A new cloud-based, shared-service contract writing and administration system is being launched by the General Services Administration’s Common Acquisition Platform (CAP) program to offer a turnkey, comprehensive solution for federal agencies.
The CAP Contract Writing System-as-a-Service (CWSS) will guide contracting and program offices through the contract process from planning and requisition creation to solicitation publishing, award, and closeout. CWSS will follow a workflow process methodology, providing real-time notifications of both work in progress and metrics as actions progress through lifecycle states, all while GSA handles security accreditation, ongoing operations, and maintenance.
The CAP CWSS is anticipated to be available by the third quarter of fiscal 2017 via interagency agreements with the GSA and will offer a “kickoff-to-closeout” process guide and provide progress and metrics notifications throughout the acquisition’s life cycle.
Benefits advertised include tiered volume discounts based on usage levels; an established fee structure to develop interfaces around customized business process workflows and individual agency financial systems; a firm, fixed-price SaaS model; and compatibility with financial management guidelines, integration with Integrated Award Environment systems and compliance with emerging federal procurement data standards.
“Offering CWSS as a shared service to federal agencies is another step forward in GSA’s mission to provide innovative acquisition solutions that reduce costs and deliver a more efficient contracting process for government,” said Federal Acquisition Service Deputy Commissioner Kevin Youel Page in a news release. “As a CAP initiative, CWSS fits into a broader, strategic, government-wide ‘buy-as-one’ approach to acquisition.”
GSA, which is solely responsible for service provisions under agreement with Distributed Solutions Inc. of Reston, Virginia, will handle security accreditation as well as ongoing operations and maintenance of CWSS.
I feel like I need to put in my two cents’ worth on this. In my 32 years in Federal contracting, I used over 15 different contract writing systems. Some were developed within the contracting agency and some were developed by the agency and the newest ones were developed by contractors. And none of them were really any good. They would work for simple, non-complex contracts but became nightmares if you had a very high dollar, complex contract funded by multiple agencies. I always said that it was evident that none of the developers of the contract writing systems ever actually talked to the folks that would be using them!
So is buying a Contract Writing System as a Service the answer? I’ll have to check in a year or so once agencies have started using this and see what they say.