Transforming Government: Creating the New Defense Procurement System

This report focuses on the government leaders within the Pentagon and the White House who transformed the weapons procurement process from a rule-bound, inflexible, and inefficient system to a more subjective, cost-effective, and innovative public acquisition process. The study seeks to discover how these public sector leaders injected private sector business methodologies into the traditional federal bureaucracy and offers an illustration of how this government team exemplified leading widespread change and instilling innovation. Organizational Transformation

A Vision of the Government as a World-Class Buyer: Major Procurement Issues for the Coming Decade

This report includes an analysis of the key issues facing government procurement and the steps that must be taken to address those issues. The study describes a "vision" of the government's procurement process at the end of the decade and how to efficiently and effectively transition to this "vision." Contracting

 

Government Management of Information Mega-Technology: Lessons from the Internal Revenue Service’s Tax Systems Modernization

This report provides a history of computer modernization efforts by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), beginning with the initial Tax Systems Modernization project and ending with the current initiative. The study reviews the many hurdles faced by the IRS, highlighting those obstacles related to legislative constraints, bureaucratic entanglements, political complexities, civil service restrictions, and contracting and procurement requirements. Innovation

 

Six Practical Steps to Improve Contracting

The IBM Center and George Mason University co-sponsored a series of breakfast seminars over the course of 2008 with a series of acquisition experts who constituted the Acquisition Reform Working Group. They believed that whoever won the election, contracting issues would be on the front burner. With the passage of the Stimulus Bill, having an effective federal contracting function will be critical to the success of the Bill.

Innovation in E-Procurement: The Italian Experience

Italy's new public procurement system, created through Consip--a public company owned by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance--is the focus of this report. Consip created a new information technology platform and new operational procedures for public acquisitions that included an electronic catalog, online auctions, and an electronic marketplace. Working as a public company, Consip was designed to minimize red tape, recruit a highly educated workforce, and be more responsive to clients.

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