“The Department of Veterans Affairs is turning to industry to deliver “technology as a service” for its enterprise-wide modernization programs, emphasizing open system architecture and plug-and-play systems.”
“’There’s a couple of things that I do want to highlight that are hot off the press,’ said Michael Parrish, VA’s principal executive director of the Office of Acquisition, Logistics and Construction (OALC), during ACT-IAC’s Health Innovation Summit. ‘We have a new website … and we’re creating a fusion of acquisition and innovation together. We’re trying to look at an entire lifecycle to accelerate and change the way we do procurement and business, not only in VA, but also in government. We want to keep up with innovating at speed and be able to provide the solutions and products to our veterans and everyone else as quickly as possible.'”
“VA recently launched a new website (veteransaffairsnavigator.com) that serves as a single-entry point for innovation and selling. The site helps both large and businesses and navigate certifications. VA developed an intelligent automation tool for the site to filter solicitations. Looking ahead, VA plans to create a “future forecasting” tool to enable organizations to plan for upcoming opportunities.”
“‘Some of these game-changes I’m making are focusing on figuring out what technology is out there. Let’s get an objective. Let’s figure out where we want to be, and you will tell us how to get there,’ Parrish said. ‘On the innovation side, you go there and give us your new window to new ideas and new technologies, and that’ll help us filter and evaluate those things to be able to go from concept, to commercialization, to use inside the VA, and ultimately to a commercial product.'”
“Parrish is also leading a supply chain modernization effort to completely redesign and modernize its operations…” Read the full article here.
Source: VA Touts ‘Tech as a Service’ for its Modernization Programs – By Sarah Sybert, May 17, 2022. GovCIO.
