Georgia Tech will support deployment of electronic health records
August 25, 2010 by cs
The Georgia Institute of Technology is part of a new statewide effort aimed at facilitating the adoption of secure and confidential electronic health record systems by primary-care providers — especially those that reach underserved portions of the state’s population. The goal of the effort is to apply a community-oriented approach to outreach, education and technical assistance facilitating the adoption and “meaningful use” of the electronic health records.
The work is part of a $19.5 million federally-funded project — headed by the Morehouse School of Medicine’s National Center for Primary Care (NCPC) — to help primary-care providers in smaller practices adopt comprehensive electronic health record (EHR) systems. The project is being coordinated by the Georgia Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center (GA-HITREC).
Georgia Tech is also helping establish a group purchasing program that health care providers can use to more simply and easily obtain their EHR software.
“The ultimate goal is higher quality, more cost-effective health care for Georgia,” said Stephen Fleming, a Georgia Tech vice president and executive director of its Enterprise Innovation Institute, which will provide the services. “This will not only benefit individual citizens of the state directly, but will also make Georgia more attractive to companies of all sizes because health care costs are often the second-largest expense, after payroll, for business and industry across the board.”
The Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2) will receive approximately $2.8 million for its contributions to the project.
The GA-HITREC project will help as many as 5,200 primary-care providers in smaller practices select electronic health record systems, properly install the software and implement new workflow processes that achieve meaningful use of the technology. Using its existing statewide network of regional technical assistance offices, Georgia Tech will be among several organizations providing direct support to providers as they adopt the technology.
“The effort will include an assessment tool to help determine what each provider practice needs to do to achieve meaningful use as defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This would include education and training, changes in clinical and administrative processes, addressing computer hardware and facility issues, and providing connectivity to emerging health information exchanges,” explained Steve Rushing, director of Georgia Tech’s health@ei2 program. “Staff from the Enterprise Innovation Institute will conduct one-on-one and group presentations to explain electronic health records, assist in selecting EHR products and conduct follow-up to ensure that new systems are meeting the mandated criteria.”
Some $20 billion in funding through the “Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act” (HITECH) will support similar programs nationwide to encourage the deployment of interconnected electronic health records. Funding for the program is from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.
“The widespread adoption and meaningful use of EHRs can significantly impact the gaps in disparities among our nation’s communities,” said Dr. Dominic Mack, director of GA-HITREC and deputy director of the National Center for Primary Care. “A major goal of the federal initiatives is to put underserved communities on an equal playing field when it comes to health information technology (HIT). I think with valuable partners such as Georgia Tech, we are on the right path.”
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) was established by executive order in 2004 with the goal of laying the policy and standards groundwork for such a nationwide health records system. The objectives are to cut $10 billion per year from the government’s health care costs, and to generate additional savings through improvements in quality of care and care coordination, and through reductions in medical errors and duplicative care.
Across the United States and in Georgia, use of comprehensive electronic health records systems is currently limited, with less than 10 percent of hospitals and doctors using networked systems able to provide meaningful support for higher quality care. Over the coming decade, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget expects that initiatives such as the Morehouse program will boost usage of the systems to 90 percent for doctors and 70 percent for hospitals.
“A comprehensive electronic health records system is important for the long-term management of chronic health problems such as diabetes and heart disease,” said Mark Braunstein, assistant director of the Health Systems Institute, a program operated jointly by Georgia Tech and Emory University. “As much as 75 percent of U.S. health care dollars now pay for this type of care, and without adoption of technology for more coordination of care, that cost will continue to grow as the population ages.”
Care for chronic diseases takes place over years, is often provided by many different sources and — ultimately — the outcome depends heavily on patient behavior.
“We need health information infrastructure that will allow every doctor to know what other providers are doing to efficiently and effectively care for a patient with chronic disease,” Braunstein explained. “If most physicians are still using paper records, this will be virtually impossible.”
By adopting electronic records capable of so-called “meaningful use,” the initiative will also help doctors stay current with new information on the best and most cost-effective methods.
“With the rapid advances in medical knowledge, it is very difficult for physicians — particularly rural primary-care physicians who must treat virtually all medical problems in their communities — to keep up,” Braunstein noted. “Helping every physician successfully adopt technology that can help them stay current is a top priority.”
