GCE's Services-Oriented Architecture for GSA Procurement

Global Computer Enterprises Wins E-Government Contract from GSA

FPDS-NG Will Collect Procurement Data From Across the Federal Government in Real-Time

Gaithersburg, MD, USA. May 01, 2003.

Global Computer Enterprises (GCE) announced today [2003-05-01] that it had been awarded a $24 million dollar contract from the General Services Administration (GSA) for the development, implementation and operation of the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS-NG). The current system will be re-engineered to take advantage of new technology that will allow for millions of transactions to be recorded and reported upon in real-time, while providing tremendous cost savings to the federal government.

"This is a key victory for GCE and our partners," stated Ray Muslimani, President of GCE. "We have worked for more than a year on producing a prototype that proves that a services-oriented architecture employing web services, open standards, and XML, can be the underpinning of a federal enterprise system."

"Federal enterprise systems have hardly scratched the surface when it comes to real-time interoperability. The potential for information sharing between systems is vast, with huge implications for the nation's financial, procurement, logistics and security domains," stated Venkatesh Kalluru, Chief Technology Officer for GCE.

FPDS-NG is the first system in the Federal Government designed from the ground up with large scale integration capabilities -- it will integrate with every government procurement system in real-time. GCE's Plug & Play Integration architecture provides a sound model for interoperability between federal enterprise systems.

GCE partnered with IBM, Oracle, and Business Objects in their bid to win this contract. "We have taken a best-of breed-approach with respect to our partners," stated David Lucas, Director of Business Development for GCE. "IBM is the leading provider of hosting services, business process re-engineering, and investment in web services. Oracle provides the GSA with real application clustering, a cost-saving application server technology that allows for the scalability required of an enterprise-wide system. Business Objects is the clear market leader in providing web-based reporting tools that will transform the data collected by FPDS-NG into business intelligence."

One of the GSA's key objectives is the reduction of transaction costs from nearly $40.00 per transaction to under $1.00. "The FPDS-NG re-engineering effort is a critical e-Government initiative because the award data that it collects helps Congress and the public understand how taxpayer funds are being spent everyday by the government," said David Drabkin, Deputy Associate Administrator For Acquisition Policy. He continued, "Right now, the collection and reporting upon such spending is an expensive and time consuming process. We look forward to the benefits of a real-time, fully integrated, FPDS-NG beginning next fiscal year."

"The Government was looking for an innovative approach to make Government systems more responsive to management and to drive the cost down," said John Cochran, Senior IT Specialist for the project. "GCE offered an early stage implementation that demonstrated solutions and gives a high level of confidence in their ability to meet our requirements."

Federal procurement systems currently rely on batch interfaces to provide procurement data to the FPDS. "The timeliness, accuracy and availability of the data are areas that we are looking to dramatically improve with FPDS-NG. The technology and methodology of GCE, IBM, and our partners, will achieve unprecedented visibility into federal spending," commented David Lucas.

FPDS-NG Services from GCE

GCE will make FPDS-NG more responsive to the needs of customers through availability of "real time" on-line reports, collection of additional data for better management and support for the small business community, and incorporation of new technologies that enable contracting agencies to reduce the burden of submitting the required data.

Program goals include:

Support of the President's electronic government initiatives as part of the Integrated Acquisition Environment project; see http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/
Decreasing the time required for data collection from months to days
Collection of specific data about 13 million procurements valued at more than $2,500
Significant reduction of the cost to collect the data from $20 million/year
Providing public web access to all of the data in "real-time"
Accomplishing all program objectives using open standard internet technologies including XML and web services

The time and cost savings will be achieved by using new technologies to collect data directly from the contract writing systems increasingly used throughout the Federal Government to support contracting activities. This electronic interoperability will also allow contracting agencies to reduce or eliminate some of the manual processes required to collect and summarize information about the millions of smaller procurements.

Under this contract, GCE is responsible for creating and maintaining all aspects of the FPDS-NG. Areas of responsibility include: application hosting, reporting functionality that incorporates the latest OLAP and data mining technologies, training for users and administrators, help desk operations, real-time integration with agency procurement systems, the creation of many web services, and establishing an authoritative XML specification for procurement data.

About GCE, Inc.

GCE (www.gce2000.com) is a small business that specializes in large-scale systems integration using Oracle, Java, web services and XML technologies. Established in 1998 as a full-service government IT provider, GCE has dedicated itself to quality service and client satisfaction, becoming a leading provider of custom software development, operations and management services, and business improvement services to the federal government. We have provided customers such as Department of Transportation and Department of Homeland Security with innovative applications for enhancing their business processes, enabling them to realize cost efficiencies, provide better customer service, and introduce new business capabilities.

