GSA | The Contracting Education Academy

November 19, 2018 By cs

How contracting officers want to use the new micropurchase threshold

Steve Kelman’s recent talk with feds reinforced his view that a $10,000 micropurchase limit opens up vast new acquisition possibilities.

Recently I did a webinar at the request of the General Services Administration’s Acquisition Gateway for professional services, as part of their Spotlight training series, on the new micropurchase threshold. As I have blogged before, the threshold has been raised to $10,000 for civilian agencies and, through a strange anomaly that hopefully will be corrected soon, to $6,000 for the Department of Defense.

This change will allow agencies to make procurements of up to $10,000 without (if they choose) competitively soliciting or evaluating proposals, though some of the agencies that have started using the authority have chosen to develop one-page requirements statements and solicit one-page competitive proposal. Regulations implementing this change are unfortunately not out yet, but a number of agencies — including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Homeland Security and GSA itself — have received class deviations to introduce the change now. However, the GSA class deviation applies only to GSA’s own purchases, not more broadly for any purchases using GSA vehicles.

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/blogs/lectern/2018/11/kelman-micropurchase-ideas.aspx

November 5, 2018 By cs

FAS, IRS procure modern systems to streamline contracting processes

The Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are looking into modernizing their technical assets to modify and streamline their contracting processes, Federal News Network reported last week.

General Services Administration The administrator of the General Services Administration Emily Murphy noted at the 2018 ImagineNation ELC conference that she aims for FAS to rethink procurement operations as it simplifies its schedules program.

She added that technologies such as robotics process automation, machine learning and business process re-engineering will help contracting officers focus on procuring systems according to specific data and business needs.

FAS Commissioner Alan Thomas also disclosed at the conference that the service will leverage GSA’s CIO Application Maintenance, Enhancements, and Operations recompete effort to modernize contracting systems.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.executivegov.com/2018/10/fas-irs-procure-modern-systems-to-streamline-contracting-processes/

October 26, 2018 By cs

USDA saved millions so far due to ‘Centers of Excellence’

Less than one year into the White House Centers of Excellence initiative, the first pilot agency is already saving money.

“So far, we’ve realized around $26 million in cost avoidance and savings and now we’re moving on to phase 2, which is the actual implementation of the plan we developed over the past six months,” said Agriculture Department Deputy Secretary Stephen Censky, speaking last week at the Imagine Nation conference in Philadelphia.

The two-phase CoE effort focuses on five areas: customer experience, cloud adoption, infrastructure optimization, contact centers and service delivery analytics.

The first phase of the program focused on developing the modernization strategy for those key areas through a collaboration between personnel from the General Services Administration, Agriculture and consulting partners brought in through contracts.

The second phase, which Agriculture will now undertake, involves carrying out the strategy and implementing the tech tools and services the department purchases.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/10/usda-saved-millions-so-far-due-centers-excellence/152063/

October 25, 2018 By cs

GSA’s Murphy doubles down on reform efficiencies to drive transformation

With the federal government poised for one of the largest technology transformations in its history, Administrator Emily Murphy’s plan for the General Services Administration is simple in its definition, if not its execution: streamlined processes leveraged by technology to uncover new efficiencies and resources.

Murphy detailed areas where that playbook is currently being deployed across the enterprise on Oct. 16th at the 2018 ACT-IAC Imagine Nation ELC conference, spotlighting ongoing reforms of the schedules acquisition program, increasing shared services operations and the introduction of emerging technologies to operate alongside the workforce.

One case study underway is the introduction of robotic process automation (RPA) as a way to drive savings throughout the agency’s components, such as the Public Buildings Service.

Murphy said the service is looking to deploy RPA to help augment data-based efficiencies that saved $900 million last fiscal year, aiming to match that number this year.

“There’s actually one initiative they are looking to launch this year that in and of itself will save 10,000 hours of work a week,” she said. “If you think about it, that’s five years for any individual person. That gives us that ability to reskill the workforce to high-value work.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/murphy-doubles-reform-efficiencies-drive-transformation/

October 24, 2018 By cs

FBI drops full and open competition for $5 billion IT recompete

The competitive pool for the FBI’s $5 billion IT commodity and services contract has been shrinking throughout the year and recently got even smaller.

Rather than hold a full and open competition for spots on the Information Technology Supplies and Support Services contract, also known as ITSSS or IT Triple-S, the bureau announced that spots will be awarded to vendors that already hold contracts on the General Services Administration’s IT Schedule 70.

Bureau contracting officials have been scaling back the contract as they’ve gathered market research through requests for information and industry days. After initial rumors the contract would be split into multiple parts for services like cloud computing and cybersecurity, the bureau announced in April that ITSSS would remain a single contract made up of multiple tracks.

The track structure remains in the latest revision, however, the blanket purchase agreement will now only include vendors with pre-vetted tools and services being offered on Schedule 70, further narrowing the competitive pool.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/10/fbi-drops-full-and-open-competition-5-billion-it-recompete/152031/

Steve Kelman’s recent talk with feds reinforced his view that a $10,000 micropurchase limit opens up vast new acquisition possibilities.

The Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are looking into modernizing their technical assets to modify and streamline their contracting processes, Federal News Network reported last week.

Less than one year into the White House Centers of Excellence initiative, the first pilot agency is already saving money.

The competitive pool for the FBI’s $5 billion IT commodity and services contract has been shrinking throughout the year and recently got even smaller.

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