In a study released earlier this year, EI2 also documented that the state’s health information technology industry includes more than 100 companies and employs approximately 10,000 people. Investments in electronic health record systems will therefore have an additional economic development benefit beyond helping control health care costs.
“Georgia businesses stand to benefit substantially from this national investment in health information infrastructure,” Fleming noted.
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Writer: John Toon – Aug. 24, 2010
Gates announces major cuts at Defense
August 19, 2010 by cs
Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday said the department would cut funding for contractors, freeze hiring for all but critical jobs, eliminate three major organizations and propose cutting at least 150 senior executive service positions and 50 general and flag officer positions during the next two years as part of a wide-ranging effort to reduce duplication and overhead in military organizations.
“This agenda is not about cutting the department’s budget,” Gates said at a Pentagon press briefing on Monday. “It’s about reforming and reshaping priorities to ensure that, in tough budgetary and economic times, we can focus defense resources where they belong: in America’s fighting forces, investment in future capabilities and, most important, on our men and women in uniform.”
Sustaining the current force structure and investing in necessary equipment and weapons will require 2 percent to 3 percent real budget growth, Pentagon officials estimate, yet the department is forecasted to receive only 1 percent real growth in coming years. To avoid cutting military capabilities, Gates called in June for an “unsparing” look at how the department is staffed, organized and operated with the goal of significantly reducing excess overhead costs and applying the savings to force structure and modernization.
Specifically, Gates has tasked the military services with finding $100 billion in overhead savings during the next five years. The services will be able to keep the savings they generate and reinvest the money in warfighting and modernization programs.
He said Monday he also has authorized each military department to consider consolidating or closing bases and facilities where they see fit.
“This is obviously a politically fraught topic,” Gates acknowledged, noting that Congress has placed limits on the department’s ability to close installations. “But hard is not impossible, and I hope Congress will work with us to reduce unnecessary costs in this part of the Defense enterprise,” he said.
Instead of waiting for the normal budgeting process to implement changes in the future, Gates said he had determined there were several things his office could do now to start a process he said he hoped would “instill a culture of savings and restraint across the department.” Among other things, the Pentagon will:
- Freeze the number of civilian senior executive, general and flag officer positions, as well as political appointments requiring Senate confirmation, at 2010 levels. A senior task force will assess the number and locations of senior positions and recommend cuts by Nov. 1. At a minimum, Gates wants to eliminate 50 general and flag officer positions and 150 senior executive service positions during the next two years — a 50 percent reduction in the total growth of those billets since 2000.
- Cut funding for service support contractors 10 percent annually for each of the next three years. Last year, Defense said it would reduce the number of service support contractors by 33,000 by 2015, but Gates said he was not satisfied with the progress so far; thus, funding will be reduced to accelerate the cuts.
- Freeze the number of positions in the Office of the Defense Secretary, Defense agencies and combatant commands. Missions and staff in those organizations expanded after Sept. 11, 2001, with no commensurate decrease in less-important activities. To force organizations to make necessary tradeoffs, no more full-time positions will be created except for planned increases in critical areas, such as the acquisition workforce.
“These measures are just the first step of a comprehensive re-baselining of OSD, Defense agency and [combatant command] staffing and organizations,” Gates said. In addition, he ordered a “clean sheet review” be completed by Nov. 15 outlining the responsibilities, locations and ranks of people performing the department’s most critical priorities.
The Pentagon needs to create “a system of fewer, flatter, and more agile and responsive structures, where reductions in rank at the top create a virtuous cascading effect downward and outward,” Gates said.
In addition, too many parts of Defense, particularly those involved in information technology, cling to separate infrastructure and processes, Gates said. Every base and operational headquarters and Defense agency has its own IT organization, processes and application-ware, resulting in a patchwork of capabilities that creates vulnerabilities and stymies productivity.
To address the proliferation of IT bureaucracies, Gates said he was directing an effort to consolidate all information technology assets to create significant economies of scale.
One issue Gates is tackling that likely will appeal to department staff is the number of oversight reports required of various organizations. “The department is awash in taskings for reports and studies,” he said, noting that nearly 1,000 contractors are involved in producing more than 700 annual reports. He ordered a freeze on the number of required reports along with a 25 percent decrease in money allocated to advisory studies. In addition, every report must include a statement of its preparation costs.