Contact

David Lucas
Director of Business Development
Global Computer Enterprises, Inc.
Tel: 301.921.7424
Email: dlucas@gce2000.com

[Source: http://www.gce2000.com/newspr.html]

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive.

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The current system will be re-engineered to take advantage of new technology that will allow for millions of transactions to be recorded and reported upon in real-time, while providing tremendous cost savings to the federal government. "This is a key victory for GCE and our partners," stated Ray Muslimani, President of GCE. "We have worked for more than a year on producing a prototype that proves that a services-oriented architecture employing web services, open standards, and XML, can be the underpinning of a federal enterprise system." "Federal enterprise systems have hardly scratched the surface when it comes to real-time interoperability. The potential for information sharing between systems is vast, with huge implications for the nation's financial, procurement, logistics and security domains," stated Venkatesh Kalluru, Chief Technology Officer for GCE. FPDS-NG is the first system in the Federal Government designed from the ground up with large scale integration capabilities -- it will integrate with every government procurement system in real-time. GCE's Plug & Play Integration architecture provides a sound model for interoperability between federal enterprise systems. GCE partnered with IBM, Oracle, and Business Objects in their bid to win this contract. "We have taken a best-of breed-approach with respect to our partners," stated David Lucas, Director of Business Development for GCE. "IBM is the leading provider of hosting services, business process re-engineering, and investment in web services. Oracle provides the GSA with real application clustering, a cost-saving application server technology that allows for the scalability required of an enterprise-wide system. Business Objects is the clear market leader in providing web-based reporting tools that will transform the data collected by FPDS-NG into business intelligence." One of the GSA's key objectives is the reduction of transaction costs from nearly $40.00 per transaction to under $1.00. "The FPDS-NG re-engineering effort is a critical e-Government initiative because the award data that it collects helps Congress and the public understand how taxpayer funds are being spent everyday by the government," said David Drabkin, Deputy Associate Administrator For Acquisition Policy. He continued, "Right now, the collection and reporting upon such spending is an expensive and time consuming process. We look forward to the benefits of a real-time, fully integrated, FPDS-NG beginning next fiscal year." "The Government was looking for an innovative approach to make Government systems more responsive to management and to drive the cost down," said John Cochran, Senior IT Specialist for the project. "GCE offered an early stage implementation that demonstrated solutions and gives a high level of confidence in their ability to meet our requirements." Federal procurement systems currently rely on batch interfaces to provide procurement data to the FPDS. "The timeliness, accuracy and availability of the data are areas that we are looking to dramatically improve with FPDS-NG. The technology and methodology of GCE, IBM, and our partners, will achieve unprecedented visibility into federal spending," commented David Lucas. FPDS-NG Services from GCE GCE will make FPDS-NG more responsive to the needs of customers through availability of "real time" on-line reports, collection of additional data for better management and support for the small business community, and incorporation of new technologies that enable contracting agencies to reduce the burden of submitting the required data. Program goals include: Support of the President's electronic government initiatives as part of the Integrated Acquisition Environment project; see http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/ Decreasing the time required for data collection from months to days Collection of specific data about 13 million procurements valued at more than $2,500 Significant reduction of the cost to collect the data from $20 million/year Providing public web access to all of the data in "real-time" Accomplishing all program objectives using open standard internet technologies including XML and web services The time and cost savings will be achieved by using new technologies to collect data directly from the contract writing systems increasingly used throughout the Federal Government to support contracting activities. This electronic interoperability will also allow contracting agencies to reduce or eliminate some of the manual processes required to collect and summarize information about the millions of smaller procurements. Under this contract, GCE is responsible for creating and maintaining all aspects of the FPDS-NG. Areas of responsibility include: application hosting, reporting functionality that incorporates the latest OLAP and data mining technologies, training for users and administrators, help desk operations, real-time integration with agency procurement systems, the creation of many web services, and establishing an authoritative XML specification for procurement data. About GCE, Inc. GCE (www.gce2000.com) is a small business that specializes in large-scale systems integration using Oracle, Java, web services and XML technologies. Established in 1998 as a full-service government IT provider, GCE has dedicated itself to quality service and client satisfaction, becoming a leading provider of custom software development, operations and management services, and business improvement services to the federal government. We have provided customers such as Department of Transportation and Department of Homeland Security with innovative applications for enhancing their business processes, enabling them to realize cost efficiencies, provide better customer service, and introduce new business capabilities. Contact David Lucas Director of Business Development Global Computer Enterprises, Inc. Tel: 301.921.7424 Email: dlucas@gce2000.com [Source: http://www.gce2000.com/newspr.html] Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive.