Federal procurement officials will lay the building blocks for governmentwide electronic commerce over the next year, a new set of White House reports says.
The reports lay out the Clinton administration's plan to use electronic commerce to speed up the procurement process and make buying products and services less expensive.
"Agencies uniformly recognize the benefit EC offers to enable improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of the acquisition and related processes," said one report, "An Assessment of Current EC Activity in Procurement." A companion report, "Electronic Commerce for Buyers and Sellers," said agencies will develop electronic commerce strategic plans in the coming year, start using digital signatures for digital transactions and begin using smart cards by the year 2000.
Until recently, most advances in electronic commerce have been developed independently in various parts of the government. The General Services Administration, for example, has been running an online ordering system, GSA Advantage! since 1995. The National Institutes of Health created a database of past performance information on federal contractors in 1996 that is now used by more than 2,000 people in 30 federal agencies. And NASA runs its own online service announcing solicitations and award notices.
Now the President's Management Council, which sponsored the new reports, is offering governmentwide guidance on electronic commerce. The council's reports describe performance measures and project management guidelines for procurement officials to follow.
A number of e-commerce deadlines are approaching, the report notes. By Jan. 1, 1999, agencies are required to use electronic funds transfer for all of their payments. In the first quarter of fiscal 1998, the government made 65 percent of its payments electronically. By 2000 the administration would like to see government buyers use charge cards for 90 percent of purchases under $2,500; in fiscal 1997 charge cards accounted for 55 percent of such purchases. The Defense Department wants to make the major weapons systems acquisition process completely paperless by 2000.
"I really see the federal government conducting most of its business over the Internet in the future," said Rich Kellett, division director for emerging IT policy applications at GSA's Office of Governmentwide Policy. "Electronic commerce is becoming an integral part of achieving the mission of agencies."
The reports are available at the President's Management Council Electronic Processes Initiatives Committee's Web site.
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