Here's a neat idea for the next time you're asking private companies to bid on a project: Talk to them face to face or get them to send you video presentations of their bids. Or how about asking vendors what's already available on the market and crafting your bid solicitation accordingly?
Here's another idea: Put end users of a product and vendors into a room together with a spending limit and let them come up with a solution that both meets user needs and stays within funding constraints. And while you're at it, why not consider posting all that acquisition information on the Internet or maybe soliciting bids on line or even negotiating whole procurements on the infobahn?
If these ideas sound crazy, they shouldn't. They're all techniques used by agencies considered acquisition innovators by the Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration. So if you're looking for acquisition inspiration, you'll find tales of agencies using the latest techniques at www.itpolicy.gsa.gov.
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