Integrated Award Environment Overview

Eric Ferraro, Assistant Commissioner

Integrated Award Environment

U.S. General Services Administration

May 10, 2016

GSA Federal Acquisition Training Symposium

2

Today’s Agenda

IAE Overview

Using Our Systems

Modernization Effort

What’s Next

3

What is IAE?

Presidential E-Government Initiative managed by the

General Services Administration (GSA). The IAE uses

innovative processes and technologies to improve

systems and operations for those who award, administer,

or receive Federal financial assistance (i.e., grants, loans),

contracts, and intergovernmental transactions.

4

What does IAE do?

• Operate and maintain systems for government-wide use

• Centralize reporting and tracking for all federal

government contracts and assistance

• Improve transparency and efficiency of acquisition

and assistance processes

• Consolidate and modernize these systems to further

improve efficiency and functionality of federal award

management

• Leverage innovative technical solutions

• Implement best practices in user experience and

design

5

IAE Scope

• The IAE systems have at least 3.6 million users; in

SAM alone, there are 1.8 million entity records of

which 548,000 are active registrants

• More than $987 billion in federal assistance and

awards across 13.3 million transactions reported in

IAE systems

• More than 500 million hits or page views per month

across IAE’s systems, including an average of almost

1.25 million searches per week in SAM alone

*FY15 statistics

6

Compliance Matters

Use of our systems mandated by the FAR

Policy changes implemented via system updates

Takes out the guesswork of interpreting complicated

requirements

7

It Starts with SAM

FREE registration for entities interested in receiving

contracts and financial assistance

Representations and Certifications

Suspensions and Debarments (exclusions)

But really, it’s free!

8

What You Need to Register

9

Why Do We Collect This Information?

To prevent fraud and abuse

To make payment more efficient

10

Searching for Opportunities

Listing of opportunities over $25,000

Government users can post, manage, and make

awards

Vendors can search, monitor, and retrieve opportunities

Also posts procurement related notices (sources

sought, award notices, etc.)

11

IAE’s Other Systems Federal assistance

Reporting (past performance,

subaward, and procurements)

Wage determination

12

The Federal Service Desk

Hours of Operation

Monday - Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET

U.S. Calls: 866-606-8220

International Calls: 334-206-7828

Live Web Chat

Webform

Telephone

Call Back

13

Updates to our Current Systems

Policy, technical, and usability improvements

Quarterly updates

14

IAE Modernization Strategy

15

IAE Modernization Strategy

• Create a single, foundational Common Services

Platform (in the cloud) that allows faster delivery of new software,

cost savings,

shared security,

increased software quality, and

data integration across IAE systems

• Build user-experience driven applications on that

platform Allows IAE to focus on business needs rather than “plumbing”

in the platform

Can prototype working software with our users more frequently

16

IAE Modernization Strategy

Modernized Environment

will be a “one stop shop”

at SAM.gov Single sign-on

Unified, built in security

Open data

APIs

Standardized authentication and role

processes

Standardized tools and business rules

“Apps” for government-

wide award functions

17

User Experience at IAE

User Experience (UX) is having a deep understanding

of users:

What they need

What they value

Abilities

Limitations

UX is part of IAE’s Architectural Principles:

“Provide an effective user experience for all stakeholders”

18

It matters...

WHO IS THE AWARD

ENVIRONMENT FOR?

Policy that serves the Public People who use the system

19

It's is more than skin deep

WHAT DOES UX MEAN AT IAE?

User

Experience useful

desirable usable

valuable

credible

accessible findable

Pragmatic

Hedonic

Drawing is a combination of models by Marc Hassenzahl and Peter Morville

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/03/why-user-experience-cannot-be-designed/

http://semanticstudios.com/user_experience_design/

20

Over 500 People

WHO HAVE WE TALKED TO?

eSRS

FSRS

CFDA

WDOL

FedBizOps

FPDS-NG

Veteran Owned Businesses

Contracting Officers State

Governments Congressional

Staffers Labor Advisors

Compliance Oversight Large

Businesses Universities Foreign

Contracting COs Policy Makers

System Administrators Business

Developers Labor Unions Grants

Officers Agency Leaders

21

The

Ground

Rules

We asked people

to

THINK

BIG and they did

SH

AR

ED

D

AT

A

NO

LIMITATIONS

22

What did we hear?

Search results should include

hover-over explanations of

terms like 'synopsis' and

'sole-source justification' in

plain language with a link to

the relevant FAR

Enhance posting standards

for agencies creating

notices to lead to more

clear, findable and valuable

solicitations and RFIs (yes

we're working with policy

and contracting folks to

enhance the standards

within policy)

Re-write FAQs related to

Recovery Act and Small

Business

Opportunities and other

policy-related aspects of

federal business opportunities

so they are in plain language

Add search filters that have

been requested by all

personas so they can

analyze the data in a

meaningful

way connecting the data in

FBO with FPDS to decrease

reporting burden

23

What did

we hear?

We went deeper into some things we knew

had to change

Single sign on

More effective search and filtering

Better reporting – standard and ad-

hoc reports

Easy export – standard data

formats, high volumes, web

services

Complete and reliable data

More modern and intuitive user

interface

24

What does this mean?

25

What’s Next

Launch of transition.SAM.gov

User testing begins in summer 2016

Continued user engagement and integration of system

functionality

26

Get Involved!

Join our Interact community

https://interact.gsa.gov/group/integrated-award-

environment

-iae-industry-community

Follow us on GitHub

http://gsa.github.io/openIAE/

Get help from the Federal Service Desk at FSD.gov

Contact us at IAEOutreach@gsa.gov

27

Questions?