New Technologies for Modernizing the Government Procurement Process

Long procurement lead times are one of the biggest problems in acquisitions at federal agencies. Extended lead times cause:

• Delays in delivering critical services and implementing important projects

• Increased costs

• Missed opportunities for innovation by making it difficult for new and smaller businesses to compete

Streamlining the federal procurement process not only enhances operational readiness and agility but also fosters fair competition and an inclusive marketplace, leading to better use of taxpayer dollars.

Improving the federal government procurement process—speeding it up and making it more agile, to be precise—has been a topic of interest for years. Government contracting professionals and program offices have long grappled with:

• Clunky technology with unfriendly user interfaces

• Multiple, siloed systems serving different parts of the buying process 

• Manual, paper-based processes

• Lack of standardization and customizability

• Difficulty communicating with stakeholders

• Understaffed teams and difficulty attracting new employees  

High-code, purpose-built applications are not ideal for government procurement. They are rigid, slow to modernize, and costly to change—hallmarks of the legacy systems that frustrate organizations today. They also have trouble integrating with systems they haven’t integrated with before. This is an issue in government procurement, where many agency-specific systems need to connect to enable a seamless, end-to-end workflow.

There is a better way. Read below about three innovative technologies that are transforming government procurement.

Innovative technologies are revolutionizing the private sector. And many of them can be effectively applied to government procurement applications to bring them into the 21st century. These advancements hold the potential to significantly improve how government organizations manage and execute their procurement and administrative processes:

Artificial intelligence can streamline government procurement by taking over many laborious tasks like writing evaluation panel reports and selecting contract clauses—speeding up procurements, reducing errors, and improving the employee experience.

Generative AI can create documents, such as statements of work (SOWs) and RFIs, based on user-provided content. While humans need to review and complete the documents, the AI-generated documents provide good initial drafts that can save hours of work.

AI can easily find and extract data elements from unstructured content, such as previous contract documents, to process new work more efficiently. Each contract is often structured with different fields, sections, and layouts, making it time-consuming to manually locate and extract the data you need. AI can take care of this automatically.

AI is good at summarizing large amounts of content, such as condensing a vendor’s RFI response to quickly see if a vendor is a good fit for the procurement. It can also group like content (such as similar vendor queries) and automatically file documents in the right folders.

A new market research and requirements gathering tool called ProcureSight uses AI to find relevant past procurements on multiple government websites and extract valuable insights to inform new procurements.

Switching between multiple, disjointed systems to complete acquisition work leads to data fragmentation, making it harder to access, manage, and use information efficiently. Such swivel-chairing between screens is no longer acceptable in modern applications.

A data fabric unifies data from different systems, without complicated development or a long development period. Data fabric bridges the gaps between the program office and contracting staff and other offices, alleviating the pain point of having siloed systems and data.

Bringing legacy systems into a single view raises operational efficiency, saves costs, improves data management, and results in a more agile and adaptable technology environment, which supports future growth and innovation. A seamless experience across applications means happier users and higher adoption rates.

Low-code platforms allow developers to build applications using visual interfaces, prebuilt templates, and drag-and-drop functionality, dramatically reducing the time and expertise required to create robust, functional software. This not only speeds up the development process but also enables government agencies to quickly adapt to changing requirements, implement updates, and address emerging challenges without the need for extensive re-coding. And low-code applications integrate with existing systems, enabling incremental deployment.

Built-in automation technologies like robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI),  and business rules simplify even the most complex processes. This combination streamlines repetitive tasks, reduces human error, and improves overall efficiency, freeing up valuable resources to focus on more strategic activities. 

The intuitive user interface of low-code applications enables new users to get up to speed quickly, which is especially important as younger, less experienced people enter the workforce.

Innovative technologies can play a crucial role in streamlining and unifying procurement processes, reducing inefficiencies, and enhancing collaboration among stakeholders.

• AI can automate routine tasks and provide predictive insights, enabling teams to make smarter, faster decisions. 

• Data fabric technology ensures seamless data integration and accessibility, breaking down silos and fostering better communication. 

• Low-code automation simplifies and accelerates the development of user-friendly applications, allowing for greater standardization and adaptability while minimizing the need for extensive technical expertise. 

Together, these technologies not only modernize procurement but also create a more agile, efficient, and attractive environment for procurement professionals.