Integrated Award Environment (IAE)

The IAE mission is to support a common, secure business environment which facilitates and supports cost-effective acquisition of, and payment for, goods and services; effective management of federal acquisition and assistance awards; and consistent transparency into federal acquisition and assistance awards.

The IAE vision is to continue to evolve and integrate the existing shared portfolio of multiple online systems used for awarding and administering federal financial assistance (i.e., grants, loans) and contracts. The largest and most complex of the E-Government initiatives, the IAE works on behalf of the acquisition and financial assistance communities to save money, be more efficient, reduce burdens on the communities we serve, and improve federal award management.

The IAE values include employing agile business and systems processes in order to:

• Drive continuous innovation and improvement;
• Serve as active and engaged stewards of federal award data;
• Enable collaboration across the federal government;
• Protect the quality and integrity of the data; and
• Embrace openness and transparency.

In making decisions about contracting, business processes, architecture, and the other planning, IAE and its partners will consider our architectural principles. These principles serve as guideposts for decision-making at all levels; everything from strategy through implementation. These principles will be used to distinguish IAE from other programs and from our own history. It is important to recognize that these principles are not hard and fast rules – in fact they are frequently in tension with each other. The best technical solution for IAE will balance these principles for the benefit of the government and IAE system users.

The Principles:

• IAE Must be Open;
• We Must Always Treat Data as an Asset;
• We Will Use Continuous Improvement to Drive Innovation;
• IAE Will Provide an Effective User Experience for All Stakeholders;
• Business Transactions Must be Time- and Cost-Measurable;
• IAE Will Treat Security as Foundational; and
• We Will Build Value Over Maintaining the Status Quo.

The following bodies provide overall direction and guidance and coordinating support to facilitate the mission of the IAE including:

Award Committee for E-Government (ACE)

An advisory and decision-making body with responsibility for strategic planning and functional governance of the IAE portfolio of systems. The ACE responsibilities include strategic planning; providing a disciplined process and approach to decisions, priorities, and community needs for the IAE systems; resolving conflicts in priorities from other elements of the governance process; and identifying policy or other considerations for Office of Management and Budget (OMB) decisions or actions. The ACE also is responsible for approving algorithms and associated funding levels required. The ACE consists of senior leaders from both the procurement and financial assistance communities, as well as representatives from the OMB and other non-voting advisor agencies.

Financial Assistance Committee for E-Government (FACE)

The functional community group that is dedicated to addressing the needs of the federal financial assistance communities as it pertains to collecting, using, disseminating, and displaying federal financial assistance data.

Procurement Committee for E-Government (PCE)

The PCE represents the functional needs of the procurement and broader acquisition community, and it serves as the community voice for data collection, reporting, and the analysis of the outcomes expected from the IAE portfolio of systems. This group will resolve any decisions regarding scope or other issues arising from the IAE systems unique to federal procurement.

GSA Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO)

In co-lead with GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), the GSA OCIO is responsible for the development and operation of IAE.

GSA Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) IAE Program Office

The GSA FAS office that executes and manages IAE operations.

IAE Change Control Board (CCB)

The CCB is the decision-making body for proposed change requests that affect IAE systems. Administered by GSA/IAE, the CCB is comprised of voting representatives from each of the CFO Act federal agencies. It is responsible for making decisions about IAE that improve award management for acquisition, grants, loans and life-cycle performance across the federal space. The CCB affects integration of IAE across functional areas and meets statutory and regulatory requirements.

The IAE Business Applications and Operations Division develops functional user requirements, conducts user acceptance testing, and monitors successful implementation of functional requirements for the following systems:

• SAM.gov – includes legacy sites
  • System for Award Management
  • Federal Business Opportunities
  • Wage Determinations On-Line
  • Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance
  • Contract Data Reports
• Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS)
• Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS)
• Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS)
• Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System (eSRS)
• Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) Sub-award Reporting System (FSRS)

Members of the Business Applications and Operations Division serve as product owners.

The IAE Outreach and Stakeholder Engagement (OSE) Division is composed of professionals in a number of disciplines who work to take in and disseminate information about the program for all interested stakeholders.

The OSE division is set up in four distinct areas with frequent cross-over among them:

• Customer Service
• Outreach
• Policy
• User Engagement

The customer service function of OSE includes addressing and resolving customer issues about various IAE systems through the Federal Service Desk (FSD), responding to official Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) inquiries, and responding to inquiries from Congressional sources.

The outreach function of OSE includes traditional public relations and public affairs efforts. Outreach implements and manages online public webinars, public trainings, press relations, internal and external messaging, and program branding, among other wide-ranging responsibilities.

The policy function of OSE is interpreting policies that affect IAE. The OSE policy team members also collaborate on the development and implementation of federal award policies. Finally, they also serve as an adviser to the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council (CAAC) that is responsible for developing and reviewing all proposed changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).

The user engagement function of OSE includes the involvement of users of IAE systems throughout the development process of the new environment. OSE user experience analysts administer focus groups and interviews to elicit and analyze requirements from users and update continuous feedback channels throughout development and testing.

The IAE Management and Program Support Division (MPSD) has a multitude of program responsibilities that cross over the IAE divisions and external partners.

MPSD manages the financial and budgetary responsibilities of the IAE, including identifying and monitoring performance measures and risk. The division also carries contracting officer's representative (COR) responsibilities in monitoring contractor performance for the various contracts critical to the performance of the IAE services and systems.

MPSD administers the IAE’s program plan and provides oversight to the milestone completions for proactive management, while highlighting key tasks that are not able to be performed as scheduled. MPSD responsibilities also include the development of annual Major and Executive Business Cases, and coordination of agreements both within GSA and with our 24 CFO Act Partner agencies.

MPSD coordinates, facilitates, and assists in managing three governance bodies: the Award Committee for E-Government (ACE), an advisory and decision-making body; the Procurement Committee for E-Government (PCE), which represents the functional needs of the acquisition community; and the Financial Assistance Committee for E-Government (FACE), the functional community group dedicated to addressing data needs of the federal financial assistance communities.

MPSD also provides administrative resources to the project management office (PMO) in terms of human capital planning, training, and ad hoc requests that are received by the PMO.

The IAE Information Technology (IT) Division provides IT support for current IAE systems and the new environment. It is composed of two branches: The Governmentwide Acquisition Operations Branch and the Integrated Awards Branch.

The Governmentwide Acquisition Operations Branch is responsible for the day-to-day operations, IT security, infrastructure support, test plans and activities, release management, and development and enhancements.

The Integrated Award Branch is responsible for developing IT requirements based on new business requirements, technical designs, specifications, and approaches for modernizing and migrating key functions of the current IAE systems into the new environment. It also focuses on IT security, infrastructure support, and data management for the new environment.

The IT Division directly reports to the Associate Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Acquisition IT Services of the GSA Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO).