The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office launched its digital acquisitions tool on April 15 with the goal of streamlining procurement operations online.
The USPTO tool was first mentioned in an Oct. 10, 2014, RFI, seeking "commercial 'off the shelf' products to assist the USPTO in performing the following functions: acquisition workload planning, acquisition workload distribution/alignment, acquisition workload transition, acquisition workload tracking, facilitates the evaluation of vendor proposals, acquisition folder/file management, and stakeholder (internal and external) communications."
The USPTO said it processes close to $1 billion a year in procurement actions and was looking for a digital suite to help manage those functions.
Distributed Solutions, Inc., a Reston-based acquisition software company, was awarded an $8 million BPA contract in September 2015 to design the eAcquisitions system.
DSI said in a release that the eAcquisitions tool enables USPTO to leverage real-time procurement and streamline the acquisition process by utilizing data to help make managerial decisions.
"We are extremely proud to be a partner in USPTO's efforts to transform their acquisition management process," said DSI CEO Daniel E. Carr, in a statement. "DSI is working collaboratively with senior USPTO staff to iteratively implement transformative business processes while leveraging existing enterprise architecture investments."
