Online Business Intelligence

n January, the procurement world bid a solemn adieu to the trusted, true and utterly obsolete Commerce Business Daily, the government-printed newspaper that for 51 years had been companies' main source of information on what federal agencies were shopping for. In years past, prospective contractors had scoured the CBD, as it was commonly called, like unemployed workers searching the classified ads. Agencies posted their procurement notices in the publication faithfully.

But readership plummeted in recent years, from a high of 55,000 subscriptions in 1986 to 2,600 in 2001, as the government turned to the Web as a vehicle for advertising procurement opportunities. Vendors also used the Internet to hunt for new leads, or simply paid other companies to compile procurement notices for them. The Government Printing Office, which published the CBD, tried to revitalize it in 1996 by launching an online version called CBDNet. But that site didn't aggregate all procurement opportunities.

The time for change had arrived. On Jan. 4, as the CBD and CBDNet were officially terminated, the General Services Administration launched a new Web site called FedBizOpps.gov. It has quickly become the procurement source of record. Every agency is required to post procurement notices on the site.

FedBizOpps was recognized for acquisition excellence by this year's Business Solutions in the Public Interest Awards because of its simplicity. "One of the major reasons that we all thought it should be a winner," says Allan Burman, the former administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy and one of this year's judges, "is the effort they made at simplifying how people get information from the government-putting it in one place and getting it electronically."

Until the launch of FedBizOpps, vendors had to spend hours looking for agencies' procurement announcements and solicitations. To do so online, they had to visit hundreds of individual agency Web sites. And many agencies didn't post their procurements online. Michael Sade, procurement chief at the Commerce Department and also one of this year's judges, says FedBizOpps saves time. That's especially helpful, he says, for small vendors, who have fewer resources to spend hunting in paper documents for new business opportunities.

Burman says judges admired FedBizOpps for its growth from humble beginnings at a single agency into a massive governmentwide project. NASA officials first came up with the idea of consolidating their own purchasing process online. The agency is one of the biggest single buyers in the government, with $10 billion in spending on prime contracts in fiscal 2001. But NASA officials realized the project was a huge undertaking, even for them. They needed help funding the site, so they joined forces with GSA, says David Drabkin, GSA's deputy associate administrator for acquisition policy. GSA's Office of Governmentwide Policy and the Federal Supply Service took over the project and guided the site into its current form.

In their pitch to judges, Burman says GSA officials predicted that FedBizOpps would have a wide-ranging effect on agencies' business, because it would be a highly reliable system that the whole government could use to simplify the procurement process. Officials said the site had already registered 180,000 vendors and incorporated 23 million documents in its first year of operation. In spring 2000, in preparation for the launch, GSA officials launched a training program and taught 2,000 procurement offices how to use FedBizOpps.

Companies that register at FedBizOpps receive tailored e-mails about procurements announced in specific agencies or categories. They can search the site for solicitations by selecting from a list of agencies or entering a specific solicitation number. Notices are listed by the contracting agency and the date posted. Each notice presents a link to the full text of the solicitation. Users can search one or all agency solicitations for key words.

Sade says FedBizOpps also is a useful tool for procurement officials. They can search for information about acquisitions similar to theirs conducted at other agencies around the country. Contracting officers can contact their colleagues, whose names are listed on the notices, to get their advice and discuss challenges in constructing their acquisition efforts.

Most often, Sade says, contracting officers just want to see a document to know how a particular procurement was structured in the past. FedBizOpps archives past solicitations, so contracting officers can look over the history of a particular kind of procurement and see how its structure might have changed.

The site gives procurement executives control over the quality of solicitations, because executives can go online and see what people at the agency are posting, Sade says. He looks at documents to spot weaknesses and strengths so he can improve training and give people appropriate credit for crafting effective procurements and attracting new vendors. "In a nonobtrusive way, I can see what we're doing out there," he says.

FedBizOpps is widely used, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's easy to use. People with no familiarity with the procurement process and its unique jargon would probably be lost surfing around the site. Of course, FedBizOpps is a professional tool, intended for those who live and breathe the obscure purchasing lexicon, but Burman says the site's managers shouldn't take for granted their users' grasp of minutiae, especially as use of the site grows. "Too often, people [in government] fall into jargon and use terms that aren't all that understandable by the general public," Burman says.

Paying to keep FedBizOpps in business may be one of GSA's biggest challenges as the site evolves. "Funding is a big issue and hasn't been resolved," Drabkin says. "[The site] doesn't currently pay for itself." Officials have said it takes about $4.3 million a year to operate FedBizOpps. Agencies pay a fee for every solicitation they post. GSA agreed in the first year not to charge agencies more per posting than they paid for CBDNet, Drabkin says. Agencies end up paying about $5 per posting to use FedBizOpps.

However, Drabkin adds, many more agencies use FedBizOpps than ever used CBDNet. The number of postings in February alone exceeded CBDNet's annual rate, Drabkin says. Presumably, higher use might drive fees down. But even with its popularity, FedBizOpps has only collected $650,000 in fees this fiscal year, which is not enough to cover its operating costs, Drabkin says. GSA is considering ways to make the site self-funding. Vendors don't pay to register on the site or to receive e-mail notifications, but Drabkin says GSA might start charging them a small annual fee, which probably would not exceed $30.

GSA officials are looking to enhance FedBizOpps in several ways. One of the most significant would be creating a system to allow vendors to post bids online. Federal officials want agencies to have the capacity to receive online bids, whether through FedBizOpps or some other site. Members of the Procurement Executives Council, which includes procurement chiefs from across the government, are discussing how to do this. Sade says procurement officials who are members of the FedBizOpps users group will submit their ideas and suggestions to the council. Those users also want to implement electronic authentication tools for verifying vendors' and purchasers' identities. The Office of Management and Budget has participated in these ongoing discussions. But while a dialogue has started, no firm plans have been made on how to move into the next phase.

Drabkin says he's happy that FedBizOpps overcame the obstacles that have stalled similar efforts. "All of the agencies that came together to make this happen . . . could have kept it from happening," he says. Drabkin says the site is a testament to intergovernmental cooperation, something many agencies are trying to emulate these days with a new Homeland Security Department emerging.

Burman says FedBizOpps can serve as a model for the Bush administration's electronic government initiatives, a series of two dozen projects that aim to put government transactions online. FedBizOpps takes information from many sources and puts it in one accessible place, a model that has implications well beyond the scope of procurement.