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Shopping Expedition
Intramural Working Group Solicits
Official REGO Lab Designation

By Carla Garnett

On the Front Page...
Someday soon, an NIH researcher who needs, for example, an incubator, will enter a shopping mall, browse around for the best model or brand name, compare prices, availability and delivery dates, charge it to the lab's purchase card and return to his or her research a few minutes later, safe in the knowledge that the product has been ordered and is on the way.

The scenario forecast above is different from today's standard operating procedure in at least one important way: Scientists will continue to get the best bargain for the best machine but won't have to leave the lab -- they'll let their fingers do the walking.

Continued...
"We want to create an environment where scientists can purchase the products and services they need conveniently, without having to learn a whole bunch of complicated rules and terms -- in other words, without being purchasing agents," explained Mary Ann Guerra, NCI associate director for intramural management and a founding member and cochair of NIH's intramural reinvention working group (IRWG). "We felt the establishment of what we fondly call the 'NIH IntraMall' will accomplish this."

Formed 3 years ago by Dr. Michael Gottesman, NIH deputy director for intramural research, IRWG has been brainstorming behind the scenes on a number of government reinvention projects already adopted campuswide. Use of a lab purchase card, for example, was a recommendation supported by the working group, which hopes its IntraMall concept of procurement will help gain NIH's Intramural Research Program an official designation as a federal reinvention laboratory. Such a designation -- which NIH's Extramural Program already has claimed -- allows agencies to bypass federal "red tape" in a number of areas and experiment with various ways to reduce the burden of administrative duties.

Current procurement procedures are so onerous that IRWG made it top priority among several concerns it seeks to address.

Recently, IRWG advertised for and negotiated a collaborative research and development agreement (CRADA) with Applied Research and Technology, Inc., to generate a "commodity access and processing system," or electronic shopping mall for NIH labs. The CRADA sought a software development firm to create "a seamless system that will identify appropriate vendors of needed equipment, supplies and services using the World Wide Web and browser technology." Built into the new system will be interactive mechanisms that simplify some current acquisition procedures, as well as comply with federal procurement rules without forcing users to acquire extensive procurement knowledge.

Also planned for the system is an "automatic account minder," which tracks transactions, subtracts purchase amounts from lab budgets, helps reconcile accounts (including credit card purchases) and provides the user with on-line balance statements.

As a bonus to the NIH community, IntraMall-style procurement will promote competition among vendors. Just as a consumer would go from store to store looking for the best prices, features or availability of merchandise at Montgomery Mall, for instance, an NIH researcher would be able to click from vendor to vendor on his/her computer screen within the proposed electronic IntraMall acquisition system. Currently, under other newly streamlined rules, there is no requirement to conduct a competition among vendors for purchases under $2,500 -- a benefit to suppliers that federal agencies had been willing to cede in return for convenience and speedier order fulfillment.

"The benefit to NIH and the government is that if this IntraMall concept really works," Guerra continued, "scientists will have more choices literally at their fingertips. The trend recently has been toward reducing competition in exchange for increasing convenience. Our plan will give us the best of both worlds, because in essence it increases competition, reduces costs and streamlines at the same time."

The CRADA procurement reform proposal, which will be formally presented to DHHS officials for REGO lab consideration in the coming months, represents the second attempt by IRWG to gain the coveted designation for NIH's intramural programs. The first proposal, Guerra noted, was submitted last fall and included some 20 different ideas for administrative reductions, some of which would have required legislative changes in order to implement.

"Our first time out may have been too wide-ranging," she acknowledged, explaining that IRWG has never received a reply to its original nomination. The revised submission will focus exclusively on obtaining relief from existing procurement, accounting and other regulations still standing in the way of ultimate streamlining and procurement reform. Reduced red tape will greatly enhance the usefulness and adoption of the NIH IntraMall as a primary venue for micropurchasing here. For example, the ability to eliminate the mandatory source requirements for purchases under $2,500 (micropurchases) made through the IntraMall, would simplify and speed the procurement process for scientists as well as encourage ICD's to more quickly adopt widespread use of credit cards for these purchases.

"The revised proposal will be much more focused on our goals related to streamlined procurement activities," Guerra said. "In addition, it establishes a formal process to evaluate the success of the NIH IntraMall project." The working group will reconvene this month to inaugurate several new members and to finalize and submit its proposal, which if adopted by the department, Guerra pointed out, may allow ICDs to dramatically redistribute fiscal as well as human resource support in this area.

The development of the electronic shopping mall combined with the use of credit cards will provide NIH scientists the fastest and best technology currently available to place, track and reconcile orders. When combined with simplified procurement regulations proposed under the IRWG Reinvention Laboratory request, NIH staff will experience an era of truly streamlined procurement by reducing staff effort and costs.