Big Data Will Reshape Federal Procurement Policy

The use of big data in source selection decisions for contract awards is growing. But big data also is shaping acquisition policy. One of the recent Defense Department Acquisitions System performance reports began, “In God we trust; all others must bring data.”

Federal acquisition policy has been cobbled together by Congress and executive branch policy makers over the past few decades with little actual data to back up the policies they’ve written. Big data is coming to federal procurement, and it will change the way policy is made.

The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 is one reason. The law is pushing the executive branch to connect the dots among budget, contracting, finance and payment systems so that agencies more easily can track a dollar from appropriation to expenditure. Another reason is category management. This is an Obama administration push for agencies to analyze spending data and then adjust buying activities to make acquisitions more efficient and effective. A third reason is the development of better data analytics tools in the private sector.

But what kinds of data should shape the policy? In a recent paper, Emerging Policy and Practice Issues for 2016, Steven Schooner and Neal Couture of George Washington University Law School contrasted the easy-to-measure metrics such as price, schedule and performance specifications, with data on the outcome of contracts such as life-cycle cost, bang for the buck, value for money spent and customer satisfaction obtained. Some combination of these would be the best inputs for big data policymaking.

Contractors need to be thinking about big data collection in the performance of their existing contracts. But contractors also should focus on big data for long-term business development and planning purposes, because procurement policy will dictate future opportunity.

Al Krachman is a partner at Blank Rome LLP and Brian Friel is a principal at One Nation Analytics LLC.