# Presentation: 085543

## Procurement Conference of the AmericasE-Government Procurement: Systems and Challenges

- November 1 - 2, 2005

## Integrated Acquisition Environment E-Gov Initiative Background

- In July 2001, the US Government began efforts to make better use of IT investments in order to
- reduce federal spending,
- lessen government paperwork for itself, citizens, and businesses, and
- improve government response time
- In August 2002, 24 projects were defined as a starting point that would lay the foundation for a citizen-centric government
- IAE is one of these and has been developed as a shared services environment that promotes competition, transparency and efficiency in the federal acquisition life cycle
- Redundant systems have been shut down, paper forms have been eliminated and procurement systems are sharing data
- leveraging IT investments across agencies and sharing resources

## Collaboration among all major Departments to define requirements
over 300 team members from over 65 federal agencies since 2002
Use of IAE systems mandated by Federal Acquisition Regulations
Commercial software packages for contract writing systems will have to meet testing standards to ensure interoperability
Launched or expanded ten centralized shared systems 
Strategy IAE has followed:
 Adopt if possible, 
			Otherwise Adapt
			    Acquire if necessary
Small businesses have the same opportunity as large to take advantage of federal business opportunities.

- over 300 team members** **from over 65 federal agencies since 2002
- Use of IAE systems mandated by Federal Acquisition Regulations
- Commercial software packages for contract writing systems will have to meet testing standards to ensure interoperability
- Launched or expanded ten centralized shared systems
- Strategy IAE has followed:
-  **Adopt** if possible,
- 			Otherwise **Adapt**
- 			    **Acquire** if necessary
- Small businesses have the same opportunity as large to take advantage of federal business opportunities.

- IAE Achievements in Federal Acquisition Automation

**Notes:**
Fragmented, fractured, diverse approach at Agency level

## Acquisition scenarios developed

- Followed the Acquisition lifecycle to identify where information is shared, reported or retrieved:
- Requirements definition
- Market Research
- Solicitation
- Evaluation
- Award
- Contract Administration

## IAE Shared Services Help Buyers

**Buyers can:**
- Search for commercial and government sources
- Post synopses and solicitations
- Post sensitive solicitation documents in a secure environment
- Retrieve validated vendor data including representations and certifications
- Obtain Service Contract Act and Davis Bacon Act Wage Determinations
- Check for excluded parties
- Report contract awards
- Review subcontracting accomplishments
- Report vendors’ performance

## IAE Shared Services Help Sellers

**Sellers can:**
- Register to do business
- Enter representations and certifications one time
- Revalidate registration data annually in a single system
- Search business opportunities by product, service, agency, or location
- Review associated documents
- Request email notification of solicitations based on specific criteria
- Sign up on Interested Vendors lists
- Submit subcontracting accomplishments

## IAE Shared Services Help Citizens

**Citizens can:**
- See the entire acquisition process to see where tax dollars are going –          All files are publicly available on the Internet
- What firms are registered
- Small businesses are validated by the Small Business Administration
- What opportunities are posted
- What awards have been made

## Usage and Metrics

- Vendors who want to receive federal contract awards are required to register in the CCR (Central Contractor Registration System).
- Over 397,000 registered. The majority are small businesses.
- Federal Departments also register for interdepartmental transactions
- Representation and certifications of vendors’ business information is required to be entered in ORCA (Online Representations and Certifications Application) prior to bidding.
- 39,000 registered.
- Contractors and individuals that are debarred, suspended, proposed for debarment, and declared ineligible from receiving federal contracts, grants or other Federal payments are listed in EPLS (Excluded Parties List System).
- 53,000 listed.
- 5 million hits per month

## Usage and Metrics (cont)

- FPDS-NG (Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation) is the current central repository of detailed information on federal contract actions over $2,500.
- 10.5 million federal contract actions submitted in 2004 for over $325 billion
- 45,000 government and 8,000 public users.
- Vendors looking for government business and government buyers with open procurement solicitations have a one-stop gateway to solicitations over $25K in FBO (Federal Business Opportunities).
- 118,000 active procurement documents (synopses and solicitations) posted
-  24,500 federal buyers posting procurement documents.
- 31 million hits per month.
- 756,000 vendors receive email notifications of procurement opportunities
- About ten percent have sensitive documents associated and posted to a separate site

## Next Steps

- Newest system launched October 28 to collect subcontracting reports from prime contractors
- One team in process of redesigning how performance data can be better collected to enable sharing with other Departments in Market Research
- Final requirements for mandatory software testing to focus on
- Interfaces between IAE systems
- Interfaces with Finance
- Mandatory, testable capabilities
- eAuthentication with single sign-on

## Challenges

- Program and project planning and management
- Executive Commitment and alignment
- Change Management
- Adoption of a federal view-new mindset
- Communications
- Aligning up to 27 disparate agency systems

## Lessons Learned

- Establish federal governance framework based on key cross-agency components
- Executive commitment and alignment
- Collaborative System Steward management
- Collaborative commercial software provider management
- Engage stakeholders- It’s still the people!
- Across agencies and levels
- Throughout the life cycle
- Communicate widely, deeply, often
- Emphasize the benefits for every type stakeholder
- Inform and persuade decision makers and influence leaders
- Solicit feedback regularly
- Don’t underestimate the challenge of implementation
- Agency business process owners role
- Implementation maps and scorecards
- Migration and alignment has individual challenges in each Department

## Challenges

-    IAE Architecture

## Contact Information

**email: integrated.acquisition@gsa.gov**

_**IAE Program Management Office**_
**Teresa Sorrenti****	****703-872-8610**
**Earl Warrington****	****703-872-8609**

- Federal Acquisition Institute
-  Defense Acquisition University
- Acquisition Career Management Information System (ACMIS)
- Buy Accessible Wizard

- _[What is IAE?](http://acquisition.gov/whatisiae.cfm)__ _
- _[Vision and Goals](http://acquisition.gov/vision_goals.cfm)__ _
- _[Architectural Drawing](http://acquisition.gov/arch_drawings.cfm)__ _
- _[Project Documents](http://acquisition.gov/project_documents.cfm)__ _
- Acronyms and URLs
- Configuration Management
- XML Guidance
- Policy
- Standard Transactions