By Oct. 1, the department would complete a review of all oversight report requirements and reduce the volume of those that aren’t congressionally-mandated. Likewise, the department is reviewing the 65 outside boards and commissions that oversee activities and provide advice. Those that aren’t needed will be eliminated and overall funding for such entities will be cut 25 percent in 2011.
Gates also said the department would cut 10 percent of funding for intelligence advisory and assistance contracts as well as freeze the number of SES positions in Defense intelligence organizations.
In addition, Gates said the Pentagon would eliminate entire organizations, including the Business Transformation Agency. The agency, with a staff of 360 workers and an annual budget of $340 million, was created in 2006 to modernize the department’s business practices but it had shifted its focus to daily oversight of individual acquisition programs. Its responsibilities now will be shifted to the deputy chief management officer.
The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration, along with the corresponding J6 function on the Joint Staff also will be eliminated. The offices’ operational functions will be assigned to other staffs and a re-fashioned chief information office.
Gates also recommended that President Obama eliminate Joint Forces Command and reassigning its force management and sourcing functions to the Joint Staff, something the president can do without congressional approval, according to Defense officials. The command employs about 2,800 military and civilian positions and roughly 3,000 contractors at an annual cost of $240 million.
Gates expects “measurable results” in achieving his directives in 90 to 120 days.
He also said he was aware of the human toll his announcement would take: “A number of full-time employees will have to find other positions or no longer work in this department. Like millions of Americans affected by this tough economic climate, I know these changes will likely mean real hardship for displaced employees and their families,” he said.
To ease some of the personnel hardships, Gates directed Clifford Stanley, undersecretary for personnel and readiness, to work with leaders of affected organizations to assist employees in what likely will be a difficult transition.
“The culture of endless money that has taken hold must be replaced by a culture of savings and restraint,” Gates said.
– By Katherine McIntire Peters – GovExec.com – August 9, 2010
VA launches $12 billion IT procurement
August 5, 2010 by cs
The Veterans Affairs Department’s massive new information technology procurement will provide nearly $1 billion in contracts annually for veteran-owned small businesses during the next five years, according to VA’s director.
The department on July 26, 2010 released a long-anticipated request for proposals for its Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology program, or T4. The $12 billion IT contract is expected to give veteran-owned firms a chance to compete with larger companies for business. In a July 20 speech at the National Veterans Small Business Conference, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said seven of the 15 prime contracts will be reserved for veteran-owned small businesses, including four for service-disabled veteran owners.
“With T4, you don’t have to settle for smaller subcontracts or set-asides,” he said. “It’s your chance to think big, to think like a prime and to succeed as one.”
The T4 procurement, which replaces VA’s Global Information Technology Support Services contract, will provide a variety of hardware and IT services, including program management and strategy planning, systems and software engineering, enterprise networks, cybersecurity, operations and maintenance, and IT facilities. The RFP was scheduled for release in June, but was delayed for a variety of reasons.
VA has been aggressively managing initiatives to recruit veteran-owned small businesses for its contracts and has done a good job working with veterans and other agencies to encourage them to use channels for reaching emerging businesses, said Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president and chief knowledge officer for McLean, Va.-based consulting firm FedSources.
Shinseki called T4 a “win-win-win strategy,” noting it provides opportunities to veteran-owned small businesses, manageable and cost-effective contractor support to VA, and improved services to veterans.
T4 is a huge initiative that allows VA to issue task orders without going through the General Services Administration or other contract vehicles for each project, said Harold Gracey, a consultant with Topside Consulting who served as VA chief of staff from 1994 to 1998. “They’re essentially looking for a shortcut that is sound from an acquisition standpoint,” he added.
VA earlier this month canceled its $400 million financial systems modernization project, citing high costs and the potential for failure. The department’s responsibilities in areas like health care and benefits administration likely contributed to the decision to launch a single integrated technology contract like T4, said Bjorklund, adding it could become a platform for small-scale systems development in the future.
– By Emily Long – NextGov.com – 07/26/2010
$114 billion still available for federal contractors before Sept. 30
August 3, 2010 by cs
The federal government still has $114 billion in play for contract spending before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, an industry analyst has concluded.
