Evolving Acquisition

For years, government has worked to streamline acquisition so needed technologies get in the hands of agencies more quickly. With the new administration's focus on efficiency and improved use of emerging technology, these ongoing efforts to evolve government acquisition will likely move into high gear.

Legislation Driving Change

2024 saw a number of bi-partisan legislative proposals aimed at streamlining acquisition and spending. The Federal Improvement in Technology (FIT) Procurement Act was introduced in March 2024 to eliminate restrictive requirements and expand procurement options that let agencies move quickly to buy and utilize technology. A key focus of the legislation is enabling agencies to make advance payments for cloud computing, data center solutions, and other technology acquired on a subscription or tenancy basis. A pay-in-advance model is standard for these technologies, but not something that government procurement rules are set up to easily allow. Continue reading

Next Gen Tech Needs Next Gen Acquisition

The speed at which technology evolves presents many challenges for the federal government, the first being the actual acquisition of solutions. Government procurement processes and policies have had to adjust and evolve to enable agencies to buy and implement the emerging technologies that support their mission.

Utilizing Existing Platforms

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) may be the largest and most visible example of this evolution, allowing agencies to securely acquire cloud solutions. The program is being used as a platform to ensure that other transformative technologies, like the cloud, can securely make their way into government systems. The Emerging Technology Prioritization Framework provides guidance on how cloud service providers can request their emerging tech-powered products be prioritized and then implemented. The initial focus will be on artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, focusing on chat interfaces, code generators and debugging tools, image generators, and associated application program interfaces. Continue reading

Security Takes a Leading Role in Acquisition

Recent security breaches via software have made supply chain security a priority across government. No longer is it enough to build security into a solution; now every product that is part of that solution is being examined for its security and risk. In response, the Biden Administration issued a Cybersecurity Executive Order that aims to provide more control over the content of code that comes in contact with government systems and infrastructure.

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How to Succeed in (Small) Business. It Does Involve Trying.

The pandemic has created a newfound societal appreciation for the small businesses of Main Street. This support of small businesses is exciting to see as is the innovation that businesses are employing to ensure customers and employees can safely support them. In government, this appreciation for small business is not something that started in 2020. It has been a focus since 1988 when Congress enacted the first procurement goal. Part of that focus was because government knew that innovation happens within these smaller, more nimble companies and they wanted to capitalize on the forward thinking.

Small business goals have increased year over year and government is doing their part to keep up. In fact, in 2019 government exceeded its overall small business contracting goals for the seventh consecutive year. Federal agencies awarded 26.5% of total prime contract dollars to small businesses (above the goal of 23%) which equates to nearly $133B.

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For Government, It’s Already 2021

With many people in a rush to put 2020 behind us, those of us in the government market can safely say we're operating like it's 2021 (not as fun as partying like it's 1999, but anything beats 2020, right?). While the rush to meet the deadline for federal government fiscal year (GFY) spending on September 30 may have felt oddly comforting in its familiarity, there are many changes happening in government acquisition and procurement to make processes more responsive to today's workforce and technology needs.

The use of automation is expanding beyond using Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to handle rote, repetitive tasks. RPA has been incredibly beneficial for freeing up the time of acquisition professionals to focus on innately human activities, rather than administrative tasks. Now, acquisition groups are going a step further and introducing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve processes by tapping into all of the data available in acquisition systems. For example, GSA uses an AI-enabled bot to "track, find and change Section 508 disability clauses in contracts." This helps ensure compliance, feeding updated clauses to humans for final review.

In September, the Department of Defense (DOD) issued Directive 5000.01, an update to the 5000 series instructions that focuses on the roles and responsibilities for its acquisition process in an effort to simplify the buying process. The end goal of this simplification is to get technology in the hands of the warfighter faster. Continue reading