Washington, D.C. - A new report calls for all government agencies to do the bulk of their purchasing electronically in just three years.
In its report, the President's Management Council's Electronic Processes Initiatives Committee, said the entire government could be converted to electronic purchasing by 2001 by using off-the-shelf software and by working with vendors to set up electronic catalogs.
The committee said that automating the 32 million annual transactions government agencies now perform with the private sector and each other would not only save money but make government more efficient.
In addition to use of existing software, the report calls for extensive use of credit-card- like purchase cards for use by government purchasing agents.
The report says converting the government to e-commerce will requires three main phases: developing overall partnerships with private vendors, to be done by the end of this year, building a high-volume, purchase-card based systems by the year 2000 and linking these systems into existing procurement systems by 2001 through such means as electronic catalogs and specialized middleware or software interfaces.
RELATED LINKS
The entire report
49-page report in PDF.
Executive summary of the report
In PDF.
Assessment of Current Electronic Commerce Activity in Procurement
Also in PDF.
Apply for your free subscription to Network World. Click here. Or get Network World delivered in PDF each week.
Request a reprint or permission to use this article.
