DHS sunsets its Acquisition Planning Forecast System
The Department of Homeland Security is planning to shut down its Acquisition Planning Forecast System at the end of the week, per a notice posted to the website Tuesday.
No new DHS procurement forecasts will be entered on APFS effective Oct. 30. DHS instructed industry to visit a landing page on its site beginning Nov. 5. A member of the agency’s Office of the Chief Procurement Officer told FedScoop that the migration will occur during that downtime. In the interim, forecast opportunities will not be available to view.
“On December 9th, if you have a subscription service in the current APFS system those same parameters will be good and you will start getting automatic notifications,” the systems team lead said via email. “To view opportunities you will also be able to go to apfs-era.dhs.gov online and DHS.gov continue to provide the downloadable (excel, pdf versions of the entire forecast list).”
DHS did not respond to a request for comment on why APFS is being replaced.
While the shutdown came as a surprise to some, others were clued in. A Coast Guard bulletin from August identified the replacement for APFS as a tool called 4SITE, or Forecasting System for Industry Tracking and Engagement. The Professional Services Council also hosted a webinar in July to discuss the upcoming transition to 4SITE.
The end of APFS brings change for those tracking procurement opportunities
“Although sites like APFS are not always particularly exciting, industry relies on agency forecasts to help plan and make sound investment decisions,” said Dave Zvenyach, a government contracting and data expert, who previously served in leadership roles at the General Services Administration.
APFS is also used as a transparency tool by watchdog groups to keep an eye on potentially harmful projects. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plans to procure gloves that deliver electric shocks were first made public by acquisition planning documents, as well as its intent to buy robodogs.
The APFS shutdown follows a trend of critical data sources being overhauled.
“We’ve seen several migrations over recent months—such as the IT Dashboard shutdown and the FPDS move to SAM—where industry has to try and adapt to the government’s changes, and it’s not always obvious why,” said Zvenyach, who now serves as CEO of MakeGov.
“I am hopeful that DHS will use this opportunity to provide more access and insight into its buying needs,” Zvenyach added. “But, in the meantime, I suppose we’ll have to wait and see whether it’s a step toward greater transparency or whether it’s just a burden.”
Seamless transitions are far and few between.
Delays, data loss or degraded user experience are just a few of the looming adverse outcomes that could arise if the technical side of the migration falls short, according to Jessica Tillipman, associate dean for government procurement law studies at George Washington University Law School.
“It’s about legacy technology and its interoperability with the newer technology, which seems to be a leading issue in a lot of these things,” Tillipman said. “When you build under one system and then transition to a new one, they don’t always communicate or play nice with each other.”
