Innovation is part of the culture at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) because of initiatives like the Chief Procurement Officer’s (CPO) Procurement Innovation Lab (PIL). CPO Soraya Correa created the PIL in 2015 to foster a culture of procurement excellence where smart risk-taking and innovation enable DHS mission success. Since inception, the PIL team has completed 24 procurement projects and 12 process improvements. This activity has kept DHS leaning forward in adopting innovative business practices that have increased efficiency and effectiveness in the DHS procurement ecosystem and have helped DHS remain a business partner of choice.
DHS’s PIL activity has been so successful, that ideas conceived under the PIL banner are starting to spread. The PIL team recently worked with the Office of Federal Procurement Policy to provide PIL Boot Camp training to 135 procurement professionals from 22 federal agencies. The immediate focus was on supporting cloud-based IT modernization efforts in alignment with the President’s Management Agenda. During PIL Boot Camp training, participants build competencies they can directly apply to current acquisition activity in their agencies.
About this initiative, CPO Correa says, "The work we are doing in DHS to promote procurement innovation and smart risk-taking is gaining some momentum and generating excitement within the DHS acquisition community. I hope this training, which was the first of its kind, will help others who are considering similar organizational acquisition innovation efforts."
The first PIL Annual Report contains detailed information about the PIL framework and highlights completed projects, process improvements, and webinars from its inception in fiscal year 2015 through the end of fiscal year 2017. The PIL Boot Camp Workbook is a companion book for the PIL Boot Camp. Both documents, and more information about the PIL, are available at www.dhs.gov/PIL.
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