Modernizing federal procurement is vital.
Outdated processes hinder efficiency.
U.S. federal agencies have been undergoing procurement modernization efforts for years, including e-procurement platforms, digital solicitations, and AI oversight. However, many fall short not because the tools are flawed, but because the underlying culture remains unchanged.
Procurement modernization is often seen as a systems implementation: installing a new contract system, digitizing forms, and centralizing data. While these upgrades are necessary, they are not enough. True modernization requires changing the behaviors, mindsets, and operating models of the acquisition workforce. Even the best systems will fall short without addressing training, accountability, collaboration, and change readiness.
This challenge is urgent under Executive Order 14240, which mandates consolidating common goods and services procurement under GSA. Centralizing procurement involves more than transitioning to a new platform; it requires aligning agencies under a unified vision of accountability, efficiency, and mission focus. This alignment begins with culture.
Our Perspective
The procurement culture in many agencies remains compliance-oriented and risk-averse—traits that, while stemming from good intentions, often lead to inefficiency. Lengthy approval chains, redundant documentation, and siloed decision-making are not merely symptoms of outdated systems but also of deeply ingrained habits. Even when agencies embrace modern tools, legacy behaviors continue: staff still print digital forms, approvals still route sequentially, and contracting officers are reluctant to utilize the streamlined procedures permitted under the FAR.
Changing this culture requires more than just issuing policy memos. It demands active leadership, strong role modeling, and a commitment to developing new competencies. Acquisition professionals need to feel empowered to use modern tools, supported in exercising judgment, and incentivized to prioritize outcomes over processes for their own sake.
Key elements of a modern procurement culture include:
- Agility and Adaptability: Recognizing that needs evolve and solutions must keep pace. Agile procurement practices—such as modular contracting, oral proposals, and down-select evaluations—require comfort with iteration and experimentation.
- Data-Driven Decision-Making: Leveraging procurement analytics to inform vendor selection, pricing strategy, and risk management. This shift requires not only access to data but also training on how to interpret and act on it.
- Collaboration Over Compliance: Bringing program managers, finance, legal, and contracting into the process early and often, rather than operating in silos. Modern tools enable this, but culture must encourage it.
- Outcome Orientation: Shifting from checking boxes to delivering results. This means viewing acquisition not as an administrative hurdle, but as a mission-enabling function.
Federal success stories demonstrate that culture change is achievable. For example, DHS’s Procurement Innovation Lab created a “safe space” for teams to test new acquisition techniques without fear of noncompliance backlash. Agencies adopting GSA’s FAS Catalog Platform are reevaluating how they assess vendors, not just for compliance, but for long-term value.
Importantly, agencies must pair cultural change with skills development. As technology automates repetitive tasks, procurement professionals must evolve into more strategic roles—analysts, advisors, and risk managers. Modernization risks creating a gap between system capability and user readiness without investing in workforce training and leadership development.
How TechSur Can Support
TechSur Solutions understands that modernization of procurement includes both people and platforms. Beyond providing acquisition systems, TechSur supports a culture of continuous improvement. This includes integrating intuitive user experiences, embedding training into workflows, and configuring systems for agile procurement and risk management.
Our experience with modernization efforts across federal agencies, especially GSA, combined with tailored change management, upskilling, and mission-focused advisory, ensures agencies adopt new tools and evolve the culture necessary for effective use. TechSur supports lasting change by addressing both technology and the people who use it.
Conclusion
Federal procurement is undergoing much-needed modernization, but technology alone will not transform outcomes. A modern contract writing system without a contemporary acquisition culture is akin to a high-performance vehicle driven in first gear. The agencies that thrive under Executive Order 14240 and beyond will be those that acknowledge culture as the true enabler of efficiency, accountability, and impact.
Leaders must ask: are we equipping our teams not just with better tools, but also with improved ways of thinking and working? Are we empowering our procurement professionals to act with agility, collaborate, and question outdated practices?
Procurement modernization starts with systems, but it is achieved or hindered through culture. Now is the time to invest in both.