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Publish Date : 24-Feb-2015

A NASA field center is setting an example for the best way to deal with the task, although it's not had to know that digitizing paper-based processes can save money and time. As it sought to make the procurement process paperless, the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Acquisition Division has digitized countless documents. The project, was launched as "Work Different" in October 2012, and the Interactive Acquisition Network (IAN) was rolled out 20 months later.

Martin Johnson, manager of the Acquisition Strategic Planning Office said : "We chose paper-less, not paper-free because there's always going to be some amount of paper." IAN is built on 3 tools from Microsoft that were already included in JPL: Office 2013, SharePoint 2013 and OneNote 2013. The division and the JPL Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), together developed a system that electronically manages from start to finish all procurement packages.

The acquisition technical lead for Work Different, and Wayne Wong, a business apps software engineer at JPL, Steve Simpson, said "Subcontract packages are built on OneNote template-driven forms, then routed though SharePoint workflow using InfoPath 2013 forms to gather reviews, comments and approvals. The system allows for reassignments, rework and resubmittals. Once the approvals have been gathered, the acquisition subcontract manager files the approvals and can then submit the final OneNote package for internal signature workflow – with external signature to be rolled out in the new fiscal year."

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