Tech is more than an industry; it’s a national security prerogative. So, why is the sector’s federal procurement system—how the government works with outside sources to acquire goods and services—stuck in the past?
That’s a question Steven Aberle, CEO and founder of Rohirrim, has been asking himself lately. Rohirrim is a procurement and request for proposal (RFP) solutions AI company and Aberle a former government contractor.
His RohanProcure product was created after government officials reached out to bring the commercial side of automation to the federal side. It’s all in service of faster procurement, Aberle told IT Brew, which he believes is “a national security imperative.”
“Procurement speed is not an administrative convenience anymore,” Aberle said. “It needs to be a core element of deterrence.”
Efficiency is key. Acquisition is important because you don’t want lag time when it comes to procuring technology that can give an advantage against an adversary. Every month spent in bureaucratic back and forth is a month where someone else is spinning up a new method of attack and infiltration, he said; the chance you lose the battle before it begins is too high.
Aberle broke down the timescale: “near-peer adversaries are starting to move a front line system from concept to field in about 18 to 36 months—our major programs still average eight to 11 years.” Put in real terms, that could mean that by the time the procured tech makes its way to those who need it, adversaries could be using software and hardware a few generations ahead of the US.
A changing world. Introducing AI to the process could streamline and automate many of the repetitive tasks involved. Aberle is certainly not the only person to make the case for integrating the technology into procurement; in April, Oracle Executive Director Sarjoo Shah told StateTech that AI’s potential in the procurement process includes “analyzing historical vendor performance data, predicting the reliability and risk, maybe even conducting sophisticated market research and benchmarking.”
Top insights for IT pros
From cybersecurity and big data to cloud computing, IT Brew covers the latest trends shaping business tech in our 4x weekly newsletter, virtual events with industry experts, and digital guides.
Federal tech contracting is an ever-changing space. Industry expectation is that the Department of Defense’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) requirements mean that contractors will have to adhere to the guidelines for 2025 and beyond. Deltek Senior Manager of Cloud Solutions Michael Greenman told IT Brew earlier this month that the requirements are a new reality, meaning that contractors are going to have to adapt.
“CMMC is here to stay,” Greenman said. “You need to be doing this if you’re a defense contractor, if you serve the defense industrial base, whether as an MSP, an MSSP, or a cloud service provider like we are here at Deltek.”
Putting in the work. That said, the interest from the federal government in using AI in procurement shows that things are open to change for the ease of applicants. The technology still requires human oversight, but it offers a way not only to get the contractors moving more quickly but also to close the procurement gap with adversaries.
“The key to that transformation is technology—and we believe a large part of that technology is transformers and generative AI—and bringing that into the acquisition,” Aberle said.
“Bringing generative AI into procurement and acquisition must be done so carefully in highly regulated environments where the government is constantly worried about risk and they’re constantly worried about protests and risk for very good reasons.”