GSA Picks Dept of Housing and Urban Dev’t for IT Centers of Excellence Program; Emily Murphy Quoted

The General Services Administration has partnered with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help HUD modernize its information technology systems through the Centers of Excellence program.

The technology transformation services at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service will help HUD assess IT challenges and requirements through a discovery sprint and leverage the CoE model to support IT modernization efforts, GSA said Tuesday.

The Agriculture Department serves as the first “lighthouse” agency for the five CoEs.

GSA Administrator Emily Murphy said the agency will build on CoE-related work it has started at USDA to implement best practices at HUD.

“This first phase will help us identify the upgrades we need to bring our technology systems and accounting procedures into the 21st century,” said Irv Dennis, chief financial officer at HUD.

GSA issued requests for quotes in July in support of the CoE program’s second phase at USDA and plans to announce the Phase II awards in the next few weeks.