“The Department of Veterans Affairs is trying to streamline how contractors interact with the department. Last month it announced the Pathfinder site, a new digital one-stop shop for contractors looking to work with the VA. On June 7, that website officially went live.”
“’This is a focused point of entry to selling and innovating with VA for our industry partners,’ said Michael Parrish, VA’s chief acquisition officer, in a press release. ‘It fills a gap we’ve found in the acquisition lifecycle by creating the fusion of acquisition and innovation with this intelligent system.'”
“Parrish said last month that the new Pathfinder site will help vendors that haven’t worked with VA before getting certified through SAM.gov. But the site will also pre-filter to show only VA-specific solicitations…”
“But Pathfinder isn’t the only way VA is trying to make it easier for vendors to work with them. Worthington said VA is trying to build a culture of transparency on the IT side, especially with vendors, in order to make it easier for them to integrate solutions. That’s evidenced in the new Lighthouse program, Worthington said.”
“Previously, he said, the team behind Lighthouse was primarily focused on vendors building third-party applications on top of VA services. For example, that might include a veteran linking their VA medical records to an approved health care app on their phone.”
“But now that team is turning its focus to internal interfaces as well…” Read the full article here.
Source: New VA portals provide simplicity, transparency to vendor interactions – By Daisy Thornton, June 13, 2022. Federal News Network.
