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GovFlex Helps Government Contracting With Changes in Talent Acquisition
May 9, 2018
The revolution in talent acquisition has led to new companies harnessing technology to find qualified talent within the govcon marketplace. One example, GovFlex, is getting ready to roll out v2.0 this month. The company was founded in 2014 as an online service connecting both government agencies...
How Smart Operations Can Strengthen Federal Procurement
May 9, 2018
Federal Times
There is a great need for effective procurement as a means to improve levels of education, infrastructure, public safety, and more. Yet expectations for public sector procurement continue to rise as budgets shrink and the “do more with less” mantra prevails. For leaders seeking a...
GAO Releases Updated Bid Protest Guide
May 2, 2018
Coinciding with the May 1, 2018 requirement that GAO bid protests be filed using the new Electronic Protest Docketing System, the GAO has released an updated version of its “Descriptive Guide” to the GAO bid protest process.
This Guide–the tenth edition published by GAO–is packed with...
SBA Rejects Major Changes in Size Standard Methodology
May 1, 2018
The SBA has rejected several recommendations for major changes in how the SBA calculates small business size status.
In commentary published in the Federal Register last week, the SBA rejected (among other things) recommendations that it use average employee count to evaluate the sizes of...
Recognizing the Need for Innovation in Acquisition
Apr 26, 2018
The President’s Management Agenda lays out ambitious plans for the federal government to modernize IT, prepare its future workforce, and improve the way it manages major acquisitions. But many program acquisition officers cite time pressure and lack of bandwidth to learn new tools as barriers to...
Modernization Takes More Than Technology
Apr 26, 2018
With the passage of the Modernizing Government Technology Act and growing conversation on digital transformation, there’s no question that the technology and desire to modernize government are there. But plans and technology alone are not enough. New approaches to acquisition and implementation,...
Recap & Recording: Aligning Public Procurement Roles with Key Skills
Apr 25, 2018
As a continuing part of our webinar series focused on helping chief procurement officers and acquisition executives understand the key skills and gaps of the procurement workforce, Public Spend Forum, in collaboration with NIGP, presented a second webinar covering the importance of developing a...
Recap & Recording: Skills of a World-Class Public Procurement Workforce
Mar 28, 2018
As part of our webinar series focused on helping Chief Procurement Officers and Acquisition Executives understand the key skills and gaps of the procurement workforce, Public Spend Forum, in collaboration with NIGP, provided an overview of the Public Procurement Workforce Competency Model. In the...
A New Era For Big Data In Procurement: Part 2
Mar 23, 2018
As illustrated by the quote below, the case for data in business is not a new one, nor one that needs to be much discussed. The purpose is, and always was, to collect sufficient data (and not too much, ‘infobesity’ and ‘analysis paralysis’ are well-known pitfalls in that area) to make the...
When Things Go Wrong in Procurement: 5 Tips on What to Do
Mar 15, 2018
Over the course of the last decade, a lot has changed in public procurement. Among other developments, international organizations have gotten more involved in public procurement policy, creating toolkits (think O.E.C.D in Paris), and standardizing how procurement is integrated in national...
Meet the Contracting Folks Who Are Encouraging New IT Vendors
Mar 15, 2018
When interviewing non-traditional IT vendors in the federal marketplace for a series of blogs, I asked how they decided what agencies to target. A common answer was that they chose based on whether a sympathetic contracting officer was present. So — not the least to provide tips to contracting...
Advice for CIOs on Modernizing IT Through MGT Opportunities
Mar 12, 2018
Writing in his regular Reporter’s Notebook column for Federal News Radio, Jason Miller shares advice from former CIO and public sector technology leaders on how agencies should begin the work of applying for modernization funding, either through the central account or via their own agency working...
