Three months into the job and Jonathan Alboum, the new deputy chief information officer at the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service, already has two big projects on his plate: creating an end-to-end electronic acquisition solution and supporting a supply chain modernization.
Alboum, who joined the agency in December after five years at the Department of Agriculture’s Food Nutrition Service as deputy CIO and later CIO, will be handling the day-to-day IT needs of FAS while CIO Liz DelNegro focuses more on IT strategy and external relationships.
“For me, it’s a great opportunity to take what I learned at FNS and apply it to a larger organization,” Alboum told FedScoop, noting the organization reminds him of his private sector days relaying on the amount of business it does to impact future budgets (Alboum was a consultant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Director of Government Services at Ventera Corporation before joining government).
As for those programs, Alboum said both are “critical” to FAS’ mission.
The first is an end-to-end electronic acquisition environment that looks to bring together all of the office’s acquisition systems into a comprehensive solutions for a consistent experience for both internal customers and vendors.
The system will integrate things like a price evaluation model for GSA Schedule programs, an acquisition planning module, and a contracting writing system to be used by GSA’s Public Building Service.
“We plan to leverage existing technologies and figure out what we have and what we don’t have to eventually weave together an end-to-end solution,” Alboum said.
The second is a supply chain modernization effort. He said the project will be a large one for FAS that impacts a lot of customers, so the organization is trying to be very thoughtful in the work it wants to do.
Its large programs like this that enticed Alboum to join GSA after working at FNS. He said he was attracted to GSA for its reputation as a forward thinking government agency that has cloud solutions and telework technologies that support a mobile workforce.
As for FNS, Alboum said it was a tough decision to leave because the agency has a great mission in helping needy people to eat better and improving nutrition for all Americans.
Of the many projects he worked on, he is proud of the next generation fraud detection system FNS currently has underway and creating the web site for the rollout of MyPlate, the successor to the food pyramid that has become part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative.
He also helped launched the SuperTracker, a tool to help you plan, analyze, and track your diet and physical activity.
“FNS is a small but might agency and a great place to work, but there are a lot of projects and people at GSA that I’m excited to join,” he said.
