John Kamensky

Instead of the bike, I got a note from the postman saying it was too big for the delivery truck and I had to pick it up at the local post office.  But which one?  There were three in the local Zip Code.  Calls to each referred me to a national 1-800 number which said there was a 20-minute wait.  After 40 minutes, a very polite and very helpful person came on the line and gave me the right post office (which wasn’t one of the three).

Was I satisfied with my customer service?  Yes.  Was I satisfied with my customer experience?  No.

Professor Alfred Ho, at the University of Kansas, recently surveyed 65 mid-size and large cities to learn what is going on, on the frontline, with the use of Big Data in making decisions.  He found that Big Data has made it possible to “change the time span of a decision-making cycle by allowing real-time analysis of data to instantly inform decision-making.”  This decision-making occurs in areas as diverse as program management, strategic planning, budgeting, performance repo

DOD Acquisition Reform Panel. In an Op-Ed in Federal Times, Dee Lee and Hannah Oh write: “Repealing or amending outdated provisions that bog down the acquisition process is long overdue.

Darcie Piechowski

Background. Category Management is used by businesses and governments around the world to better manage their common purchases.  The approach involves defining a clear strategy for spending on common items or services within a category, which in turn leverages buying power across the entire category to generate a price discount, additional services that reduce total cost of ownership, and other sources of value.  As such, category management encourages individual agencies to buy from common contracting vehicles and enable purchasing decisions to be managed centrally by spec

John Kamensky

GAO on Open Innovation. GAO has released a new report that says: “We identified 7 practices that agencies can use to effectively engage the public when using open innovation tools.”

Artificial Intelligence to Benefit Government and Society.  Federal News Radioreports that the federal government spends about $1 billion a year on R&D for artificial intelligence.  The White House has put out a strategic plan to develop guidance in seven areas, such as shared data and workforce needs.

The Obama Administration first faced this dilemma when implementing the 2009 Recovery Act and launched an effort in 2011 to untangle the nest of 35 sets of permitting and review responsibilities across 18 different agencies.  It concluded, drolly, that the interplay among these different statutory requirements “is challenging and can sometimes result in uncertainty.”

OMB IT Guidance Revealed.  Federal News Radio reports: “The Office of Management and Budget has played it close to the vest when it comes to guidance on IT modernization, but it’s finally showing some of its cards. . . . In an Oct.

A new law signed into law in March requires the White House and agencies to designate government-wide and agency-level transition teams long before the election.  These teams are to help both the outgoing as well as the incoming administrations. What have been their efforts to date, and what can be expected after the election?