Shared Services | The Contracting Education Academy

July 24, 2019 By AMK

Procurement chiefs are watching the spread of RPA

Robotics process automation use across government “is exploding,” Joanie Newhart, associate administrator of acquisition workforce programs in the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy, said at the Shared Services Leadership Coalition RPA conference.

Newhart said OFPP is closely watching how RPA is being leveraged by agencies such as Health and Human Services for acquisitions and the General Services Administration, which is using it to smooth out some of its internal processes such as sifting through data to find unpaid invoices.

The Department of Treasury, she said, is using RPA to do background reviews of contractor performance to help its contracting officers with their due diligence in awarding contracts.

Those kinds of RPA applications could transform federal acquisition in only a few years, as they take over repetitive internal tasks, according to Newhart. OFPP, she said, is planning to share some of its observations on RPA with agencies soon.

Keep reading article at: https://fcw.com/articles/2019/05/29/rpa-ofpp-rockwell.aspx

May 23, 2019 By AMK

What OMB’s new ‘shared services’ policy will mean for modernization

The Trump administration wants to make a concerted effort toward establishing a sustainable shared services ecosystem to lower costs and ensure best practices and modern infrastructure pervade government—something past administrations have tried before.

Later today, Office of Management and Budget acting Director Russell Vought will be issuing a memo, “Centralized Mission Support Capabilities for the Federal Government,” which replaces all previous shared services policies. The new policy creates a system for assessing which agency functions—such as payroll or cybersecurity—have consistent standards across government and which specific departments would be best positioned to act as leaders in those areas.

The memo also includes a mandate for the rest of government to follow those agencies and puts a hiatus on new projects once functional areas are identified.

“In the past, agencies took steps to consolidate common mission-support functions internally, and in some cases, to leverage common technology or services offered by other agencies,” Vought wrote in the memo obtained by Nextgov. “The government endeavors to utilize lessons from previous successes and failures to provide a new, enhanced strategic blueprint for sharing quality services within the federal enterprise.”

Keep reading article at: https://www.nextgov.com/policy/2019/04/exclusive-what-ombs-new-shared-services-policy-will-mean-modernization/156562/

February 15, 2019 By AMK

Trump to finally nominate OFPP administrator

After more than 25 months and at least two misfires, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy is a step closer to having a full-time, Senate-confirmed administrator.

President Donald Trump today announced his intent to nominate Michael Wooten, the senior advisor for acquisitions at the Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid office.

If confirmed by the Senate, Wooten would replace Anne Rung, who resigned as OFPP administrator in October 2016.

Since the start of the Trump administration, at least two other candidates didn’t make it through the vetting process and Emily Murphy, who many thought was the perfect candidate to be OFPP administrator, ended up coming in as the administrator of the General Services Administration.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/people/2019/02/trump-to-finally-nominate-ofpp-administrator/

April 5, 2018 By AMK

3 ways Emily Murphy’s GSA is looking to innovate acquisition

In the ongoing movement to transform the government’s digital infrastructure, the General Services Administration is effectively the keystone — and that has presented the agency’s leader Emily Murphy with plenty of opportunities to improve how federal agencies buy technology.

Speaking at the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council’s Acquisition Excellence conference Tuesday, the GSA administrator outlined several paths she’d like her agency to take to innovate acquisition.

“Acquisition innovation and technological innovation go hand in hand,” said Murphy, a 2018 FedScoop Top Women in Technology winner. “The priorities that I have outlined — reducing duplication, increasing competition and improving transparency — can be accomplished through several key programs and initiatives that GSA is currently working on. These efforts also directly affect and involve the federal acquisition community.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/3-ways-emily-murphys-gsa-looking-innovate-acquisition/

September 26, 2017 By AMK

IT modernization, procurement policy, and the GSA schedules: ‘To be or not to be’

On Aug. 30, the American Technology Council (ATC) issued for public comment its draft 36-point plan for federal IT modernization.

The draft, “Report to the President on Federal IT Modernization,” sets forth a blueprint for IT modernization focusing on three broad implementation areas:

(1) Network modernization and consolidation;

(2) Shared services to enable future network architectures;

(3) Resourcing federal network IT modernization.

Layered cybersecurity capabilities, use of commercial cloud services, shared security services, and applications are among the key features to be addressed as part of the overall modernization strategy. Comments on the draft were due Sept. 20.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/commentary/2017/09/it-modernization-procurement-policy-and-the-gsa-schedules-to-be-or-not-to-be/

Robotics process automation use across government “is exploding,” Joanie Newhart, associate administrator of acquisition workforce programs in the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy, said at the Shared Services Leadership Coalition RPA conference.

The Trump administration wants to make a concerted effort toward establishing a sustainable shared services ecosystem to lower costs and ensure best practices and modern infrastructure pervade government—something past administrations have tried before.

After more than 25 months and at least two misfires, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy is a step closer to having a full-time, Senate-confirmed administrator.

In the ongoing movement to transform the government’s digital infrastructure, the General Services Administration is effectively the keystone — and that has presented the agency’s leader Emily Murphy with plenty of opportunities to improve how federal agencies buy technology.

On Aug. 30, the American Technology Council (ATC) issued for public comment its draft 36-point plan for federal IT modernization.

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