GSA Seeks Industry Feedback to Better Harness Tech Spending Data

The federal government spends upwards of $100 billion on IT each year, but it wants a better understanding of how that money is being spent and is turning to industry for help.

On Monday, the General Services Administration, in partnership with the Office of Management and Budget, released a request for information regarding “software solutions that can efficiently aggregate and analyze data across the federal enterprise.”

The agencies also want industry’s input on how best to transition to a standard set of classifications and categorizations, called the Technology Business Management taxonomy, so that technical, financial and management folks can all speak to each other clearly. Creating an open-source governmentwide Technology Business Management, or TBM, framework by 2022 was part of the President’s Management Agenda.

“Increasing transparency on IT spending will empower federal leaders to make better informed, data-driven decisions and provide greater accountability when investing taxpayer dollars on needed IT solutions,” said GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, in a statement.

The RFI hints at what kinds of technologies it’s looking for, including “capabilities to automatically ingest data from multiple, disparate sources of structured and unstructured data.” GSA is also interested in AI, robotic process automation, data mining, machine learning, comparative and predictive analytics capabilities and other innovative technologies that could “provide a standardized view of IT spending through the various layers of the TBM Taxonomy.”

“The intent of the Federal Government is not to replace any existing agency systems that capture data useful in TBM but rather to use advanced data analytical tools and services, APIs, and the TBM taxonomy to make fuller use of the data,” the RFI states.