As the federal government looks to modernize the way it buys things, making the process faster and cost-effective, the General Services Administration (GSA) is looking at ways to automate aspects of the automation process.
Jeff Lau, the acting regional commissioner for the Northeast and Caribbean region of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, says robotic process automation (RPA) could save the acquisition workforce from having to waste time on administrative “cutting and pasting” tasks.
Those automation tools, he said, could help contracting officers at a time when the workforce is shrinking.
“I’ve seen the workforce shrink over the last five-to-10 years. When I first started my career at GSA, there was a lot more opportunity to do training. Now we’re heads-down, doing the work, because if they’re not doing the work, who else is? I think there’s an opportunity for us to provide training with their freed-up time, to develop them into a more well-rounded acquisition workforce,” Lau said last week at an event sponsored by the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC).
Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/technology-main/2018/03/how-gsa-turned-an-automation-project-into-a-acquisition-time-saver/