Michael Wooten, administrator of the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Federal Procurement Policy, said his office is working to achieve frictionless acquisition in an effort to reduce complexity and address the challenges facing agencies and contractors when it comes to the procurement of goods and services, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.
"We are really focused on reducing the time between when a person conjures up a need and when they get what they want," Wooten told the network in an interview. “We think the opportunities for friction are significant because of the scale and scope of the federal acquisition system, the complexity of our requirements can be mind boggling when you look at some of the systems under development, whether it’s the Defense or Energy departments or whomever, and then the myriad of systems and processes that support this.”
Frictionless acquisition is one of the cross-agency goals under the President’s Management Agenda and promotes process improvement, modernizes the collection and analysis of acquisition data and assists acquisition professionals as they work to improve customer service and mission support by leveraging technological advancements.
“We need to look at frictionless acquisition as a mindset that helps us do just-in-time delivery for commercial items when just-in-time is possible, and manage customer expectations when just-in-time is not possible,” Wooten said. "The notion of frictionless acquisition has bloomed and expanded to reducing friction among all stakeholder interactions."