Web portal provides procurement advice

Acquisition Center of Excellence

A new online resource launched last week will let agencies share acquisition best practices, and it will offer policy guidelines, tools, and education and training opportunities.

The Acquisition Center of Excellence (ACE) for Services is a Web portal designed by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, the Defense Acquisition University and the Federal Acquisition Institute.

Civilian agencies, vendors, associations and other organizations also collaborated to create the center.

The portal is an example of how government officials are working to meet the Bush administration's challenge to use technology to the advantage of government and deliver services while obeying procurement rules, said Karl Reichelt, the General Services Administration's acting chief acquisition officer.

It also dovetails with the Get It Right initiative, he said.

"Under Administrator [Stephen] Perry's leadership, GSA has developed the

Get It Right program to deliver excellence in acquisition," he said. "The Acquisition Center of Excellence for Services Web

site offers the public and private acquisition communities multiple ways to get

it right through a one-stop portal of

information, best practices, training and policy."

The value of the site will continue

to grow as it matures, said Alan Chvotkin, senior vice president and general counsel at the Professional Services Council.

Council officials serve on the ACE steering committee.

"This is the first step, and it's only a first step in a lengthy process." he said. "This is a Web-based tool that will be available to both government and industry, but it is fairly passive. The secret is going to be in keeping the information current and accurate, and in expanding the resources. We're happy to be here. We're not going to stop here."

Chvotkin expects agency officials to submit reports and best practices based on their experiences.

"Initially, it is a gathering site for information that already exists," he said. "Over time, we hope it will [include] a collection of unique information or original content."

The site will soon have live help available, too, said Julia Wise, a procurement analyst at OFPP and one of the site's managers. Users will be able to submit acquisition questions, which OFPP employees would then answer.

Phil Kiviat, a partner with Guerra, Kiviat, Flyzik and Associates, said officials will have to work diligently to ensure that information offered through the site is current and accurate. The acquisition environment can change quickly, he said, so real-time interaction is better than archived information.

"If they use the technology right, it can become a ...collaboration-encouraging tool," he said. "People will get value out of it, and they'll use it. If it's an ivory-tower center of excellence, then it won't succeed."