January Dinner Meeting with Shanna Webbers, CPO at IRS
On January 15, 2020 we welcomed Shanna Webbers, Chief Procurement Officer at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), who brought us into the new year and spoke to a packed house at our dinner meeting. Ms. Webbers procures supplies, services, equipment, and information technology for the IRS and Treasury Offices and for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. She is accountable for all matters related to acquisition, including development of policies, procedures, programs, and objectives in accordance with applicable laws, policies, and regulations. She determines program emphases and goals and establishes standards and procedures for the effective, efficient and ethical implementation of agency procurement activities. She also evaluates agency-wide procurement effectiveness, economy, and customer service and identifies and develops improvement strategies.
She shared how IRS’s reorganization aligns with the recently published white paper, Preparing for the Future of Contracting, by NCMA and Management Concepts. The paper reports what senior contracting leaders view as the biggest issues they see on the horizon—and what we should be doing now to prepare. Participants definitely found it interesting! She touched on a few key points:
The Role of Contracting is Changing: A changing mission environment will rely on contracting professionals to drive new solutions.
The Business of Contracting is Changing: The business of contracting will evolve as technology, automation, and data analytics and utilization further evolves to realize new efficiencies and innovations.
The Workforce is Changing: The contracting workforce will require a new set of competencies and skills as the roles of those within the profession become more strategic and less tactical.
Thank you to Ms. Webbers and to everyone that joined us at the event! We look forward to seeing you again.
