Attention Web Site Shoppers

hen asked what's new in procurement, the San Antonio Electronic Commerce Resource Center (a Defense Logistics Agency contractor) has an interesting reply: about 444 federal Web sites. If you're a small business, I hope you have a few idle hands around to monitor the Internet round-the-clock, so good opportunities don't pass you by.

While Commerce Business Daily is still the official federal solicitation list, agency procurement shops increasingly are relying on their own Web sites to transmit procurement information.

In response to a General Accounting Office request, the center examined the practice of relying on the Internet and its effects on the federal marketplace. The center's July report, "Barriers to Federal Contracting Opportunities," concluded that it's becoming harder and harder to keep up with procurement information. What's worse, no road map exists to help you find your way. Private contractors aren't the only ones who bear this burden. Agencies that use governmentwide contract vehicles must also find the appropriate Web sites to compare terms and conditions. No uniform, user-friendly template exists for these offerings.

Scattered Far and Wide

What makes the route so confusing? According to the study, a number of things, including:

• Disparate agency contracting procedures.
• Inconsistencies in Web site design.
• Sites that don't support selected browser applications.
• Diverse standards in use among agencies.

The report cites other problems as well, including the "sheer number of procurement Web sites" and the fact that some don't even contain solicitations. Also, with agencies' varying degrees of commitment to electronic commerce, vendors are unsure whether gearing up to compete electronically is worth the investment. As a result, there is no set path in this new electronic commerce environment to take users where they want to go and, once there, no way for them to know whether they're getting all the information they need.

For those with long-standing involvement in the acquisition process, this lament is eerily familiar. When I asked Les Fettig, a procurement policy administrator for President Carter, what was his most daunting challenge in that job, his response was simple: setting up the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). Small businesses had to contend with 868 different sets of regulations across government and were foundering in the process.

While most people would not point to the FAR as the model for reform, it nevertheless brought a level of consistency to the acquisition process that has proven beneficial. Recent reforms haven't been aimed at scrapping the FAR, but rather at adding enough leeway to allow agencies to operate in a more streamlined, results-oriented fashion.

Now, the FACNET Electronic Data Interchange network, which was to do for electronic commerce what the FAR did for regulations, has fallen flat, in spite of its logic and good intentions. Agencies find the simplicity and convenience of having their own Web sites much more enticing. As FACNET falls, so too do the promises of data standardization and one-stop, instantly accessible procurement shopping across the federal government.

Getting on the Same Page

Electronic commerce is a vital ingredient in transforming the acquisition process, offering much greater ease and speed. However, the benefits of a paperless, streamlined system will fade quickly if you can't find what you are looking for.

The problem isn't technology. As the Electronic Commerce Resource Center recognizes, agencies must come up with a unified approach in order to claim the benefits that FACNET apparently can't provide.

The General Services Administration, working with Treasury, Transportation, Air Force, Interior and NASA, has come up with a plan that may meet the need. Their pilot project, the Electronic U.S. Government Business Opportunities Posting System (EPS), is built on the NASA system that procurement administrator Deidre Lee praises as a full service, one-stop shop for clients.

The system's services would include:

• E-mail registration and notification for vendors.
• Search and retrieval options.
• Direct posting by agency contract specialists of solicitations and other procurement documents.
• Electronic receipt of proposals.

  EPS would also include all Commerce Business Daily postings and be linked to the government's acquisition reform Web site.

  David Litman, Transportation Department director of acquisition and grant management, sees benefits both for his agency and across government. For Transportation, EPS would allow people unfamiliar with the department to easily find procurement opportunities in a consistent format. When other agency offerings are included, Litman sees the system as "a single source of information for the public," which was to be a main strength of FACNET.

  If EPS allows vendors to focus on just one Web site that can give them the information they need in a straightforward manner, then it's a bandwagon every agency should jump on.

  Allan V. Burman, a former Office of Federal Procurement Policy administrator, is president of Jefferson Solutions in Washington.