GSA App Enhances Government Procurements Process

When procuring products and services, the U.S. General Services Administration’s Public Building Service (PBS) recently got a bit smarter. Earlier this year it deployed a system designed to accelerate and modernize the entire procurement process, from initial request to payment and close out.

The so-called landlord for the civilian federal government, PBS acquires space for the federal government through new construction and leasing, and it serves as a caretaker for federal properties across the country. PBS owns or leases 9,624 assets, maintains an inventory of more than 370.2 million square feet of workspace for 1.1 million federal employees, and preserves more than 481 historic properties.

As such, it has a lot of procurement needs. Since its rollout in May, the Procurement Request Module (PRM) application built on Appian’s Work Platform has processed 164 PBS procurement requests covering a wide range of projects, according to Appian’s announcement of the new application deployment. The complete system is called Electronic Acquisition System Integrated, or EASi.

GSA has numerous other applications running on the Appian platform, including GSA PBS’ G-REX “Smart Leasing” service and the GSA Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) Acquisition Planning Wizard. The new application, like G-REX, was developed and deployed by Appian partner Incentive Technology Group.

The PRM application covers the request, review, approval and initiation of goods and services procurement. Each request becomes its own record, providing a consolidated view of relevant data from numerous enterprise systems, and a single place from which to take action on the request at any time for all users, including all related documentation and collaborations.

“PRM serves as a landmark achievement in continuous efforts to improve procurement efficiency and accountability,” Chris O’Connell, Appian vice president of federal sales, said in the announcement. “This requires a modern technology platform that automates non-value-add processes and gives decision-makers fast access to the data they need while enforcing policies and procedures.”

Over time, procurement records also will be a source for meaningful data analysis to drive further procurement business improvement, Appian says.