Stephen Ehikian, acting administrator of the General Services Administration, said streamlining and centralizing procurement and rationalizing IT infrastructure and software as a shared service are part of his vision for GSA.
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Centralizing Government Procurement
In a blog post published Tuesday, Ehikian wrote that GSA has started an initiative with four agencies to centralize the procurement of common goods and services in accordance with a recently signed executive order.
To streamline the procurement process, he said GSA is working with Federal Acquisition Regulation council partners to restore merit-based opportunity in contracting and updating compliance standards to accelerate the adoption of best-in-class technologies.
The agency is also working to improve its technology infrastructure for procurement to improve vendor management, reduce paper-based workflows and enhance data-driven decisions.
Advancing Generative AI, Breaking Down Data Silos
As part of GSA’s IT infrastructure rationalization effort, the acting chief said the agency will continue to pilot generative artificial intelligence to enable contracting officers and acquisition officials to search across acquisition policies, internal directives or circulars, and code generation.
Ehikian noted that the agency is working to break down data silos to improve collaboration, enhance communication and prepare for future AI opportunities.
Other initiatives under this effort are driving automation and reimagining the FedRAMP authorization process to accelerate secure cloud adoption across agencies.
The GSA official said the agency also aims to optimize software and cloud spending by “conducting a line-by-line evaluation of every technology solution, ensuring we only pay for the licenses that we use and eliminate redundant systems.”
Other GSA Initiatives
Ehikian said his vision for the agency includes optimizing GSA’s federal buildings portfolio and embracing the agency’s model of efficiency.
Initiatives to optimize the agency’s buildings portfolio include reducing deferred maintenance liabilities, increasing office occupancy and advancing greater interoperability between agencies.
GSA will also assess its operations and consolidate shared services to realize efficiencies.
“My goal is that GSA returns to our founding mission of streamlining federal operations, consolidating resources and efficiently providing essential services that allow government agencies to focus on their core missions,” Ehikian wrote.
“GSA is the tip of the spear – we’re setting the example for other agencies and serving as a collaborative partner to help them cut wasteful contract spending, right size the federal real estate portfolio and deploy software to drive efficiency and productivity,” he added.
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