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Volpe Center Highlights - January 2000

Economic Growth and Trade

Director's Notes | Focus | Safety | Mobility | Human and Natural Environment |
Economic Growth and Trade | National Security

Advance America's economic growth and competitiveness domestically and internationally through efficient and flexible transportation.

Volpe Acquisition Division Excels in Electronic Commerce

The Volpe Center has achieved a significant presence in the area of electronic commerce (EC), one that sets the standard for other procurement automation efforts within DOT. The Acquisition Division has developed intranet- and Internet-based systems to serve the needs of their contracting and vendor communities. These systems have generated significant cost and administrative savings, and are considered a DOT EC best practice.

The Acquisition Division Intranet (ADNet) system supports the Internet EC initiatives, and provides useful information for Volpe project initiators and contract managers. The ADNet system is hosted on an internal web server within the Volpe Local Area Network. Its features include:

• Simultaneous posting of solicitation notices and procurement documents to the Volpe Acquisition Internet site, the Commerce Business Daily Network (CBDNet) web site, and the General Services Administration Electronic Posting System (EPS) used throughout DOT;

• Instantaneous posting of solicitations, amendments, and bidders mailing lists to the Volpe Acquisition Internet site;

• Centralized repository or archive of solicitation materials, contracts, and user guides;

• Automated record of solicitation activity (statistics).

The ADNet system has two groups of users: general users and administrative users. General users are any users within the Volpe community. They can view and/or download notices, solicitations, amendments, mailing lists, and ADNet activity statistics. General users also have access to useful guides on processing of procurements and using major contracts (i.e., on-site support service contracts and OMNI (Multiple Contractor Resource Base). These documents are publicly available. If they are current, procurements also will be available on the Acquisition Division's Internet site. If the procurement has been awarded, ADNet serves as an archive for these materials. Administrative users have a unique username and password, which provides them with more extensive privileges. These privileges include the ability to publish notices, solicitations, amendments, and bidders mailing lists, and send e-mail notifications to bidders mailing list registrants.

To provide a snapshot of Volpe Center acquisition activity, ADNet includes statistics on EC use, purchase card data, contract administration activity, process times, obligation activity, procurement preference program goals, and other statistics. The site provides specialists with Volpe-specific procurement guidance, forms, templates, how-to guides, topical areas, and all federal and DOT procurement guidance. Additionally, the Volpe vendor community is served by www.volpe.dot.gov/procure/index.html, the Volpe Internet web site, which includes the search and registration features of their on-line posting service. All requirements in excess of $25,000 are posted here. Volpe also posts special notices of interest to the general public and Volpe customers. For example, an invitation to the June 1999 Volpe Center Women-owned Business Showcase was posted on the site.

Recently, the Volpe Center implemented Compusearch's PRISM system as its automated procurement system. Initial feedback suggests that the system will be implemented successfully once the transition period is over and all legacy contracts have been entered into the system. FARA (Federal Acquisition Regulations Automated), the contract generation module of the PRISM suite, also is being implemented. FARA requires significant maintenance on contract checklists. The Volpe Center has completed a significant number of these checklists for cost-type contracts and multiple award contracts, which could be shared with other PRISM users.

The Volpe Center relies on its EC systems for all information dissemination and does not provide hardcopies of policies to its specialists or hardcopies of solicitations to its vendors. The cost savings were more than $60,000 for fiscal year 1999. Combined with the documented satisfaction of users and vendors, this savings suggests that the Volpe Center's EC systems are exceeding the requirements of its customers and are an exceptional asset to the organization.

The Volpe Center used the services of its on-site automated data processing (ADP) support contractor (W.T. Chen) to develop its web site and ADnet capability. Total contractor costs to design, build, and maintain the live site and ADnet have totaled $107,000 since it was implemented 3 years ago. Volpe acquisition staff now can maintain the site almost exclusively because of the ADnet capability. Accordingly, future contractor costs for support will be minimal.

Panama Canal Capacity Scheduling Work Applies Across Transportation Systems

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Dr. Leon C. Hsu recently completed a thesis entitled "The Bottleneck Phenomenon in Scheduling of Transportation Systems." The thesis addresses critical issues in optimization of flow in any transportation system. Under the leadership of Dr. Dimitris J. Bertsimas, Boeing Professor of Operations Research at MIT, this work was started under contract to the Volpe Center to support the Panama Canal project, and shows specific solutions to scheduling ship, tugboat, and other resources simultaneously in the Panama Canal. The Volpe Center, realizing the potential significance of this work, continued to sponsor the study beyond the project parameters. This sponsorship has resulted in the development of algorithms that can be used to support the Center's work on the U.S. Air Traffic Control system and presents a solution to the problem of multiple airport scheduling.

Recently, Dr. Bertsimas visited the Volpe Center to deliver a copy of Dr. Hsu's thesis. He was greeted by Dr. Richard R. John, Director of the Volpe Center; Mr. Richard Wright of the Office of Traffic and Operations Management; and Dr. Eugene Gilbo of the Automation Applications Division.

This collaborative effort demonstrates how the Volpe Center has been able to take advantage of the proximity of MIT, and how collegial relationships have been established with MIT to sponsor and encourage work that will contribute to the Center's research areas. This research then can be used innovatively to support the Center's strategic goals.

DOT SBIR Program Uses Electronic Commerce (OST)

The DOT Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, which is managed by the Volpe Center's Mr. Joseph Henebury of the Communications and Technology Outreach Division, will break ground in fiscal year 2000 by accepting proposals electronically. These proposals are due on May 1, 2000. Small businesses, however, still will retain the option of submitting their proposals in hard copy, which will need to be postmarked by May 1, 2000. As of 1999, the SBIR solicitation became available in electronic form only on the Internet. This resulted in significant cost savings as it eliminated the need to print and mail more than 15,000 booklets annually. Electronic acceptance of proposals also is expected to yield cost savings.

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