Procurement Standard
WEB-BASED VERSION OF DOD CONTRACTING
SYSTEM SEEKS ENTERPRISEWIDE EFFICIENCY.
Seeking to dramatically streamline the only recognized departmentwide standard business system, the Department of Defense and its new Business Transformation Agency are developing a Web-based version of the Standard Procurement System (SPS).
DoD officials plan to release Increment 3 of SPS next year. When fully operational, SPS will be deployed to approximately 43,000 procurement personnel.
SPS is an automated contracting system that standardizes procurement processes across DoD. It is replacing more than 70 separate purchasing and contractmanagement applications used within the department. SPS facilitates ordering and delivery of materials, supplies and services for America’s warfighters.
The software supports contracting professionals in approximately 800 locations throughout the United States and in 15 countries. It is used in a mobile, forwarddeployed version, known as Battle Ready Contingency Contracting System (BRCCS), in support of contingency missions worldwide.
SPS has saved taxpayers an estimated $1.08 billion by reducing accounting errors, processing time and system failures. The program has also made DoD operations 70 percent more efficient by enabling faster delivery of goods to defense employees who need them.
“This program is across all services as well as other DoD organizations. It is an enterprise system that is used across DoD, not one service-specific. We have roughly 23,000 users out there today at camps, posts and stations,” said Colonel Quentin Peach, SPS program manager.
“We have two versions out in the field—4.21 and 4.22,” Peach said. “The Navy is 100 percent on 4.22, the Air Force is pretty much still on 4.21 and the Army is at 93 percent 4.22. It’s a client-server architecture that was migrating with our new release, which will come out probably next year, to a Web-based technology, 4.23.”
Release 4.21 is known as Increment 1, while 4.22 is Increment 2, and 4.23 is the highly anticipated Increment 3. Increment 2 is a client-server-based architecture. With SPS Increment 3, DoD contracting professionals can solicit, evaluate, write and award contracts from any computer with Web access.
“Part of what everyone wants to move to is to be able to use the Web to consolidate servers, bring things together, reduce the overhead of having many different locations and still get the same productivity you have today,” Peach said. “It was looked at as helping to bring this from client server to Webbased technology so that these gains could be effectively done.”
Previously housed under the Army Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems, the SPS program is currently being moved to the Defense Business Transformation Agency (BTA), which was formed last fall to provide improved warfighter support while enabling financial accountability across DoD.
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
Increment 3 is a Web-based contracting system with automated functions and remote centralized system administration. The configurable software conforms to business processes, offers PDF rendering of documents and provides increased security that allows permissions to be set at individual document level. The fully scalable architecture can handle high transaction volume and concurrent usage, and supports multiple database platforms, including Sybase, Oracle, SQL Server and IBM db2.
Collaborative development is under way for Increment 3. The Joint Requirements Board (JRB) is participating with the contractor’s design team and reviewing design documents to identify and prioritize requirements. The SPS Joint Program Management Office (JPMO) is analyzing Business Management Modernization Program requirements for product inclusion.
Peach described how the system uses business intelligence technology effectively: “The part that it uses very well is on the back end. We are the contracting writing system for the services. Once the contract is written, you are then able to gain the information of what is spent on a contract, who the contractors are, what is being bought and what the contracts are,” Peach said. “All that data can then be used to build reports and see how different things are being done.
“We’re in a commercial contract right now that was started 10 years ago. Our contract runs out in September of this year and we will be putting in place new contracts to support the products we have in the field and also for any future development,” Peach added.
SPS is also useful in contingency contracting. Whether it’s buying water to sustain allied troops in Iraq or purchasing cement to build a bridge in Cambodia, American servicemen and women worldwide need procurement support to achieve mission success. SPS plays a vital role in an increasing number of overseas operations, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bosnia, Colombia, Thailand and the Philippines.
Contingency contracting is direct contracting support to tactical and operational forces engaged in the full spectrum of armed conflict and military operations (both domestic and overseas), including war, other military operations, and disaster or emergency relief.
The first SPS “Tiger Team” arrived in Kabul, Afghanistan, in early December 2003. Their mission was to set up SPS, train users on the system to ensure top-notch support and, a month later, depart theater to do the same mission 1,400 miles away in Baghdad. Kabul marked the first time SPS was used in a true, full-scale contingency environment.
“One of our sites is in Iraq. We also have developed a handheld SF44 that allows us to move from a paper environment to an electronic environment, and the data from that is able to go directly to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service as well as to our system,” Peach said.
Peach said he anticipated that by this summer, new business opportunities will be out to the field and vendors will get the chance to apply.
“We are going through our strategy of what we are going to do and how we are going to put these contracts out,” he said. “We’re getting ready to go through a Milestone C decision. As we go through Milestone C, we will go into a sustainment,” Peach said. “There are at the BTA level other programs that will at a later date either enhance us or replace us, such as Defense Business Systems Acquisition Executive [DBSAE].”
The number of companies SPS decides to work with will depend on how the bids come in and how everything works. The philosophy is that SPS will go out with an integration contract, which could comprise many separate companies underneath that or one major company.
PLATFORM CONSOLIDATION
A key DoD objective is the consolidation of platforms. Currently, SPS supports approximately 200 operating locations with databases at each location. The goal is to consolidate those platforms into whatever number of locations they choose to scale to. Making SPS “formless” will represent a major system enhancement, say backers, since DoD will no longer be tied to forms.
Increment 3 will support DoD’s enterprise data sharing via:
Open architecture: An open application program interface will allow customizable interfaces between SPS, logistics and financial systems.
