Innovating the Standard Procurement System through electronic commerce technologies

Abstract

The Standard Procurement System (SPS) is the next generation of procurement application software designed to link acquisition reform and common DoD procurement business processes with commercial best practices and advances in electronic commerce. When fully implemented, it will serve more than 1,100 sites worldwide and be employed by over 44,000 professionals. This research examines the SPS and emerging electronic commerce technologies that are revolutionizing the business industry today. Through a literature review and interview process, an analysis of the SPS along with Ariba Inc., a commercial paperless contracting venture, and leading intelligent agent software applications in e-commerce is presented. Innovation analysis is applied to the data gathered from the research to develop a new process design. As analysts predict that by 2003, business to business e-commerce will grow to $1.3 trillion and 95% of business industry is going to go to paperless procurement, only an aggressive implementation of innovative technologies today will prepare SPS for the procurement needs of tomorrow. It is to this end that this research is conducted, with the intent of fostering innovative change in the SPS.