_posts/2016-09-19-vendors-government-strengthen-partnership-technology-industry-day.md
---
title: "Vendors and government strengthen partnership at Technology Industry Day"
authors:
- andre
tags:
- events
- general services administration
- video
- agile bpa
- micro-purchase platforms
- identity
- cloud.gov
- data act
- rfp ghostwriting
- technology transformation services
excerpt: "The Technology Transformation Service (TTS) is already absorbing the first-mover risk of introducing modern tools and techniques, but we know that only with the help of industry will this transformation be able to spread across the federal government. As we all bring agile methodologies, human-centered design, and modular design to the government, the opportunity to improve federal digital services is immense."
description: "Last week, the General Services Administration (GSA) held a Technology Industry Day to talk to industry leaders about the products and solutions developed by GSA and to hear feedback on how we can better engage industry on some of our emerging technology efforts, particularly as we’re establishing the Technology Transformation Service. We’re thrilled that more than 300 members of the technology industry in person and via the live stream were able to join us for this first step towards a closer partnership."
image: /assets/blog/industry-day/slide1.jpg
hero: false
---
Last week, the General Services Administration (GSA) held a Technology Industry Day to talk to industry leaders about the products and solutions developed by our agency and to hear feedback on how we can better engage industry. We’re thrilled that more than 300 members of the technology industry in person and via the live stream were able to join us for this first step towards a closer partnership and more open lines of communication about how we can work together to transform federal technology.
As GSA Administrator Denise Turner Roth said in her opening remarks, “Government can be ever changing, and I want us to be in partnership in making those changes.” The Technology Transformation Service (TTS) is already absorbing the first-mover risk of introducing modern tools and techniques, but we know that only with the help of industry will this transformation be able to spread across the federal government. As we all bring agile methodologies, human-centered design, and modular design to the government, the opportunity to improve federal digital services is immense.
“For me, the future is a future where every public facing government
service is easy to understand, is a pleasure to use, works on whatever
device you visit it on, and gives you fast, efficient service,” said
Aaron Snow, Deputy Director of TTS.
If you weren’t able to attend, you can watch the first two hours of the
event below and [download the slidedeck from the morning presentation]({{site.baseurl}}/assets/blog/industry-day/deck-2016.pdf).
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NRAlPdiWXN8" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Find out more about the projects and platforms we talked about during
the Technology Industry Day.
## Agile BPA
The [Agile Blanket Purchase
Agreement](https://pages.18f.gov/ads-bpa/buyers/) is a pre-selected
pool of vendors specializing in agile delivery services (for example,
user-centered design, agile software development, DevOps), developed in
partnership by TTS and the Federal Acquisition Service. Agile BPA
vendors have built or are building solutions for the Department of
Labor, the Office of Personnel Management, the Environmental Protection
Agency and more. Learn more about the [principles and practices that
are driving the Agile BPA](https://18f.gsa.gov/tags/agile-bpa/). Learn
more from Dave Zvenyach and Paul Summers in their [Agile BPA lightning
talk](https://youtu.be/NRAlPdiWXN8?t=1h6m39s).
## Micro-purchasing
[Micro-purchasing](https://micropurchase.18f.gov/insights) is a
process is where the federal government makes small procurements to
directly buy products and services, as long as the price does not exceed
$3,500. Currently, we’re using that process to buy small pieces of open
source software and design through the [Micro-purchase
Marketplace](https://micropurchase.18f.gov/). This process has allowed
clients to add valuable features to their products through quick,
inexpensive purchases. [Hear more about this and other acquisition
projects from Alla Seiffert](https://youtu.be/NRAlPdiWXN8?t=1h25m12s).
## cloud.gov
[cloud.gov](https://cloud.gov/) is a shared platform built for
government that allows agencies to securely deploy systems to the cloud.
It takes care of baseline security and scalability concerns and allows
federal teams to focus on delivering quality products. We
[expect](https://18f.gsa.gov/2016/07/18/cloud-gov-full-steam-ahead-fedramp-assessment-process/)
cloud.gov to receive FedRAMP Joint Authorization Board Provisional
Authority to Operate in November. We’re also [building a
system](https://18f.gsa.gov/2016/04/15/compliance-masonry-buildling-a-risk-management-platform/)
to help automate risk management documentation. Read more [blog posts
about cloud.gov](https://18f.gsa.gov/tags/cloud-gov/) and [watch Bret
Mogilefsky’s lightning talk](https://youtu.be/NRAlPdiWXN8?t=1h14m55s).
## DATA Act
The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act) is a law
that, once implemented, will make it easier to understand how the
federal government spends money. [18F has been working with the
Department of the
Treasury](https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/06/09/data-act-data-act-explainer/)
to successfully implement the law and help Treasury adopt some modern
practices, like working in the open. Renata Maziarz from the Treasury
talked about the benefits she’s seen from working in the open.
> We have a lot of auditors. We probably have more auditors than we have
> staff. Working in the open is the best thing because we can just say
> “Hey, take a look at our open JIRA board. Hey, go take a look at our
> GitHub site. Everything is out in the open. You’re welcome to comment
> or question.” I love open.
[Hear more about the project from Bryce Pippert, part of the Booz Allen
Hamilton team also working on DATA Act
implementation](https://youtu.be/NRAlPdiWXN8?t=1h29m21s).
## California Child Welfare System
Last year, California began a process to replace their child welfare
services case management system. Through a partnership with the
Department of Health and Human Services, 18F was able to work on behalf
of HHS with California’s Department of Social Services and Office of
Systems Integration and Code for America to [simplify the contracting
documents](https://18f.gsa.gov/2016/03/22/helping-california-buy-a-new-child-welfare-system/)
and to incorporate modular contracting, agile development, user-centered
design, and open source practices into their project.
## login.gov
We’re building an authentication platform to make online interactions
with the U.S. government simple, efficient and intuitive. This platform
will be a service shared by agencies to streamline logging in and to
allow the public to securely access personal information and federal
government services. Read the [Identity
Playbook](https://pages.18f.gov/identity-playbook/) the team is using
to guide their work and watch [Joel Minton’s lightning talk about the
project](https://youtu.be/NRAlPdiWXN8).
## What’s next
The Technology Industry Day generated a heap of valuable feedback and
potential opportunities for GSA and industry to work together to better
serve the public. We’re going through our notes and following up with
the participants now, and we plan to publicly share more thoughts and
insights from the sessions soon.
Until then, you can sign up the [18F Acquisitions email
list](http://gsa.us9.list-manage2.com/subscribe?u=6f1977de9eff4c384dc8d6527&id=e7f757afe3)
or the [general 18F newsletter](https://18f.gsa.gov/#newsletter) to stay up to date with all of our projects
(or follow our work as it happens on
[GitHub](https://github.com/18F)). If you’d like to start a
conversation about working with 18F or have questions about our work,
you can email [inquiries18f@gsa.gov](mailto:inquiries18f@gsa.gov).
Thanks to everyone who came to the event. Stay tuned for more focused
events in the future.