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March 15, 2018 By AMK

Acquisition disruption: Innovative concepts in government contracting

Government procurement often gets a (not altogether undeserved) bad rap as a cumbersome process that is lacking in imagination and innovation.

Today more than ever, however, the federal government is making use of cutting-edge procedures and methods to attract commercial companies to government contracting and to encourage modernization and efficiency in procurements.

Here we discuss some of the creative tools being used to benefit both contractors and the government, including other transaction agreements, contests, public-private partnerships, and other novel approaches.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=676092

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition reform, BAA, broad agency announcement, contests, innovation, modernization, other transaction agreements, other transaction authority, procurement reform, public private partnerships

March 9, 2018 By AMK

GSA’s IT modernization efforts will take a village

As the General Services Administration leads the acquisition piece of the federal IT modernization puzzle, it’s become apparent to some officials that the agency’s tech acquisition team can’t alone bring about such a large-scale transformation.

Rather, “it takes a village to really solve some of these problems,” said Bill Zielinski, deputy assistant commissioner for Office of Information Technology Category in GSA’s acquisition arm. “I don’t look at it as, ‘How am I going to build and maintain a highly technical skilled staff.’ I look it as the idea that we are working as a broader community to be able to bring the right talent to the table to solve the challenges.”

Grappling with uncertain budgets, talent gaps and the opening stages of a massive technology upgrade in the federal government, Zielinski said plans to tackle those challenges have to reflect the changing nature of technology and the interdependence of GSA’s acquisition teams to achieve their goals.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/gsas-modernization-efforts-will-take-village/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition workforce, GSA, GSA Schedule, GSA Schedules, IT, MAS, modernization, technology

February 2, 2018 By AMK

NDAA grants funds for IT modernization projects, DoD increases use of OTA

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2018 gave federal agencies at least some of what they’ve wanted for years.  Namely, a special pot of money dedicated to modernize IT systems and the services they deliver.

That will change how IT is marketed and sold this year.  Agencies already set aside money for these procurement projects.  But the governmentwide increase could help speed up progress, according to Bloomberg Government’s Dan Snyder.

“That is one that I think a lot of contractors will be keeping their eye on to see how that progress transpires,” Snyder, deputy director of government contracts and research at BGov, said on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. “Another topic, which Bloomberg Government will be continuing to watch is how agencies will save money for innovative projects in the future.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/defense/2018/01/ndaa-gives-agencies-special-funds-for-modernization-of-it-systems-services/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: IT, modernization, NDAA, OTA, other transaction authority, technology

December 11, 2017 By AMK

Lawmakers to VA: “We’ve got your back” on $10 billion IT contract

Officials from the Veterans Affairs Department last Thursday defended their decision to scrap previous plans and begin a fourth, and hopefully final, attempt to modernize the agency’s electronic health records system.

In June, VA Secretary David Shulkin announced his plan to award Cerner Corp. a single-source contract to put the agency on the same electronic health records platform as the Defense Department. At a price-tag of about $10 billion, it would be one of the biggest health IT implementations in history, said VA Chief Information Officer Scott Blackburn.

Blackburn highlighted the differences between the Cerner plan and previous failed attempts at achieving interoperability between VA and DoD medical records before a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee. Unlike previous attempts to modernize a motley crue of decades-old IT systems, the new plan would put every VA facility on a single, uniform platform over the next 10 years.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/health/health-it/2017/12/lawmakers-va-weve-got-your-back-10b-it-contract/144399/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Congress, DoD, IT, modernization, VA

November 3, 2017 By AMK

Can agencies seize the moment for modernization?

The coming shift to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions acquisition vehicle offers a tremendous opportunity for transformation of agency IT systems, several officials said at an Oct. 25 event — but only if agency officials commit to talking differently about IT modernization. 

Part of the problem, according to the General Services Administration’s Bill Zielinski, is that many agencies still try to scope out modernization projects with highly specific technical requirements. “We define not only the business outcome that we’re trying to achieve,” Zielinski said at the FCW-hosted IT modernization event, “but we have that tendency to say, ‘and this is explicitly how you’re going to do that.’”

Such specific solicitations tend to produce near-identical proposals from industry, he noted, which forces agencies to select based on “lowest price technically acceptable” criteria. Worse, he said, that prescriptive approach denies agencies the opportunity to benefit from new and creative solutions that might surface if they simply described the business capability that’s needed.

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/articles/2017/10/25/eis-seize-moment-schneider.aspx

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: IT, LPTA, modernization, security

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