Washington Headquarters Services (WHS) is the designated support and service provider of human resources, facilities, resource management, contracting, personnel security, research, equal employment opportunity, transportation, and executive services for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the Military Departments, other select DoD Components in the National Capital Region and beyond, Congress, and the White House.
Business problem
WHS was using several applications to support the requirements development process when creating procurements for the organizations they serve. But despite their best efforts, the disjointed tools resulted in inefficiencies, a lack of transparency, and collaboration roadblocks.
WHS struggled to manage workloads, improve accountability, and work with acquisition partners in small business and finance. And in some cases—like their work with Defense agencies—they could not meet important requirements like auditability or compliance with US Department of Defense (DoD) federal records management standards.
Appian Solution
To accelerate the acquisition lifecycle, WHS developed the Acquisition Modernization Initiative (AMI), an IL5-authorized business process automation and management platform based on the Appian Requirements Management solution. AMI supports the pre-award portion of the acquisition lifecycle by:
● Creating required acquisition package documents
● Establishing automation to align funding with requirements
● Facilitating reviews and approvals
● Enabling seamless workflows with small business partners
● Providing visible workload management for all stakeholders
● Fostering frequent communication and collaboration
● Generating reports
In the first 10 months, the AMI system had 1,128 users and handled 4,420 requirements. WHS has used the solution to improve its procurement processes and achieve a calmer fiscal year-end with:
● More collaborative contract file assembly
● More accurate data entry
● Better data visibility and actionability
● Unprecedented workload management capabilities
● Improved records management integrity
