Steps
Start With a Conversation
Tell us what your organization is considering, what is driving the timing, and which contract route you expect to use. We will tell you what an assessment would cover for an organization like yours, what it would not cover, and whether we think you need one yet.
Schedule an AI Readiness Consultation