HUD issues first awards for IT modernization Centers of Excellence
The Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded a pair of contracts under its IT modernization Centers of Excellence work led by the General Services Administration.
HUD selected Systems Engineering Solutions Corp. for help with cloud adoption and Booz Allen Hamilton to support its customer experience transformation, GSA announced Monday. The contracts are just two of a total six that HUD has put up for bid as part of its Phase II work under the Centers of Excellence program.
Through the COE process, GSA helps federal agencies accelerate their IT modernization work by matching them with services, experts and best practices from in and outside government.
“We view our partnership with the GSA CoE as an important step in helping HUD achieve its mission of assisting the people and communities we serve,” HUD Chief Financial Officer Irv Dennis said in a release. “Specifically, the Customer Experience CoE will result in improved service delivery for our public housing agencies, grantees, and other stakeholders. We look forward to the next phase and meeting the priorities of HUD and our continued collaboration with the White House Office of American Innovation.”
Under that UX award, Booz Allen Hamilton will help HUD implement a strategy for optimal customer experience. This should include “utilization of the latest technology (artificial intelligence, learning systems, and robotic process automation) as well as a cohesive customer experience across all channels, including contact centers, online platforms, informational materials, and in-person interactions,” according to the RFQ for that contract.
For the other contract, Systems Engineering Solutions will help HUD move to a modern, cloud-based electronic records management platform “to support multiple data sources, as well an intelligent data extraction (IDE) capability for the extraction of written material from paper forms,” according to the original request for quotes.
“HUD continues transforming its business processes by enhancing our digital ecosystem with cloud adoption,” said HUD CIO David Chow. “We are looking to deploy a number of proofs of concept leveraging artificial intelligence, Forms as a Service, and records management.”
The contracts have a one-year base with two one-year options. The agencies did not disclose the value of the contracts.
GSA CoE Executive Director Bob DeLuca said in a release that the focus of the work with HUD is to “advance customer-focused modernization efforts.”
As these two contracts move to implementation work under Phase II of HUD’s partnership with GSA’s COE, there is still one award to come for work in contact center management, and three other for help developing elements and services under HUD’s Office of the Chief Data Officer.
GSA chose HUD as its second agency partner for the COE program in 2018. During Phase I of the project, the two agencies focused on discovery and assessment of HUD’s IT modernization needs, which resulted in the areas targeted in these RFQs. Now, with Phase II, HUD and GSA will look to begin building around those needs.
“As HUD moves into the implementation phase with the announcement of these awards, we are excited to support their agency-wide efforts to improve the experience of their customers during these unprecedented times,” Technology Transformation Services Director Anil Cheriyan said. “We’re looking forward to this next phase of work and for the CoE to continue to deliver scalable solutions with the industry partners in these awards.”
GSA’s other COE partners include the Department of Agriculture, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Personnel Management, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, Department of Labor, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and Government Accountability Office.
