E-Government- Integrated Acquisition Environment:
Taming the federal procurement maze

The Challenge

Nobody buys more goods and services than the federal government. Managing its procurement requirements is a huge, time-intensive job that has historically involved hundreds of automated and manual processes, typically isolated in organizational silos. Efforts have been made in the past to integrate them, but with mixed results. With so many agencies, vendors and customers involved, effective consolidation and coordination was virtually impossible.

Then came the President’s Management Agenda, which made the Integrated Acquisition Environment (IAE) one of the first 24 E-Government initiatives. Its purpose? Interestingly, it’s not to create a single acquisition system for the federal government. This arena is too diverse for “one size fits all” (at least at present). Instead, IAE would put federal procurements on the path to Peak Performance® by simplifying and unifying all of the “common touch points” of the acquisition process throughout government. Where systems were duplicated, they would be consolidated into single best-of-breed solutions. For the rest, IAE would enable acquisition professionals to electronically access, share and apply information common to all federal acquisitions.

But even getting this far toward streamlining the federal procurement maze would demand a Herculean effort supported by proactive collaboration among every agency. This was a challenge tailor-made for SiloSmashers.

Expert Support to Make Procurement Simpler

Peak Performance® is about making things simpler, easier, faster and better. That’s why the U.S. General Services Administration, which manages IAE, turned to SiloSmashers for expert support staff. Early on, our project team provided the IAE Program Management Office with services in project management, program analysis, budget and finance, communications and marketing, quality assurance management, business analysis, change management, requirements management, project tracking and reporting, security management, solutions architecture, XML and collaborative meeting support.

From the start, IAE management has taken a cross-agency collaborative approach to get input, feedback and buy-in for effective decisions. During peak times of activity, the program had over 65 participating agencies and over 300 members serving on multiple, cross-agency work groups. SiloSmashers worked extensively with these groups, facilitating meetings to reach agreement on the technical, pro-gram and substantive goals critical to IAE’s success.

Applying nearly the entire family of SiloSmashers capabilities, we helped identify and implement effective program management processes and practices. We conducted business analyses of acquisition processes and developed OMB Exhibit 300 business cases to justify IT investments. Our certified project management professionals have helped mentor IAE project managers and team leaders. And, we have created and implemented an IAE communications plan to assure that key messages and information are professionally presented to the right people at the right time. All of these tasks were performed with a single objective in mind: establishing a constellation of robust acquisition support systems made instantly accessible in a single user-friendly environment. They’re all easily accessible in IAE and ready to help users cut their acquisition cycle times.

The Results of Peak Performance®

IAE is transforming the federal acquisitions process. Acquisition professionals now have unprecedented access to federal procurement data. They can rely on the system for accurate, timely transaction data that’s updated faster than ever before. Vendors are also finding greater convenience through IAE. Today, they can enter their company data into one system, and it’s then shared with other systems for reuse. There’s no need for re-keying and the chance for errors is significantly reduced.

SiloSmashers supplied the core program management staff that has enabled IAE to meet its E-Government goals … facilitated the cross-agency decision-making so critical to mission success … and established a flexible framework for further acquisition integration that will drive Peak Performance® in the years ahead. As the progress of IAE unfolds, SiloSmashers continues to play a central part in its success.