shared services | The Contracting Education Academy

February 26, 2020 By cs

DOL set to streamline procurement services

The Labor Department (DOL) is consolidating its procurement services into one office this quarter, after making headway streamlining human resources and information technology support, the department’s No. 2 official states.

This is part of a push from the Trump administration for more shared services, where one office provides administrative support for multiple agencies within a department or across government.

Deputy Labor Secretary Patrick Pizzella, who also worked at the department under the George W. Bush administration, made his remarks about shared services during an event hosted by the nonprofit National Academy of Public Administration. Upon returning to the department in 2018, there were 19 human resources offices, four procurement units and four information technology offices, he said, leading to a “patchwork quilt of administrative professionals scattered across the agency.” The department fully implemented human resources shared services in fiscal 2019 and is almost done with consolidating information technology.

Pizzella said shifting to a shared services model was an “intentionally slow and deliberate” move, which is part of the department’s fiscal 2018-2022 strategic plan. “[Labor Department] agencies would be giving up their own administrative offices and we needed to centralize that in a way that freed up resources for them to focus on mission and ensure that they receive the same, if not better services under the new model,” he said. “We spent nearly 18 months in discovering and planning stages…[which] allowed us to identify both challenges and best practices.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/01/labor-department-set-start-procurement-shared-services/162645/

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/

The Labor Department (DOL) is consolidating its procurement services into one office this quarter, after making headway streamlining human resources and information technology support, the department’s No. 2 official states.

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.

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