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Strategic Objective
Increase the efficiency of GSA operations
Strategic Objective
Overview
GSA achieved mixed results in meeting its financial performance goals for improving organizational efficiency. GSA achieved a total of $190 million savings in indirect costs from the FY 2010 baseline, far exceeding its goal of $155 million. However, GSA did not meets its target to improve operational efficiency to reduce GSA operating costs to 9.4 percent of revenue from goods and services provided. The primary reason for not meeting the target is due to the lower than expected revenue from goods and services provided. GSA savings are being realized through consolidation and realignment of key support functions and organizations, and by reviewing, improving and standardizing internal processes and controls. Three efficiency initiatives of note include data center consolidation, the print management program, and consolidation of GSA’s information technology, human resources, administrative, and financial functions.
· GSA is consolidating its data centers to increase efficiency through economies of scale. GSA recently eliminated and/or re-purposed 12,000 square feet of floor space, decommissioned over 230 servers, and moved over 200 servers to other data centers. By the end of FY2015, GSA projects a net five years savings of $24 million.
· GSA also reduced its inventory of printers to increase resource efficiency from 5 to 25 employees per printer. GSA has also developed seven Print-Wise tips to guide employees to make cost-cutting print decisions. Wide spread adoption of Print-Wise behaviors by other agencies, such as double-sided printing, can save the government hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
· GSA determined from a top-to-bottom review that the best way to build a stronger GSA would be to consolidate the IT, HR, administrative, and financial functions of GSA. By consolidating each of these administrative functions, GSA will improve efficiency with greater clarity around responsibility and accountability. In the past year, GSA has completed consolidation of each of the four functions. Each functional organization is going through realignment to ensure the most efficient use of resources to fully meet their area of responsibility.
GSA has significantly improved the on-time activation of occupancy agreements (OAs) in owned space to 98 percent and leased space to 90 percent. This is a substantial improvement from the on-time activation rates of 86 percent for owned space and 75 percent for leased space. At the same time, GSA is having considerable success supporting agencies in their efforts to consolidate their footprints and implement more cost effective workplace solutions. In part as a result of these consolidation actions, which in some cases lead to vacant leased space that GSA is obligated to continue to pay for, GSA faces challenges achieving full cost recovery in the leasing program.
GSA exceeded its cycle time goals for real property disposal services. GSA continued to effectively award public sales properties within 135 days. GSA also exceeded its performance target for non-competitive sales and donations within 220 days. GSA continues to efficiently provide training courses through the Federal Acquisition Institute with course attendance levels consistently exceeding 80 percent.
Read Less...Progress Update
GSA achieved mixed results in meeting its financial performance goals for improving organizational efficiency. GSA achieved a total of $190 million savings in indirect costs from the FY 2010 baseline, far exceeding its goal of $155 million. However, GSA did not meet its FY 2015 target to improve operational efficiency to reduce GSA operating costs to 9.2% of revenue from goods and services provided. The primary reason for not meeting the target is due to the lower than expected revenue from goods and services provided.
GSA savings in indirect costs are being realized through consolidation and realignment of key support functions and organizations, and by reviewing, improving, and standardizing internal processes and controls. Three efficiency initiatives to note include data center consolidation, the print management program, and consolidation of GSA’s information technology, human resources, administrative, and financial functions. GSA has adjusted its targets in FY 2016 and FY 2017 to reflect the performance trends for both of these relatively new financial efficiency measures. The performance target for Reduction in Indirect Cost will be set at a higher level of performance, whereas Percent of Operating Cost to Revenue from Goods and Services will be adjusted to a level that is attainable for GSA.
- GSA is consolidating its data centers to increase efficiency through economies of scale. GSA recently eliminated and/or re-purposed 12,000 square feet of floor space, decommissioned over 230 servers, and moved over 200 servers to other data centers. GSA also reduced its inventory of printers to increase resource efficiency from 5 to 25 employees per printer. GSA has also developed seven Print-Wise tips to guide employees to make cost-cutting print decisions. Widespread adoption of Print-Wise behaviors by other agencies, such as double-sided printing, can save the government hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
- GSA determined from a top-to-bottom review (conducted two years ago) that the best way to build a stronger GSA would be to consolidate the IT, HR, administrative, and financial functions. By consolidating each of these administrative functions, GSA will improve efficiency with greater clarity around responsibility and accountability. In the past year, GSA consolidated each of the four functions, and will continue to consolidate other functions such as communications and marketing as discussed in the Congressional Justification. Each functional organization is going through realignment to ensure the most efficient use of resources to fully meet their area of responsibility.
GSA is having considerable success supporting agencies in their efforts to consolidate their footprints and implement more cost-effective workplace solutions. Partially as a result of these consolidation actions, which in some cases lead to vacant leased space that GSA is obligated to continue to pay for, GSA will need to focus more on full cost recovery in the leasing program. GSA exceeded its cycle time goals for real property disposal services. GSA continued to effectively award public sales properties within 135 days. GSA also exceeded its performance target for non-competitive sales and donations within 220 days. The agency continues to efficiently provide training courses through the Federal Acquisition Institute with course attendance levels consistently exceeding 80%.
Strategic Objective Next Steps. GSA will take the following actions in support of this strategic objective over the next two years:
- Utilize the data from the President’s Management Agenda Benchmarking Initiative to continue to drive efficiencies and performance in administrative functions
- Continue to consolidate indirect activities to reduce overhead and administrative costs and implement more effective systems and processes and ensure cost-beneficial controls
- Manage financial risks by developing, implementing and overseeing rigorous and consistent internal controls on budgetary and financial processes and transactions
- Enhance reporting and analytics capabilities to measure and manage costs across the agency, improve transparency in the financial and operational reporting of GSA data, and support data-driven decisions
- Develop agency-wide process improvement capability to inform streamline and standardize processes, maintain cost-beneficial controls, and improve financial and performance data analytics and reporting
- Develop a fully integrated, performance-based decision-making process to link budget to performance and improve resource allocation and organizational efficiency
- Implement an action plan that focuses on: 1) strategies for the largest blocks of vacant space for backfill or buy-out opportunities, 2) requiring a cost/benefit analysis before vacating future space that will drive strategies to minimize losses, and 3) improving the process of timely lease billing and payments
- Manage operations in the Federal Acquisition Service to control costs and ensure full cost recovery in the Acquisition Service Fund
- Work with our customer agencies to further educate them on how to efficiently identify and dispose of unneeded real property assets
- Reduce space allocation by implementing innovative workplace solutions and adopt a “smart occupancy” approach to GSA occupied space
- Finalize the FY 2016 capital project prospectuses, and show an improvement in space utilization in our proposed space projects (excluding building system projects without space alterations)