According to a report McLean, Va.-based consulting firm FedSources is set to release in the coming days, fourth quarter contracting activity will pick up significantly compared to the previous three quarters of fiscal 2010, particularly for smaller purchases.
The government’s fiscal 2010 budget included $756 billion for contracts. Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president and chief knowledge officer at FedSources and the report’s author, said fourth quarter spending is very important for the information technology community, especially for resellers whose sales are commodity-based.
The jump in spending represents demand for lower-cost purchases for which agencies might not have expected to have sufficient funds, he added. For example, government spent $776 million on computing equipment in the first quarter of fiscal 2009; that jumped to $2.5 billion in the final quarter.
According to Bjorklund, there also is an uptick in spending in the last fiscal quarter on studies and analyses for technology projects and plans, as well as IT services. “There’s a pent-up demand for IT services that can be contracted for toward the end of the fiscal year with the premise that additional money will come in next year’s appropriations,” he said. “A lot of planning [for larger and more complex requirements] starts back in March and April, and contractors have to be well-positioned to take advantage of year-end spending by working with customer requirements early in the year.”
Bjorklund stressed that it was imperative for contractors to understand government’s financial management processes and to be aware of agencies’ lead time on orders to prevent errors during the rush to spend remaining funds. “It’s really important for industry as well as government to know what the lead times are because we have an understaffed acquisition workforce in government,” he said. “If they can work in synchronization then industry won’t try to cram something down the throat of government at the last minute, raising the potential for mistakes.”
– By Emily Long 07/30/2010 – NextGov.com
Air Force to host IT vendors in Montgomery, AL
July 29, 2010 by cs
“Dominance at the Speed of Need” is the theme of the Air Force Information Technology Conference (AFITC) scheduled for Aug, 30-31, 2010 in Montgomery, Alabama.
The purpose of the conference is to provide a forum for Dept. of Defense (DoD) vendors and officials to learn about the latest developments in information technology (IT) applications to support the Air Force in maintaining the most advanced fighting force in the world in air, space, and cyberspace. The theme, “Dominance at the Speed of Need,” emphasizes the need for our warfighters to change at a rapid rate and the acquisition process needing to keep pace.
This year’s events will highlight an IT Small Business Town Hall Meeting, a keynote address from Mr. John G. Caporal, Acting Director, Small Business Programs, Department of the Air Force, and an IT Small Business Match-Making Session. The Match-Making event will be by appointment only and everyone must be registered for the conference in order to participate.
If you are a small business seeking to gain knowledge about how to be better equipped to compete for federal government contracts, or you want to become a subcontractor to a large business that does business with the government, this is the conference for you!
Registration may be accomplished at http://afitc.gunter.af.mil. You may elect to be an attendee or an exhibitor. After registering, return to the home page and select the Small Business tab. Place your cursor over the Match Making Registration tab and submit your company information. Each vendor can sign up for a maximum of five sessions.
Prime contractor representatives are published on the website after each company confirms participation in the event. As additional representatives confirm and additional information is made available, the Gunter Air Force Base website is to be updated.
- Point of contact for this event is: Shalondria Thompson, Small Business Chairperson, 2010 Air Force Information Technology Conference (AFITC), Business Development Specialist (Contractor, P3S Corporation), HQ 754 ELSG/ESU, Customer Outreach; phone: 334-416-4886; email: shalondria.thompson.ctr@gunter.af.mil.
- Location Details: AFITC 2010 Small Business Event, Renaissance Montgomery Hotel & Spa, Ballroom A, 30-31 August 2010.
Here are a few tips from GTPAC. If you decide to attend this event, you’ll want to prepare. To assist you in this process, be sure to read our articles on attending a government trade show, how to prepare an “elevator speech,” and the need for a Capabilities Statement.
GSA seeks better prices, easier customer interface with IT procurement
July 27, 2010 by cs
The General Services Administration expects its information technology portfolio to grow as it launches initiatives to improve pricing and customers’ experience, according to the agency’s new Federal Acquisition Service chief.
“We’re really revamping all of our systems to add value to the way we do business and our customers,” Steve Kempf, who on Tuesday was named permanent FAS commissioner, said in a recent interview with Nextgov.
