Modern and effective government procurement systems
 |
Learn more about Microsoft’s solutions for government. |
Building Modern Government Procurement Capabilities with Integrated Cloud Solutions
Procurement is a critical, but often overlooked, element of government operations. Indeed, it is the fuel for the government engine—delivering the products, services, and solutions that agencies and their personnel need to better serve the public.
But buying for the public sector is a complex and often frustrating job.
Requests for proposals/requests for information (RFP/RFI) is a long and drawn-out process, often dragging on for months as teams brainstorm RFP topics; solicit responses via various websites and platforms; and narrow down submissions to a manageable list.
And it gets harder from there.
Gathering proposals from prospective vendors is just the first step. Once they’re submitted, procurement teams must evaluate each one individually, respond with follow-up questions or deep-dives for more information, and communicate consistently with prospective partners and internal team members—using time-consuming and outdated manual processes.
Government procurement teams usually default to tools like Excel, SharePoint, and Outlook to score submissions and collaborate to decide which RFP best suits their needs and budget. Yet, the time-consuming nature of the process is but one facet of the mostly manual process.
Wasted time, money, and effort with manual processes
Manual processes that rely on myriad, non-integrated software and systems limit procurement teams’ visibility across the entire purchasing lifecycle. Beyond simply not knowing the status of certain tasks or understanding which team members are working on which projects, the lack of insight and transparency can have even greater—and more adverse—impact on their operating efficiency and effectiveness.
In particular, without a 360-degree view of solicitations, agency teams are challenged to control the RFP process from start to finish; understand how and where to allocate their limited funds; and determine how projects are tracking against budget.
Inefficient and ungoverned processes result in poorly managed contracts, in which delivery timelines aren’t tracked well or might be missed. Without proper oversight and approval processes for prioritizing purchases, agencies can end up wasting up to 10% of their total supplier spending on nonessential products and services.
Even worse, any disorganization in the process can lead to altered or canceled RFPs, which wastes taxpayer dollars, squanders precious budget dollars, and puts high-value projects and initiatives at risk of falling behind schedule or being rejected altogether. It also makes creating an auditable paper trail nearly impossible, which is especially dangerous for a government entity that’s required to comply with strict standards—and answer OIG investigations—in order to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse that may lead to losses in the hundreds of billions of dollars over time.
Comprehensive, cloud-based procurement solutions for transparency, visibility, and productivity
It’s time for government agencies to stop relying on home-grown or custom developed procurement systems to manage budgets and procurement processes. Instead, they should look to integrated cloud-based solutions that automate many of the most time-consuming tasks and create end-to-end visibility across the procurement function. Microsoft and its partners have pre-built cloud solutions to modernize procurement systems.
Procurement 360 from Aligned Business Solutions is an end-to-end acquisition lifecycle management solution. It is built by public procurement professionals, for public procurement professionals, on the highly scalable Microsoft Dynamics 365—for rapid configuration and personalization.
The platform helps government procurement teams become more agile, operate with greater transparency, and optimize workflows. It helps improve productivity by simplifying upfront planning, forecasting, and back-end contract closeout operations through an automated data management framework that makes information easy to locate and utilize.
Procurement 360 tracks all acquisition lifecycle communications and interactions, which are conveniently visible in familiar desktop environments (like Microsoft Outlook, various web browsers, and Microsoft SharePoint). In addition, Procurement 360 provides management with real-time dashboard reporting and data analysis that is needed to quickly identify and resolve workflow bottlenecks. The pre-built application suite from Aligned Business Solutions streamlines previously time-and resource-intensive procurement tasks in a single capability with:
- Acquisition forecasting and funding tracking
- Prime/subcontractor tracking and automated FAR/DFARS/AMS clauses and provisions
- Estimate-to-actual budget reporting
- Contract and delivery management tools
- Complete contract histories and all documents that relate to specific acquisition objectives
Buchanan & Edwards offers ForceAnalytix as a pre-built application on the Microsoft Cloud, which centralizes the management and analysis of the contract lifecycle. The comprehensive dashboard allows Contracting Officers and key stakeholders to track contracts—from the pre-solicitation phase through award, re-compete, and closeout—thereby improving budget, performance, and strategic planning capabilities. The application also centralizes the invoice processing system to streamline processing functions and approval workflows. The 100% paperless solution provides a consolidated view of the invoice process, enabling financial managers to manage costs more effectively. Because the application connects data in Excel, SQL, Oracle, and many other sources, organizations can start combining and analyzing data instantly. They can focus on what the data says, rather than importing, exporting, and manipulating data.
Purchasing and procurement has always been a tough job. But in the digital age—where citizens and government oversight both demand greater transparency and more careful distribution of taxpayer dollars—the old processes for purchasing products and services in the public sector no longer work. Modern procurement practices require modern technology solutions to cut down on wasted time, wasted money, and missed opportunities.
Contact us for more information or questions.