Formless contracting: A data-centric strategy will increase efficiency compared with a forms-based approach.
Archiving: This capability will manage database growth and maintenance. Server consolidation: Scalability will enable services to reduce the number of servers to realize centralized maintenance efficiencies.
In addition, Increment 3 will establish a governance structure designed to put the user first.
The Joint Requirements Board will ensure that SPS software meets the needs of DoD users. It will include representatives from each military service and many other defense agencies. The Joint Acquisition E-Business Oversight Board will have representatives from every segment of the SPS user base; senior acquisition leaders will approve requirements, validate priority and help coordinate cost and schedule.
In addition, the Acquisition Governance Board, including members from military services and participating defense agencies, will provide the department’s vision and strategic objectives for SPS to integrate with DoD’s logistics and financial communities.
COLLABORATIVE DESIGN
Increment 3 has been a huge undertaking, for both the government and for prime contractor CACI, according to Gil Guarino, executive vice president of the company’s Transformation Solutions Group. “Replacing over 70 systems and defining how to support the needs and business processes of over 43,000 ultimate users can be a daunting task.
“There are more than 5,000 unique requirements and business rules that were added to Increment 3 to enhance functionality and meet the needs of not only post, camp and station communities, but new communities like major weapons systems, inventory control points and intelligence as well,” Guarino said. “By working directly with the JRB throughout the design phases, CACI and the JRB were able to jointly refine the requirements and appropriate business logic around them to ensure that the functionality ultimately built into the product met the government’s intent and needs.
“CACI and the JRB used a collaborative design process to define and refine the requirements,” he continued. “The requirements were broken up into logical groupings and CACI drafted an initial design based on our interpretation of the requirements. Each design was then iteratively reviewed with the JRB, where they could provide insight, correct any misinterpretations and provide the end user’s perspective directly, and where we could answer questions regarding how this functionality fits into the larger system.
“When Increment 3 is ultimately deployed to the field, it will not only provide a tremendous technical upgrade from the existing client-server architecture, but also significant new functionality thanks to collaboration with the JRB. Many of the efficiency enhancements that users have been asking for in Increments 1 and 2 are now supported by Increment 3. Some of these include the formless data entry, a more user-friendly clause review process, the ability to copy information from previously created documents throughout the lifecycle, and better tracking of tasks that are assigned to users in the system,” Gaurino explained.
ENTERPRISE VIEW
A number of other companies, including Business Objects, Sybase and webMethods, also supply technology for the SPS program.
Business Objects, for example, provides an enterprise-level view of DoD acquisition data and processes in near real-time, according to Scott Dulman, worldwide director of government marketing for the company. “In addition, Business Objects gives SPS users a powerful ad-hoc reporting solution and enables system administrators to pull data from multiple systems and locations. The goal is to build a Web-based procurement system with built-in business intelligence and an architecture that allows for flexible data collection.
“When the final implementation rolls out, it will be the first time a single business process has been fully standardized across all of DoD. With SPS Increment 3, DoD procurement managers can access the procurement system from any computer with Internet access and a Web browser, using the system to solicit, analyze, generate and award contracts,” Dulman added.
SPS Increment 3 utilizes Business Objects technology in a variety of areas, including configurable software that allows procurement functions to conform to specific business processes, and rapid integration of business logic, data and processes into future reports and applications. In addition, security features allow permissions to be set at the procurement function level and individual document level, and there is continuous monitoring of the entire procurement and shipping processes.
Seeking to expedite the process of ordering and delivering supplies for defense personnel, DoD selected Sybase’s Adaptive Server Enterprise for SPS, according to Robert Laurence, vice president, public sector for Sybase.
“Previously, there were 70 separate purchasing and contract management applications, which took two and a half hours for vendors to receive purchase orders from DoD,” Laurence said. “With SPS, it now takes 10 minutes. SPS allows DoD to leverage business intelligence tools to streamline logistics, acquisition and financial management.”
Sybase has also introduced business intelligence solutions for the program, as well the mobile database, Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere.
“Working with the SPS program has been an excellent opportunity for us. It is great to be able to introduce cutting-edge technology and vision for future architecture and know we are driving improvement,” Laurence added. “Given that Sybase is the largest global enterprise software company exclusively focused on managing and mobilizing information, from the data center to the point of action, DoD is a validation of our technology. Our overall approach to working with the federal government is to assist with its ongoing initiative to effectively access and manage data.”
“Maintaining DoD’s legacy procurement system, which encompassed more than 70 distinct contract-writing systems and innumerable business processes, proved to be cost prohibitive, inefficient and time consuming,” said Tammy Janorske, director of the government business unit for webMethods. “SPS was born out of a need to replace these aging systems, and to more effectively manage the flow of goods and services across DoD. By eliminating monolithic systems and automating manual business processes, SPS serves as the technology and business process foundation necessary for the DoD to achieve its procurement goals.
“WebMethods’ technology serves as the comprehensive underlying integration backbone that powers the SPS, uniting these previously disparate systems while optimizing business processes within and between branches of the DoD,” she continued. “Through the use of webMethods’ technology, SPS can more effectively share information, as well as coordinate across multiple systems and rapidly access data.”
WebMethods’ technology provides support for a number of key industry standards and protocols, which simplifies the task of integrating with third-party systems, Janorske said. This approach produces additional cost savings and greater efficiency for the SPS program.
At the same time, the SPS program has proven to be equally visionary, such as in its ability to deploy a significant business-process-management initiative that enhances overall procurement business goals across the enterprise. ♦
