USPTO CIO: Pace of tech change continues to pose challenges for agencies acquiring IT services

Composed by

John Hewitt Jones
Jun 30, 2022 | FEDSCOOP

Maintaining up with speedily evolving industrial technologies remains a big obstacle for federal companies buying IT expert services, according to the chief data officer of the U.S. Patent and Trademarks Office.

Talking with FedScoop, Jamie Holcombe reported departments continue to wrestle with creating IT contracts that balance the will need to get new technology as rapidly as probable whilst also steering clear of seller lock-in.

“[H]ow simple is it to convey in [new technology] from an rising technologies position of view? If it is not done inside of 90 times, never speak about suitable? You simply cannot spend decades, because by the time you’re putting something in, it is been overlaid with one thing else,” Holcombe said.

He added: “[You’re wrong] if you are not producing your contracts for faults and omissions. If you’re not producing your contracts to be altered in the foreseeable future, you’re also erroneous.”

Holcombe spoke with FedScoop immediately after the agency earlier this month agreed to a protected access service edge (SASE) contract with technologies vendor Netskope. The new contract was awarded utilizing the NASA SEWP governmentwide acquisition contract and is the very first these types of agreement to be agreed on by a federal company.

Safe entry support edge is a framework for network architecture that provides cloud-native safety technologies jointly with extensive location community capabilities to connect end users and techniques. The deal could be value $4 million and could final up to 19 months.

Holcombe additional that making use of substitute acquisition pathways such as governmentwide acquisition deal (GWAC) autos can often be the most successful selection for bringing solutions to authorities in a way that can be tailored as mission needs improve.

One particular of Holcombe’s 1st moves right after his appointment as CIO in 2019 was to press the agency to use a lot more GWACs for IT services acquisition motor vehicles, which can permit departments to receive bigger value for cash by using the acquiring power of several agencies when negotiating with distributors.