Outsourcing Management Functions for the Acquisition of Federal Facilities (2000) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 11-20
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From page 11... ...
For private-sector organizations, outsourcing was identified as a strategic component of business-process "reengineering" designed to streamline their organizations and increase their profitability. In the public sector, growing concern about the federal government's budget deficit, the continuing, long-term fiscal crisis for some large cities, and other factors led to efforts to restrain the growth of government expenditures and accelerated the use of a wide range of privatization)
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From page 12... ...
have found that privatesector organizations outsource functions for the following primary reasons: · Improving organizational focus. By outsourcing noncore activities or operational details to an outside expert, an organization can focus its in-house resources on the development and enhancement of its core competencies.
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From page 13... ...
The growing federal budget deficit, the continuing long-term fiscal crisis in large cities, grassroots efforts to restrain the growth of tax revenue and limit government spending, and efforts to make government more cost effective placed increasing pressure on elected officials at all levels of government to cut budget growth and, in some cases, downsize government operations without substantially reducing services (Seidenstat, 1999~. These factors contributed to a larger national debate about which services should be directly provided by government
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a relatively easy resumption of public production if the private provider proves to be unsatisfactory or goes out of business, particularly if the public agency retains some equipment or management expertise in the service area (Seidenstat, 1999~. A 1997 report, Outsourcing of State Highway Facilities and Services,2 surveyed state transportation agencies to determine the reasons for and extent of outsourcing, among other objectives (NRC, 1997~.
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Department of State, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Air National Guard, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, Indian Health Service, International Broadcasting Bureau, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Naval Facilities Engineering Command.
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From page 16... ...
None of the seven agencies cited cost effectiveness or deliberate downsizing as a factor in outsourcing management functions. Although this survey of federal agencies contained a smaller sample than the survey of state transportation agencies cited earlier, in both instances, staff constraints in some form were cited as the primary factor influencing the decision to outsource.
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From page 17... ...
Some contracting firms are reducing personnel despite increasing workloads, adding project skills that owner organizations are reducing or eliminating, adding skills in project phases that represent nontraditional work, and providing new services generated by advances in process, design, and construction technologies. Contractor skills that have been added include computer/software capabilities, project management, project controls, team building, project finance, project scope development, and process engineering (CII, 1996~.
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From page 18... ...
A report of the Federal Construction Council noted that "due to budget cuts, agencies have had to reduce the number of project managers, design reviewers, inspectors, and field supervisors they employ" (FCC, 1987~. A survey by the Federal Facilities Council found that, by 1999, in nine federal agencies, in-house facilities engineering staffs had been reduced by 20 to 65 percent, with an average of about 50 percent (FFC, 2000~.
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The briefings focused on recent federal experiences with outsourcing management functions, federal policies and programs related to outsourcing and inherently governmental functions, outsourcing practices in the private sector, and related issues (see Appendix B for a list of briefings)
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From page 20... ...
Chapter 3 also addresses the development and retention of core competencies for facility acquisitions in federal agencies. Chapter 4, Decision Framework, describes a management/decision framework for considering the Outsourcing of management functions for facility acquisitions and discusses the development of performance measures for evaluating the results of Outsourcing REFERENCES BRT (The Business Roundtable)
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