Earlier this month, senior leadership from the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced that the agency has begun deploying two new IT systems that will help federal acquisition and procurement professionals more efficiently source goods and services and ultimately save the taxpayers money. Liz DelNegro, Associate Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Acquisition IT Services, announced via the GSA blog that the agency has deployed the Enterprise Acquisition Solutions integrated (EASi), and is in the process of deploying the Assisted Services Information System (ASSIST).
According to Ms. DelNegro and Federal Computer Week, EASi is a procurement tool that allows federal procurement staff to choose from standardized solicitation and awards packages, receive assistance with funding certifications, execute, and close out federal contracting processes. It is a follow-on system to GSA’s legacy Comprizon Acquisition Platform, and is the result of a joint effort by government and industry players to modernize the Agency’s aging acquisition systems.
To that end, GSA’s IT service, the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), and the Public Building Service’s Office of Acquisition Management worked alongside the Incentive Technology Group “to develop, deploy, and support EASi.” The new system leverages GSA’s larger IT application environment, including the Regulation Management Service, the Solicitation Writing System, and the Enterprise Content Management System. It will also interface with GSA’s mandatory Integrated Award Environment (IAE) System for Awards Management (SAM).
For its part, ASSIST is a collaboration between GSA IT and the FAS’ Assisted Acquisition Services. Although it is about halfway through its development and implementation phase, it appears that ASSIST will be a more robust system for GSA procurement staff than EASi. Once deployed, Ms. DelNegro says that it will support FAS customers, contracting professionals, and contractors by providing visibility into contract deliverables. It will integrate contract management with spend management to allow GSA and FAS personnel to make more informed business decisions for the government and taxpayers. It will also centralize GSA, vendor, and client registration information and eliminate legacy hardware, software, and licensing costs, thereby “reducing the operational burdens associated with user account maintenance.”
According to Ms. DelNegro, “ASSIST provide[s] gradual transition from multiple legacy systems to a set of consumable web services and the methodology focuses on acquisition excellence and streamlined operations while ensuring compliance activities.” She adds that “EASi and ASSIST are just two systems out of many that GSA IT is developing and deploying to provide easier purchasing and procurement to the federal government – and savings to taxpayers.”
As the U.S. government continues to cut federal spending, its mounting debts, and its widened budget deficits, GSA is joining its partners in the U.S. Department of Defense in adopting strategic sourcing processes and technologies to cut costs and increase savings. Although EASi and ASSIST don’t appear to be traditional strategic sourcing tools, per se, they appear to combine elements of spend analysis, eSourcing, and contract management that, when used in concert with each other, should help to cut costs and increase efficiencies at the federal level – something that procurement practitioners and taxpayers can all support.
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