Just over a year after its launch, Alliant, GSA’s $50 billion governmentwide IT contract, exceeded $1 billion in task order awards this month. Alliant replaces the ANSWER and Millennia programs, which expired in 2009, and aims to be the largest and most comprehensive vehicle for procuring IT services in the federal government. The companion $15 billion Alliant Small Business contract recently surpassed $400 million in sales.
Industry analysts have said one challenge GSA faces is declining interest in Schedule 70, on which technology equipment and services are sold. Federal agencies often are reluctant to give up control of acquisitions so important to their daily operations and historically have held on to their own procurement operations, said Warren Suss, president of Suss Consulting. There’s some question as to whether they can entrust the “keys to the kingdom” to GSA, he added.
“In the end, it’s really on GSA’s shoulders to make the business case, to make the value proposition, to demonstrate that they can operate more efficiently, more effectively, nimbly, responsively than agencies themselves,” said Suss.
Kempf said despite flat interest in Schedule 70, he still considers GSA the dominant player in the IT market, with nearly $20 billion in sales across its technology portfolio. Alliant has produced a lot of interest and competition, he added.
“There’s some forecast that IT spending will be down,” said Kempf. “It’s an opportunity for GSA to be successful, to look at things like federal strategic sourcing in helping [agencies] meet budgetary constraints.”
Other areas for growth are in GSA’s new commercial satellite communications program, a $10 billion contract to provide satellite services to civilian and defense agencies, and a blanket purchase agreement for cell phone services that meet governmentwide requirements. Kempf said GSA also is working on a number of initiatives to make it easier for customers to use its purchasing vehicles. For example, customer-facing tools such as GSA Advantage soon will look and feel more commercial with improved product descriptions, images and price comparison tools. The agency also is looking to roll out training programs to help customers use Web tools and find answers in real time.
GSA’s massive Networx program has been under scrutiny in recent months as lawmakers and industry representatives question agencies’ slow transition to the new $68 billion telecommunications contract. Delays are costing the government millions each month, critics said. According to Suss, the transition’s momentum has picked up and is getting more attention and support from stakeholders.
“They’re over the hump in terms of getting agencies’ attention, but there’s still a lot of work to be done to get there,” he said. “In one way, it’s a huge deal because it’s a huge contract, and it’s at the heart of the government’s information technology. On the other hand, it’s the third iteration of the contract and well-established from a technical point of view. Agencies have a clear idea of where they need to go.”
Agencies must transition to Networx by June 2011, when predecessor FTS 2001 expires. GSA estimates the process is nearly 60 percent complete, and Kempf said he expects to be close to meeting the transition deadline.
Federal IT contract passes $1 billion mark
July 21, 2010 by cs
A major contract the federal government uses to procure multiple IT products and services has surpassed the $1 billion mark in task orders.
Alliant, a 10-year government-wide acquisition contract (GWAC) introduced in 2007 with a $50 billion ceiling, reached the milestone faster than other GWACs that preceded it, the Answer and Millennia contracts, according to a blog post by Edward O’Hare, assistant commissioner of the General Service Administration’s federal acquisition service office of integrated technology services.
GWACs are multiple-award, indefinite delivery, and indefinite quantity contracts that allow the government to purchase IT products and services without having to go through the competition process normally required of government procurement. The government began using them as a way to cut acquisition costs and streamline the process.
In his post, O’Hare cited several reasons he thinks Alliant has achieved $1 billion faster than some other contracts of its kind.
He said the contract is used by all Department of Defense (DoD) branches as well as many civilian agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.
Moreover, 24 of 59 prime contractors have won awards on 45 task orders through Alliant, with the GSA receiving an average of four bids per task order and no protests about unfair practices, O’Hare said.
Some of the federal government’s largest and most innovative IT projects — such as smart buildings — use Alliant, he added.
O’Hare acknowledged that there been concerns raised by industry groups about duplicative GWACs that actually end up costing the government money and resources rather than being more cost-effective.
However, O’Hare said that GWACs benefit companies who feel compelled to bid on as many government contracts as possible, because the all-inclusive nature of the contracts saves tens of thousands in bidding costs. This benefit, in turn, is returned to the federal government.
“These costs are not just the ‘cost of doing business’; they are passed on to the government and eventually to the taxpayer,” he said. “I don’t see how that benefits anyone in the long run.”
