Posts By Brian Knotts

Government Mandate for e-Procurement Expected to Bring Savings

As a part of the “Campaign to Cut Waste,” the president has required that the Internet Payment Platform (IPP) go live for all government agencies by the start of the fiscal year. This means that as of October 1, 2012, businesses will have to use e-procurement to send bills to the federal government. While theseRead… Read more »

Expense Management: Trading Paper For Best Practices

Did you know that more than 2 out of 3 American businesses still mail receipts to their accounting departments? It doesn’t make for fast or reliable expense management, but it’s been ingrained in established business processes for so long, some companies are reluctant to put aside what they know for what’s new…even if what theyRead… Read more »

Spend Management: Why Automating Makes Sense

It’s no surprise that business is becoming more and more automated: as it goes for the world, so it goes for financial data. The stress of corporate spend management is paving the way for a more automated perspective, from spend analysis to policy enforcement and compliance. Being unable to access up-to-date financial data can seriouslyRead… Read more »

Federal Government Cracks Down On Expense Management

The General Services Administration (GSA) has made quite a few headlines recently due to excessive (and irresponsible) use of government funds at various conferences and training retreats, but now it seems it’s time for them to deal with a more cash-strapped budget. While spending has been much more carefully scrutinized since news broke of theirRead… Read more »

Federal Cloud Computing Experiences Slowdown Due to Security

With federal agencies facing a September 10 deadline to report on the details of their cloud computing initiatives, the Office of Management and Budget is increasing pressure to transition appropriate services to less expensive cloud alternatives. Budgetary realities combined with the successes experienced by other agencies, such as with cloud-based invoice managementsoftware for e-procurement, haveRead… Read more »

GSA Expense Management Fiasco Prompts Additional Scrutiny

In the continuing saga of the General Services Administration (GSA), Chief Dan Tangherlini faced the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee this week to respond to questions concerning the astounding lack of spend management his agency has shown in recent years, most of which came to light following a lavish April 2010 training conferenceRead… Read more »

End of Fiscal Year 2012 Sparks Federal Cloud Computing Expansion

As the fiscal year draws to a close, the United States’ government agencies are apparently taking the Office of Management and Budget’s new cloud-first guidelines to heart. Over the last several days, agencies have been rushing to award contracts with their remaining budgets in an effort to avoid returning the excess to the Treasury. NextGovRead… Read more »

Representative Proposes Legislation to Streamline Federal IT Acquisitions

In a move to help increase the pace and effectiveness of federal technology acquisition, Representative Darrell Issa (R-California) is proposing that Chief Information Officers within government agencies be allowed long-sought authority over their agencies’ technology budgets. “At a time we are facing record deficits and our national debt has exceeded [our gross domestic product], itRead… Read more »

EPA Moves E-mail to the Cloud

U.S. federal agencies are continuing their expansion into cloud-based services, with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announcing a deal with Microsoft to transition e-mail and other services to the cloud. InformationWeek reports that the deal is expected to save the agency approximately $12 million over four years and will cost $9.8 million to deploy. TheRead… Read more »

U.S. National Park Service Adopts E-Procurement Platform

United States government agencies haven’t exactly made much positive fiscal publicity for themselves over the last several years, but that may soon change for the better. Under direction from the Obama administration, agencies are adopting better business processes, most particularly through usage of expense management and invoice management solutions. Most recently, the U.S. National ParkRead… Read more »