The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the unit of the federal government that provides help to state and local agencies in the event of a major crisis, may join a growing number of U.S. agencies that have implemented RPA to automate certain processes.
Government agencies that are interested in a technology solution but not yet ready to pursue a contract will issue an official Request for Information (RFI) to better understand the market and the problems it can solve.
FEMA said in its RFI it is exploring sources to reduce labor associated with manual processes within its Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO). Logistics and supply chain are an area where RPA is gaining significant traction. Other parts of the federal government, in fact, have already implemented RPA in the processes surrounding supply chains to great effect.
According to FEMA, the RFI will be “used to identify potential business sources that are interested and capable of providing the requirements to support FEMA in RPA and to gather information for planning purposes. FEMA OCPO requires assistance with the identification of the RPA software application, program management/support, installation and configuration of RPA software, establishing a methodology for RPA process selection, development of intake procedures, documentation of processes to be automated, development of automations, testing, training, lessons learned, and implementation of automations.”
Detailed documentation and deadlines for responding to the RFI are available in FEMA’s SAM Notice. The agency is accepting responses through Feb. 16.