The
Federal government spends roughly
$190 billion to $220 billion on the acquisition
of goods and services each year, making it the
largest purchaser in the world. Recent procurement
reforms enacted into law have led federal agencies
to undertake various initiatives to streamline
acquisitions, including the use of electronic
technologies to reduce costs and improve collaboration
with suppliers. These individual agency initiatives
also have produced serious inefficiencies, including
duplication of effort, information systems that
cannot exchange data with other agencies, and
a lack of data standards.
The
Integrated Acquisition Environment (IAE) initiative
is designed to create a secure
business environment that will facilitate
and support cost-effective acquisition of
goods and services by agencies, while eliminating
inefficiencies in the current acquisition
landscape. Through the initiative, common
acquisition functions that can benefit all
agencies, such as the maintenance of information
about suppliers (e.g., capabilities, past
performance histories) will be managed as
a shared service. Initial efforts will focus
on several elements central to establishing
the IAE, including:
- Creating single on-line access to tools and
capabilities that will assist agency acquisition
professionals by providing a directory to facilitate
ordering from interagency contracts and catalogs
on-line across the government.
- Establishing
a Business Partner Network that will provide
a single point of registration,
validation, and access for all supplier
data.
- Redesigning the process for government-to-government
transactions in order to streamline
ordering, billing, and collection and to improve the
financial settlement process.
- Modernizing
and enhancing the acquisition management information
system.
The IAE will
provide benefits to the government and its
suppliers. Improved cross-agency
coordination will help the government
to better use its
buying power. Additionally, the IAE will
reduce purchase transaction costs and
cycle times
for acquisition actions, enable agency
managers to make better strategic and planning
decisions,
and lead to increased opportunities for
small businesses. |