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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

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How to avoid vendor problems and reduce costs

What federal agencies don’t know about contractors and markets can hurt them.

OPMWitness the sudden disappearance last month of Imperatis Corp., the contractor renovating the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) computer network in the wake of last summer’s breach of the personnel and background investigation records of 21.5 million people. Imperatis announced it was ceasing operations due to financial distress on May 7.

OPM was caught unaware and, though it isn’t expecting termination of the company’s contract to affect operations, the situation has deepened already intense congressional and inspector general scrutiny at a time when the agency is seeking additional funds for technology upgrades.

Market ResearchDeeper understanding of the interactions, trends, constraints, behaviors and financials of vendors, their supply networks and buyers in the IT services market will significantly reduce the risk that OPM or other agencies will face incidents like this one.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2016/06/how-avoid-vendor-problems-and-reduce-costs/128755

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OFPP tells agencies to get serious about tracking contractor performance

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy is attempting, for a third time, to get  agencies to use the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS) more  consistently.

So instead of asking and encouraging, OFPP Administrator Joe Jordan is setting  specific goals for agencies.

In a new memo to chief acquisition officers and  senior procurement executives, Jordan sets three-year targets for agencies to  enter vendor-performance information into the governmentwide database.

This year, the goals vary depending on how often the agency is currently entering  data into PPIRS. For instance, departments inputting data for 60 percent or more  of their contracts, must improve to 85 percent by Sept. 30. For agencies using  PPIRS 30 percent to 60 percent of the time, their goal now is 75  percent. And for those agencies using PPIRS less than 30 percent of the time,  their goal is 65 percent.

“This required contract-administration duty can significantly reduce the risk to  the government on future awards, so agencies must take bold steps to ensure that  all critical performance information is made available in the Past Performance  Information Retrieval System (PPIRS) in a timely manner, and to the maximum extent  practicable, eliminate duplicative, paper-based past performance evaluation  surveys generated outside these systems,” Jordan wrote.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/517/3247234/OFPP-tells-agencies-to-get-serious-about-tracking-contractor-performance

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