– by Elizabeth Montalbano, InformationWeek - July 12, 2010
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225702919
SEWP IV’s customer service spurs rapid growth; sales to top $2 billion in fiscal 2010
July 15, 2010 by cs
Joanne Woytek, program manager for the NASA Solutions for Enterprisewide Procurement (SEWP) IV governmentwide acquisition contract (GWAC), says that increasing its revenue is not her goal. “We’re not trying to grow or be the biggest contract vehicle, but to offer something that people find useful,” Woytek said.
But as Woytek and her staff are discovering, being useful – that is, providing top-of-the-line information technology service to agencies that use SEWP IV to buy IT products and software – leads inevitably to growth. SEWP IV has grown consistently since it began in May 2007, and the revenue generated through the program jumped from $1.358 billion in fiscal 2008 to $1.875 billion in 2009, an increase of nearly 40 percent. The program is on pace to exceed $2 billion in 2010, according to Woytek.
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“The key to our success is that we are not a contract. Rather, we are a program that supports a contract. We try to make sure that every piece of the program – products, tools, outreach and service delivery – fits together.”
Joanne Woytek, SEWP IV program manager |
“SEWP is absolutely a valuable asset to federal agencies,” said Kevin Plexico, senior vice president of research and analysis at Input. “Why would purchasing officials from across government – who have a choice where they go – go to this vehicle if they didn’t view it as a valuable vehicle?”
SEWP IV is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity GWAC consisting of 38 competed prime contract holders, including 21 small businesses. All federal agencies can purchase a wide variety of advanced IT products and product-related services, including hardware and software, maintenance, warranty, installation, and product training, at fixed prices through SEWP IV. Although the contract is not a services contract, agencies can purchase the services they need to install products and software, as long the services do not exceed 10 percent of the overall contract price. About 70 agencies and 10,000 people are using SEWP IV, according to Woytek.
SEWP IV also has a contract ceiling of $5.6 billion for each of the 38 contract holders, so there is no danger that the ceiling will be breached. The contract is expected to generate $10 billion to $14 billion in sales over seven years, according to SEWP IV officials.
“The key to our success is that we are not a contract. Rather, we are a program that supports a contract,” Woytek said. “We try to make sure that every piece of the program – products, tools, outreach and service delivery – fits together.”
The SEWP Advantage
Several key factors explain SEWP’s popularity among agency procurement officials, according to government and industry officials. A major attraction is SEWP IV’s low fee of 0.5 percent, which is calculated against the order price. In addition, all fees are capped at $10,000 per order. The self-funding program uses these fees to pay for the 38 program managers and staff and other overhead expenses necessary to run the SEWP IV program.
When SEWP I was launched 17 years ago, the program charged customers 2.6 percent to use the vehicle. But SEWP’s growth has enabled the program to reduce its fee steadily over the years while also expanding customer services. Because of the cap, the actual fee percentage charged to customers in 2009 was 0.42 percent, according to the SEWP IV website.
“NASA doesn’t give us any money and we don’t give any money back to NASA. So we’re not trying to make a profit,” Woytek says.
Another appeal is SEWP IV’s broad scope and ability to add new products quickly. Customers do not search for what they need from the SEWP catalog. They search for products and solutions from SEWP contract holders. If a contractor has what the customer wants, the products and solutions are then added to the catalog after SEWP officials review them to ensure they are within the contract’s scope and are being offered at a fair and reasonable price. Typically, it takes just a day to add a new product.
Small businesses thrive under SEWP IV
Many federal agencies use the Solutions for Enterprisewide Procurement (SEWP) IV governmentwide acquisition contract to help meet their small-business goals, say program officials, who point to two important statistics to make their case:
*35 percent of SEWP IV spending goes through SEWP’s small businesses.
*6 percent of SEWP IV spending goes through SEWP’s Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB).
“These statistics show that our small businesses are widely used by government,” said Marcus Fedeli, a support contractor who serves as SEWP IV business manager.
Joanne Woytek, SEWP IV program manager, also regards the spending on veterans’ businesses to be significant. “Most SDVOSBs provide [information technology] services, so we are quite pleased with how our SDVOSB resellers are doing,” she said.
