At NITAAC, we are not only fueling modernization across the government, we are leading by example. As one of the federal government’s top sources for ‘everything IT,’ NITAAC has taken the message of modernization to heart and is proud to launch a refreshed experience that will change how agencies acquire new technology. NITAAC’s three easy-to-use, easy-to-understand, Best in Class GWACs – CIO-SP3, CIO-SP3 Small Business, and CIO-CS – provide any agency, government-wide, with an easy and accessible method for acquiring more effective citizen service or mission delivery.

We’ve done a lot recently to improve our customers’ user experience, choice of contracting approach and overall accessibility. So, what specifically has NITAAC changed?

Reimagining Our Website

Reimagining acquisition is about creating a positive user-centric customer experience from market research through closeout. With this in mind, we made it a foremost priority to directly improve user experience at the starting point of most people’s acquisition journey – the NITAAC website.

Our newly refreshed website focuses on educating contracting officers, contract holders and small businesses that are not already on contract, by showing them how to best participate with NITAAC and get the most out of CIO-SP3, CIO-SP3 Small Business and CIO-CS.

Upon visiting the reimagined NITAAC website, the first thing you will notice is the clean look and feel. We have designed our new website with you – the user – in mind so that you can find the resources you need to get your next IT procurement off the ground and moving. To this end, we have enhanced our search capabilities for tools, templates, events and contract holders. The refreshed website will include improved tools and templates, short instructional videos, and other “quick hits” on buying to allow contracting officers to see best practices for buying federal IT.

Additionally, the website gives customers a step by step overview on everything IT procurement from issuing a Task/Delivery Order Request (TOR/DOR) to managing their procurement and selecting awardees on e-GOS, our secure online ordering system.

And because the federal workforce is becoming increasingly mobile, we have incorporated all of these changes into a flexible and responsive design that is accessible from any device so that the information you need is always at your fingertips.

Intuitive Buying Through NextGen e-GOS

Even with a sleek new website, user experience is not going to improve without improving the actual procurement process. With this in mind, we have also focused a great deal of our efforts over the past year on improving the next generation of our online customer ordering portal, e-GOS. With new ease-of-access features that complement the changes made to our website, customers are now seamlessly transitioned from the research phase all the way through the final procurement.

NextGen e-GOS contains built-in FAR guidance and walks the contracting officer through what is necessary to meet FAR Part 16 requirements. Leveraging FAR Part 16, the goal of NextGen e-GOS is to truly streamline the process; allowing federal customers to ensure that their requirement only goes to contract holders who are qualified to do the work.  

NextGen e-GOS also will offer several new enhancements.  For starters, it is operational in the cloud and will feature a new data upload feature. NextGen e-GOS is more user friendly – and mimics the user experience contracting officers are used to when shopping in their private lives. Customers will now enjoy product pictures, and can compare items, build a cart, and other features designed to personalize the buying experience. 

NextGen e-GOS also supports Best in Class requirements and provides better data reporting for our agency customers to meet FITARA guidelines, such as line-by-line analysis, quantities ordered, and payment amounts.

Best in Class GWACs: CIO-SP3, CIO-SP3 Small Business and CIO-CS

The BIC designation doesn’t just benefit the NITAAC community, it benefits the federal government, in general.  The BIC designation is awarded to contracts that consistently deliver strong results. By relying on contracts with good track records, agencies — and the federal government as a whole — can raise the baseline for the quality of acquisitions.

The BIC designation for all three of our GWACS signals to the acquisition community that NITAAC consistently demonstrates value that allows agencies to save time, money and realize speed to delivery. We also offer solutions and processes necessary to meet the federal government’s ever evolving IT requirements. Quite simply, BIC tells the federal community that agencies are getting the best in both service and spend.  Agencies can meet all their tier goals (0, 1, 2 and 3) using NITAAC BIC GWACs.

We are tremendously proud of this distinction because it’s a testament to the quality of our contract holders, contracting officers, customer service and overall team.

But, even more importantly, the designation will result in even further cost saving for our agency partners.

Democratizing Expertise with Assisted Acquisitions

If your agency would prefer even more detailed guidance throughout the acquisition process, our Assisted Acquisitions program is ready to pair you with an experienced Contracting Officer capable of helping you navigate the procurement process. Warranted acquisition professionals will work with you to determine the best course forward for your acquisition, from the market research and acquisition planning phase, all the way through administration and closeout. NITAAC Assisted Acquisitions is there for you throughout the entire procurement lifecycle.

Accept No Substitutes: Outstanding Customer Support 

Customer service is not something we take for granted at NITAAC. We've geared our operations around our customers’ needs so whether they are just beginning a solicitation and need help with research, or they’ve already placed a task or delivery order on one of our vehicles, NITAAC is committed to making sure they get answers faster, so they can keep their acquisitions on track.

From a vendor standpoint, open and frequent communications are key. For our CIO-CS contract holders, we work very hard to rapidly approve their Technology Refreshment Process (TRP) requests to add new commodities on the contract so that customers can always get what they need, when they need it.

We guarantee that TRPs will be reviewed within 72 hours, but the majority of TRPs are reviewed within 24 hours. If a contract holder or customer needs something sooner than 24 hours, we ask them to call our Customer Support Center, so we can expedite the review.

Internally, we have implemented a Salesforce CRM to ensure that we accurately, consistently and efficiently answer all customer and contract holder questions. And, we are constantly analyzing frequently asked questions to develop new training, templates, website resources, white papers, blogs, videos and other resources to support our customers and their IT missions.

Want to learn more? 

To learn more about these, and all the ways NITAAC is reimagining acquisitions, be sure to follow us on our social media channels – Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube – and our own NITAAC Solutions Showcase. Feel free to share content on your own Feeds

Link to our 2019/2020 Program Guide 

https://reader.mediawiremobile.com/OnTheFrontlines/issues/205122/viewer