John Kamensky

Background. Category Management is used by businesses and governments around the world to better manage their common purchases.  The approach involves defining a clear strategy for spending on common items or services within a category, which in turn leverages buying power across the entire category to generate a price discount, additional services that reduce total cost of ownership, and other sources of value.  As such, category management encourages individual agencies to buy from common contracting vehicles and enable purchasing decisions to be managed centrally by spec

John Kamensky

GAO on Open Innovation. GAO has released a new report that says: “We identified 7 practices that agencies can use to effectively engage the public when using open innovation tools.”

Artificial Intelligence to Benefit Government and Society.  Federal News Radioreports that the federal government spends about $1 billion a year on R&D for artificial intelligence.  The White House has put out a strategic plan to develop guidance in seven areas, such as shared data and workforce needs.

The Obama Administration first faced this dilemma when implementing the 2009 Recovery Act and launched an effort in 2011 to untangle the nest of 35 sets of permitting and review responsibilities across 18 different agencies.  It concluded, drolly, that the interplay among these different statutory requirements “is challenging and can sometimes result in uncertainty.”

OMB IT Guidance Revealed.  Federal News Radio reports: “The Office of Management and Budget has played it close to the vest when it comes to guidance on IT modernization, but it’s finally showing some of its cards. . . . In an Oct.

A new law signed into law in March requires the White House and agencies to designate government-wide and agency-level transition teams long before the election.  These teams are to help both the outgoing as well as the incoming administrations. What have been their efforts to date, and what can be expected after the election?

In 1996, Congress mandated the Defense Department to conduct a “quadrennial defense review” (QDR) of plausible future national security scenarios and to assess the effectiveness of different mixes of resources in addressing these scenarios.  These reviews – looking 15 to 20 years into the future -- are conducted every four years to inform Defense strategic efforts. 

Yes, the federal government launched a shared payroll services operation in 1973 – the National Finance Center – in the Department of Agriculture.  Initially, it served only Agriculture agencies.  Today, it provides payroll services and more for more than 650,000 federal employees in 170 agencies.

John Kamensky

John Kamensky