Of the 38 SEWP IV contract holders 21 are small businesses: six 8(a) small, disadvantaged businesses and 10 veteran-owned small businesses, including seven owned by service-disabled veterans. SEWP IV has set-aside authority for small businesses and SDVOSBs.
But SEWP IV’s pool of small businesses also includes those owned by women or Alaska Natives and those that are situated in historically underutilized business zones. Agencies can hold competitions but then give preference to these other subcategories in addition to 8(a) companies.
Automated Processes, One-Day Service
The watchword at SEWP is “one business day.” Program officials strive to add products, process orders, respond to inquiries and complete other tasks within one business day. “That’s our metric for everything we do,” Woytek said.
And the program typically meets this goal, contract holders said. “If you we send in an e-mail inquiry, you can expect an answer within an hour or so,” said Andy Lausch, vice president of federal sales at CDW Government LLC, a SEWP IV contractor. “Challenges are resolved quickly.”
Officials are able to quickly review and approve orders because their processes are highly automated, said Steve Charles, co-founder of and executive vice president at immixGroup, another contract holder. Charles said SEWP IV officials have been able to automate processes such as “fair opportunity,” which requires that all contract holders be given a fair opportunity to respond to requests for quotes, because the procedures are crystal clear. “You can’t automate ambiguity,” he said. As a result, “hiccups in the system get resolved within 24 hours.”
The fast turnaround got even faster in April, when SEWP IV added a chat feature that enables contractors and customers to communicate live with the SEWP program office via instant messaging. Three to four customers already use the chat tool each day. The program office is also using a commercial tool to track questions so that it builds a knowledge base to provide comprehensive answers to frequently asked questions.
Interestingly, Woytek implemented a chat function for SEWP nearly 10 years ago but withdrew it because chat tools at that time lacked the sophistication the program required. But she watched the developing technology and implemented the current tool after her own experience and some additional research showed that a chat tool could provide the level of service she demanded. Woytek said she is watching the new application closely. “It appears to be working even better than we hoped with regard to customer interaction and service,” she said.
SEWP IV’s automated services also include a Request for Quote tool that allows procurement officials to send their requirements online. SEWP officials review the returned quotes from contractors and, after approving them, send them to agency customers with documentation verifying that the order is within the contract’s scope and properly priced and that contractors received a fair opportunity to bid. The SEWP program recently added credit card ordering to the tool.
After orders have been placed, the automated tools assist with reporting, tracking and communication to ensure that customers obtain the products and solutions in a timely manner and that problems are resolved within one business day. Contractors’ performance is also monitored by an online Program Performance system with ratings in performance categories such as customer satisfaction and adherence to the contract. In addition, the SEWP IV program office publishes the average delivery time for each contract holder. All of this information is available on the SEWP IV website.
With contractor performance publicly displayed, companies are working to keep their ratings at “excellent” or “very good.” This is not surprising to Woytek. “One of the reasons we selected these companies for SEWP IV was because they rated highly on past performance. We expected them to be good,” she said.
SEWP IV Recognized for Customer Focus
How committed are SEWP IV officials to processing purchase orders within one day? When federal agencies flood the SEWP IV office with end-of-the-fiscal-year purchases each September, SEWP officials extend their hours to meet their self-imposed 24-hour goal.
“On September 30, we’re here until midnight or until the last delivery order gets processed that day,” said Joanne Woytek, SEWP IV program manager, adding that her staff once processed 800 orders in one day. “Everyone in the office pitches in and helps out.”
This commitment to customers has not gone unnoticed. Washington Technology last year called the SEWP program “the gold standard for customer service,” and named SEWP IV as one of nine contracts that have changed how federal agencies buy technology. “The managers running the contract see both agencies and their contractors as customers,” Washington Technology said. “The focus on service has helped SEWP survive and thrive into its fourth generation.”
Similarly, in a survey of 160 federal IT and procurement professionals by MeriTalk, SEWP IV was named as the “Federal IT King of the Contracts.” SEWP IV was the top rated federal contracting vehicle with a 93 percent approval rating from survey participants. SEWP IV’s approval rating was 7 percentage points higher than the second-ranked contracting vehicle, the General Service Administration’s 8(a) Stars program.
Among their top recommendations, survey respondents said that contracting vehicles should provide more transparency into the past performance of their contract holders. SEWP IV does precisely that with its online performance rating system.
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