GSA seeks approaches for financial management systems

The General Services Administration seeks information to develop testing and evaluation strategies related to selecting commercial shared-service providers for the Financial Management Line of Business consolidation initiative. The testing strategies would ensure that financial management systems are implemented efficiently and meet core system and agency-defined requirements.The strategies would be used to assess the financial software selection and evaluate the capabilities and proposed applications of the shared-service provider, GSA said in a request for information posted Aug. 27. Responses are due Sept. 21.The initiative aims to establish a framework for financial management solutions that are efficient and improve business performance while ensuring integrity in accountability, financial controls and effectiveness. GSA hopes to achieve process improvements and cost savings, standardize business processes and data elements, promote seamless data exchange among agencies, and strengthen internal controls.Agencies will compete their financial management systems among private and federal shared-service providers, which will provide information technology hosting, application management and system implementation services to agencies. Each shared-service provider will provide those services to multiple agencies using a common application to reduce the redundant approaches currently used.The migration to shared-service providers will also reduce the risks and resources needed to implement modern core financial management systems by using applications that have proven successful. Agencies that are planning to buy a new financial management system or significantly upgrade an existing system must use a shared-service provider.The long-term objective for the initiative is to standardize core financial business processes and financial data. Agencies will adopt standard business processes as they migrate to new financial management systems.GSA and the Financial Systems Integration Office recently released a governmentwide accounting approach and issued the latest version of its due-diligence checklist for federal shared-service providers under the initiative.