acquisition management | The Contracting Education Academy

December 31, 2019 By cs

Acquisition leans into automation

Automation is gaining traction in federal acquisition.

“When we met with senior leaders a few weeks ago, they had a list of processes they wanted automated by that week,” Lesley Field, deputy administrator for federal procurement policy at the Office of Management and Budget, said at a panel discussion at the 2019 Presidential Rank Awards Leadership Summit on Dec. 17. She said the acquisition workforce is enthusiastic about developing robotics process automation tools within the government.

Soraya Correa, chief acquisition officer at the Department of Homeland Security, noted that automation technologies offer a number of advantages, including limiting problems that can stem from data bias.

“With automation, we can get to a fairer process,” he said. “Right now, we engage more data bias because we’re limited by what we can do as long as we’re telling industry what we’re willing to do and where we’re going to go look for this information.”

Keep reading this article at: https://gcn.com/articles/2019/12/24/acquisition-automation.aspx

November 8, 2019 By cs

How 5 federal agencies fostered innovation

New report showcases initiatives including a procurement lab and virtual internship program.

In “Risk and Reward: A Framework for Federal Innovation,” the Partnership for Public Service, in collaboration with Slalom Consulting, investigated innovative federal organizations and what made them successful.

Change can be difficult in the federal government, but some agencies are making headway on fostering innovation in the workplace and could serve as a model for others, according to a new report.

The nonprofit Partnership for Public Service and Slalom Consulting, a firm that focuses on technology and business transformation, released a report on federal innovation at their first-ever federal innovation summit on Friday. They conducted interviews across 16 agencies and analyzed federal employee survey data to identify 10 characteristics that best foster innovation. Their report profiled five agencies that have used many of the characteristics to implement successful innovation initiatives.

“While innovative ideas are often stifled by a lack of leadership support, bureaucratic barriers and the absence of incentives and resources, there are many bright spots across the federal landscape,” the report stated. “There are agencies rising to the challenge — creating environments where new ideas are encouraged and are flourishing in areas dealing with national security, global development, health care, federal procurement and space exploration, among others.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2019/11/how-five-federal-agencies-fostered-innovation/161036/

March 11, 2019 By AMK

DoD’s acquisition and contracting sees little improvement on GAO’s ‘high-risk’ list

Despite sweeping legislative and department changes over the past five years, progress on the Defense Department’s systems acquisition and contracting management remain basically stagnant on the Government Accountability Office’s 2019 High-Risk List of areas that are most vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse.

The list, released last Wednesday, states efforts to shore up problems with DoD weapons systems acquisition remain “unchanged” since GAO’s last high-risk list in 2017. GAO made the same assessment of the Pentagon’s contract management issues, though with a few positive caveats.

The two items on the high-risk list account for almost $2 trillion in taxpayer funds — about $1.66 trillion in investments of 86 major weapons systems and $300 billion in annual contracted services for the Pentagon. Both of the items have been on GAO’s high-risk list since the early 1990s.

At the same time, GAO points out that the government’s inability to address climate change is causing national security issues and will cost DoD more money.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2019/03/dods-acquisition-and-contracting-sees-little-improvement-on-gao-high-risk-list/

January 28, 2019 By AMK

DARPA looks to procurement bots

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking for a few good bots to help with procurement.

In a request for information posted Jan. 23, DARPA said it wants information on off-the-shelf options for robotic and intelligent process automation tools that can increase efficiency and expand its ability to manage routine administrative tasks such as proposal evaluation, market research, cost and price analysis and documentation related to price negotiations.

DARPA is also considering integrating robotic process automation into Defense Department IT systems, including the System for Award Management, Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System and the Standard Performance System/Procurement Desktop-Defense. Respondents are asked to provide available information on the software’s security and any interoperability limitations it might have with existing government systems.

Keep reading this article at: https://gcn.com/articles/2019/01/24/darpa-rpa.aspx

January 18, 2019 By AMK

Procurement director recommends regularly talking-up department’s accomplishments

Rockland County in suburban New York City has seen a big improvement in its fiscal health. Budgets in the county (2017 population: 328,868) have been quite tight.

“When I took office, the Comptroller’s Office listed Rockland as the most fiscally stressed county in the state. But in September, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released the 2017 Fiscal Stress Monitoring System report which showed Rockland County as now having ‘Moderate Stress,’ an incredible turn around,” says Rockland County Executive Ed Day.

The proposed 2019 Rockland County budget, which outlines $709,050,000 in planned spending, has been cut to the bone. County fiscal planners had to cut departmental budgets to deal with a $13 million budget gap. Costlier health insurance premiums, increased pay in labor contracts, higher interest payments on county bonds, increased spending to rebuild the county’s infrastructure and higher costs to pay for state-mandated programs helped contribute to the shortfall.

“We are seeing 2019 county operational budgets relatively flat. There are concerns regarding sales tax revenue, due to the tariffs and how they may affect pricing and consumer confidence,” Rockland County Director of Purchasing Paul Brennan tells Coop Solutions. Brennan is both a Certified Public Procurement Officer and a Fellow of the NIGP: The Institute for Public Procurement.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.americancityandcounty.com/2018/12/12/new-york-procurement-departments-staff-grows-despite-county-budget-cuts/

Automation is gaining traction in federal acquisition.

New report showcases initiatives including a procurement lab and virtual internship program.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking for a few good bots to help with procurement.

Rockland County in suburban New York City has seen a big improvement in its fiscal health. Budgets in the county (2017 population: 328,868) have been quite tight.

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