DIGITAL PROCUREMENT
With this in mind , the Office of Procurement at NASA has introduced a new tool to find fresh procurement ideas , encourage innovation and , ultimately , exceed the goals of the agency .
The tool is NASA Acquisition Innovation Launchpad ( NAIL ), which allows everyone from contractors , engineers and staff , to field and test ideas to improve the agency ’ s procurement processes . The aim is to allow people to identify improvements by challenging sub-optimal ways of operating . Through NAIL they can recommend tools to increase acquisition process quality or speed , or provide ideas to reduce the burden on industry , or barriers to entry .
NASA currently spends approximately $ 21 billion ( 85 % of its budget ) on acquiring goods and services . It plans to use NAIL to facilitate industry input through public focus groups .
A digital space for ideas and innovation NASA Senior Procurement Executive , Deputy Chief Acquisition Officer & Assistant Procurement Administrator Karla Smith Jackson has been a major force behind NAIL since joining three years ago .
“ We were doing quite a few innovative things , but we had not established either a virtual or an actual physical space to be able to leverage innovations and acquisition ,” she explains .
“ I wanted NASA to have a space around the acquisition of innovation , and we opted to call it a launchpad , hence the name .
“ I didn ’ t want this to be a headquartersdriven thing , I was really looking for just the opposite – a grassroots way to collect information and innovations from the centres .”
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