Pivotal year for overhaul of Army's contracting IT systems

For almost a decade now, Congress has been pressing the Defense department to modernize and consolidate the IT systems it uses to write contracts. This is a pivotal year in accomplishing that: The Army is beginning to roll out its new Army Contract Writing System, and the Navy is expected to follow shortly thereafter with one that’s based on the same commercial product.

On this week’s show, we talk with Cherie Smith, the Army’s program executive officer for enterprise information systems, and Stuart Hazlett, the deputy assistant secretary of the Army for procurement, about how the two services are working together, why this procurement got off to a rocky start, and the potential for how it could change things if all goes well.

This interview is part of a broader report on the contract writing system changes. For the bigger picture, check out Jason Miller’s related story.