An update to the cross-agency priority (CAP) goal of quality shared services–one of eight such goals contained in the President’s Management Agenda released in March–found the Federal effort to meet the goal making some steady, if slow, progress.
The report issued Tuesday details some improvements in meeting milestones, and a slight improvement in employee satisfaction with IT, but not much change from the previous update issued in September.
Out of the 16 key milestones that comprise the CAP goal, two were completed, and 14 saw no change from their status last quarter, including three milestones that were identified as being “at risk.”
On the progress front, the General Services Administration awarded blanket purchase agreements for payroll and work scheduling software-as-a-service solutions in the latest quarter, completing a milestone on time for that action. GSA also completed the task of identifying central capabilities that support agencies moving to modern solutions.
The milestones identified in the update as being at risk include
- Creating a standard employee digital record, due to the scope and schedule still being finalized;
- Transitioning human resources and payroll processing to modern commercial technologies, due to limited resources and expertise for agencies, and the need for a strategy for modular implementation, and;
- Establishing a common contract for modern financial management solutions, due to market research that may lead to a change in strategy.
All of those milestones are scheduled to be completed by Q4 of fiscal year 2020.
Also of note in the update were results of a survey of satisfaction with administrative services. Government-wide, IT services received a satisfaction rating of 5.3 out of 7 in GSA’s 2018 Customer Satisfaction Survey, higher than any other administrative service surveyed. The score reflects a one percent increase from 2017, with different agencies reporting fluctuations in their satisfaction level. The biggest improvement for GSA was at the Small Business Administration, where satisfaction increased 16 percent, while the biggest decline came from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which reported a decrease of 10 percent in satisfaction.
Some milestones on track to be completed in the near future include: creating a single location for Federal grantees to provide required representations and certifications, set for Q2 of FY19; increasing satisfaction with administrative support services, also set to kick off in Q2; and establishing a common solution for multiple contract closeout services, with a target of Q3 of FY19.