This brings new meaning to “you’ll never work in this town again”. It would not seem part of natural justice to only make it available to public servants. Contractor database hit from both sides |
Did the federal acquisition councils go too far or not far enough in designing a new database for contractors’ past performance and legal compliance? That depends on whom you ask. |
| The acquisition councils recently outlined a plan for the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System. |
The database will contain data on past performance and contractors’ involvement in criminal, civil and administrative proceedings with alleged violations of federal, state and local laws or contracts. It will be viewed only by federal officials. |
“The public has a right to know,” said Neil Gordon, an investigator at the Project on Government Oversight, urging that the database be accessible to the public. Read more at fcw.com |
Key characteristics: agile, evolutionary, modular, prototyping, open-system DOD bill would open door to new buying process for IT |
The legislation requires the Defense Department to build an agile, speedy acquisition process for IT |
The Defense Department is going buy information technology systems differently, based on the final version of the fiscal 2010 National Defense Authorization Act. |
Congress said it wants DOD’s buying process to:
- Involve the user of the new system early on and throughout the acquisition process.
- Work in multiple, rapidly executed increments for developing a system’s capabilities.
- Take an evolutionary method of buying IT by using early and successive prototyping of the system.
- Conduct a modular, open-system approach to development
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| The task force concluded in a report issued in March that the new acquisition process must be agile and capable of delivering IT systems in no more than 18 months. Currently though, it takes much longer. |
Kundra: System will give agencies easier access to new technology |
A new storefront for the federal government will let agencies acquire cloud computing technology as easily as consumers can sign up for Gmail accounts, federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra said today.
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Under current rules, it can take an agency 18 months to two years to acquire technology that is available instantly to consumers, Kundra said at the Cloud Computing Symposium held at the National Defense University in Washington. The experience of acquiring technology for personal use and buying it for the government should be the same, he said.
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The storefront will provide that access to cloud computing technology, he said. “We will abstract all the complexity for agencies so they do not have to worry about federal compliance, certifications and accreditations. So literally, you’ll be able to go in as an agency and provision technology on a real-time basis.”
Read more at fcw.com |
Does Procurement know what you care about? |
In many enterprises, IT folks decide what they want to buy and who they want to buy it from, but Procurement negotiates the contract, manages the relationship, and has significant influence on renewals. Right now, especially, purchasing folks have a lot of influence, because they’re often now the ones who go out and shop for alternatives that might be cheaper, forcing IT into the position of having to consider competitive bids. |
The larger the organization gets, the greater the disconnect between IT decision-makers and the actual sourcing folks. In markets where commoditization is extant or in process, vendors have to keep that in mind, and IT buyers need to make sure that the actual procurement staff has enough information to make good negotiation decisions, especially if there are any non-commodity aspects that are important to the buyer. Read more at blogs.gartner.com |
Govt IT procurement in for shake-up
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Commerce Minister Simon Power announced this month that the Government would establish “centres of expertise” to buy products on behalf of all government agencies.
Computers, vehicles and electricity bills are among the items of expenditure on which the Government believes it could easily achieve savings. |
The spokeswoman says that in order to ensure the centres of expertise can negotiate the best possible terms with suppliers, government agencies will have to buy products through the agreements they reach and “will not negotiate separate deals outside these arrangements”. |
Brett O’Riley, chief executive of information technology vendor association NZICT, believed a move toward “more co-ordinated and centralised procurement” would be viewed by the industry as a good thing. But he says the devil will be in the detail and margins on computer hardware are already pretty tight. |
He says there may be greater opportunities in rationalising the purchase of computer servers, investing in “virtualisation” tools to ensure they are used efficiently, and in cloud computing buying software as a service over the internet. “What was encouraging is [the Government] is looking for industry involvement in this exercise.” Read more at www.stuff.co.nz |
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US government establishes centralised database for contractors
