OPM’s Workday Contract: HR System Failure & Urgent Action

In its reason record for the initial contract honor on SAM, OPM claimed, “A sole-source honor to Workday is necessary due to an urgent assemblage of operational failings and binding government requireds that require instant action. OPM’s fragmented and out-of-date HR systems have actually reached an important failure point, leading to pay-roll mistakes, benefits disturbances, and a manual workload that is no more lasting.”

OPM Justifies Sole-Source Contract

OPM used the paper to defend its decision to award the agreement without a competition, claiming, “This acquisition is not the result of inadequate preparation, but rather a reaction to an unexpected acceleration of functional crises and government enforced target dates. Day is the only liable source with the ability of providing the called for abilities within the time offered, and complete and open competition with various other suppliers would certainly lead to undesirable hold-ups, noncompliance, and mission failure.”

Industry Expert Perspective

Lynn Greiner has actually been analyzing tech for organizations for over twenty years and has actually operated in the sector along with blogging about it, offering her a special viewpoint into the problems companies encounter. She has both IT credentials and an organization level.

The agreement honor drew objection from former and present employees of OPM, Reuters reported, as well as from the Infotech Acquisition Advisory Council, which makes recommendations to improve federal IT contracting.

IT-AAC Weighs In

IT-AAC director John Weiler thanked the OPM “for promoting the policy of regulation and taking restorative action” in a post on LinkedIn, including, “OPM escaped a bruising demonstration that would certainly have additional postponed its HR modernization trip. Hopefully this is a lesson for others seeking shortcuts that the policy of legislation is not the problem. It’s how we carry out!”

The contract, granted on May 2 without a supplier bidding procedure, and terminated on Might 9, would have been for twelve months of solutions including core human resources processing, pay-roll and advantages integration with audit-ready reporting, time and attendance monitoring, ability purchase and performance monitoring, and compliance with federal-specific demands such as FedRAMP, Title 5, electronic SF-52 routing, and audit tracks. Compatibility with existing government IT systems also figured in the needs.