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    "title" : "Buying Power: New Labs Will Foster Innovation in Government Acquisition |Digital.gov",
    "description": "Buying Power: New Labs Will Foster Innovation in Government Acquisition",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2016/03/24/buying-power-new-labs-will-foster-innovation-in-government-acquisition/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"Buying Power: New Labs Will Foster Innovation in Government Acquisition","summary" : "The slow, tedious federal acquisition process has long been the butt of jokes in the private sector. If the government had wanted to buy the original Nintendo, one might say, it would have all the paperwork in place by the time the rest of the world had moved on to the XBox. But that culture","date" : "2016-03-24T10:00:31-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"kelly-olson" : "Kelly Olson"},"topics" : {
        
            "challenges-and-prize-competitions" : "Challenges and prize competitions"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2016-03-24-buying-power-new-labs-will-foster-innovation-in-government-acquisition.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2016/03/2016-03-24-buying-power-new-labs-will-foster-innovation-in-government-acquisition.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2016/03/2016-03-24-buying-power-new-labs-will-foster-innovation-in-government-acquisition.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2016/03/2016-03-24-buying-power-new-labs-will-foster-innovation-in-government-acquisition.md","slug" : "buying-power-new-labs-will-foster-innovation-in-government-acquisition","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2016/03/24/buying-power-new-labs-will-foster-innovation-in-government-acquisition/","content" :"\u003cp\u003eThe slow, tedious federal acquisition process has long been the butt of jokes in the private sector.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf the government had wanted to buy the original Nintendo, one might say, it would have all the paperwork in place by the time the rest of the world had moved on to the XBox. \u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2016/03/600-x-400-People-putting-the-pieces-together-concept-DigtialStorm-iStock-Thinkstock-473511946.jpg\"\n    alt=\"People putting the pieces together concept\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut that culture is changing, thanks in no small part to many of the efforts first featured here on DigitalGov.gov. And now, federal agencies have even more reasons to improve the way they do business, with continued support directly from the top.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLast week, the White House announced an \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/03/09/fostering-culture-innovation-across-government-through-acquisition-innovation-labs\"\u003einitiative\u003c/a\u003e to establish Acquisition Innovation Labs at each agency to promote fresh and innovative approaches to procurement.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe labs will help with a variety of activities, including the testing of new and improved practices. As important, agencies can use their labs as a place to share information across areas of expertise, including program, acquisition, finance, legal and IT.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe White House is asking agencies to pick an acquisition innovation advocate, or AIA, by the end of March. This will be someone who can lead the charge in testing new ideas and adopting more effective practices.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAgencies should aim to have to their labs (or similar mechanisms) in place by May 2.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn Office of Management and Budget (OMB) \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/procurement/memo/acquisition-innovation-labs-and-pilot-for-digital-acquisition-innovation-lab-memorandum.pdf\"\u003ememo\u003c/a\u003e sent to chief acquisition officers, senior procurement executives and chief information officers details the ways these labs can be used to create a more effective government acquisition experience.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePay close attention to the attachments, which start on Page 7. That’s where you’ll find specific examples of how agencies have applied newfangled techniques in the acquisition process. \u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/07/600-x-400-Innovation-yuriz-iStock-Thinkstock-477656224.jpg\"\n    alt=\"The word Innovation on a chalkboard, with a stop watch for the letter o.\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome agencies used a method you read a lot about on this blog: They issued a challenge. A prize competition allows agencies to crowdsource solutions to their problems and pay only for results.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCase in point: OMB and the U.S. Digital Service used \u003ca href=\"https://www.challenge.gov/list/\"\u003eChallenge.gov\u003c/a\u003e to offer $360,000 in prizes for developing the best training for digital acquisition professionals. The winning team came up with a six-month course to teach professionals how to buy IT software and other digital services. The first class will graduate from the program next month, less than a year from when the challenge was announced.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome agencies have already seen an impact from setting up labs.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Chief Technology Officer launched an acquisition innovation lab in 2014. Within months, the agency had had merged several legacy systems into a central Web content management system.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter the Department of Homeland Security launched its lab, it cut procurement lead time by more than half, for the EINSTEIN program, to protect federal agencies from cyberattacks.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe new labs initiative emphasizes improving IT investments like EINSTEIN and is just the latest in a string of efforts tied to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/strategy_for_american_innovation_october_2015.pdf\"\u003eStrategy for American Innovation\u003c/a\u003e. Issued last October, the third version of the strategy outlined a variety of ways the government can improve services for the American people through a combination of talent, technology and fresh ideas.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“It should be as easy and intuitive for American citizens and businesses to engage with government services online as it is for them to conduct online transactions with the most IT-savvy businesses,” the strategy states.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe couldn’t have said it any better.\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}