Commerce taps CACI for procurement system
The Commerce Department last week awarded CACI Inc. a blanket purchase agreement to replace outdated and disjointed department procurement systems with a single system. Under the agreement, CACI will supply its Standard Automated Contracting Systems software to manage and integrate the entire procu
The Commerce Department last week awarded CACI Inc. a blanket purchase agreement to replace outdated and disjointed department procurement systems with a single system.
Under the agreement, CACI will supply its Standard Automated Contracting Systems software to manage and integrate the entire procurement process, including initiating requisitions, issuing solicitations, and awarding and closing out contracts. It will enable the department to introduce technologies such as Internet-based purchasing and electronic commerce and eventually support paperless contracting.
Some of the procurement systems at Commerce are more than 10 years old, and each of them performs just one particular part of the overall acquisition process.
"This will be a single replacement system [that] will help the department manage the procurement function better," said Stanley Livingstone, director of the Office of Procurement at the Patent and Trademark Office and contracting officer for the BPA.
In addition, the new system will track data, such as "information on how many purchase orders there are in the department or how much business went to IBM," Livingstone said.
Commerce also will be able to easily calculate how much of its business goes to minority and small businesses.
"There is a strong return on investment built into these packages. And in the government environment, [agencies] have to focus on cost efficiencies," said David Baltaxe, an analyst at Current Analysis Inc.
The contract is worth about $11 million over the expected eight- to 10-year life of the program. CACI declined to comment on the award until vendor debriefings are completed.