Emily Murphy: GSA’s Future Initiatives Will Build on Schedule Consolidation Plans

Emily Murphy, administrator of the General Services Administration and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, has said that the agency’s plan to consolidate multiple-award schedules is “definitely foundational” to future reforms the agency intends to enact. In an interview with Federal Times published Thursday, Murphy noted that the move will reduce the amount of special item numbers and help the agency better catalog data and process analytics. 

“All sorts of goodness is going to come from this consolidation, as well as really giving us a chance to leverage our workforce in a very different way, use technology better, so we can implement things like robotic process automation,” she said. The consolidation will improve agencies’ buying capacity and help small and emerging businesses better integrate into GSA’s schedules, she added.

Alan Thomas, commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, said the agency’s efforts to establish an e-commerce platform for purchases below $10,000 will remove stringent regulatory barriers and help small buisinesses gain opportunities with the government.

“We are involving the workforce in the change; and in many cases, relying on them to help us drive that change,” he noted.