White House Looks To UK For eProcurement Strategy

While experts say the U.S. government is making strides in adopting more efficient policies through the use of technological innovations, federal officials are reportedly not building up these policies from scratch. Officials are instead looking to their counterparts across the pond for best practices and lessons learned when implementing new tools like digital procurement programs.

The White House Chief Technology Officer, Megan Smith, was vocal this past week about the U.S. lagging behind Britain in technological experience, reports said. The U.K. is the world’s leader when it comes to open data, and its G-Cloud framework program has made its government one of the most successful e-invoicing and e-procurement strategies on the planet, Smith said.

U.S. officials are said to be in the process of establishing a government-as-a-platform tool that would streamline public sector procurement activity.

Experts say that Smith is likely to promote the upgrading of existing technological tools within the government as opposed to pushing for sweeping technological reform of current processes.

The U.K. has been one of the most proactive at embracing technology in its government payment operations. Most recently, the U.K. Treasury released a report in which it revealed plans to introduce new regulations surrounding digital currencies. Federal officials, the report said, plan to work with the digital currency industry to introduce consumer protection guidelines and launch a research initiative to explore the benefits of such monies.

While the U.S. is a global economic leader, it has not been as advanced in its digital procurement and electronic payment efforts. The Federal Reserve’s February report outlining methods for the nation to improve its system included plans for e-invoicing in government procurement practices, though the report also highlighted several significant barriers to adoption of such tools, most notably the lack of infrastructure to support it.

The nation is expected to accelerate its e-payment efforts, however. The volume of B2B invoices in the U.S. is expected to grow 20 percent this year, researchers predicted, an influx that is likely to force federal officials to introduce an electronic method to more quickly and accurately process these bills.