Army builds on success with its modernized contract writing system

U.S. Army Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems and the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Procurement are continuing to enhance the modernized Army Contract Writing System (ACWS) with the June 24 rollout of a new integration capability with the General Fund Enterprise Business System (GFEBS), the Army’s web-based financial management system.

The GFEBS integration is the next step in ACWS' modernization effort, which initially launched in July 2023 to a small group of contracting offices and in January 2024 expanded to over 500 users. With the latest capability release, ACWS will reach an additional 1,200 users from sites across the National Guard Bureau, U.S. Army Medical Command and portions of the U.S. Army Contracting Command that receive purchase requisitions via GFEBS — making the total number of ACWS users approximately 1,700.

The June 24 capability release marks an important milestone for the Army as it streamlines contract management to ensure seamless interoperability and support mission demand through the timely procurement of goods and services. ACWS is the next-generation solution to help Army professionals accomplish their mission in a more efficient and expedited manner. 

“This new integration capability with GFEBS will help us deliver innovation, adaptability and efficiency for total force readiness,” said Rick Harris, acting product manager for ACWS. “By using Agile development, delivery and iterative releases, we can get capability into the hands of our Soldiers and Civilians faster — at the speed of relevance. That’s our number one priority.”

By modernizing and automating various aspects of the contracting process, ACWS provides a more effective solution for the Army’s acquisition workforce. ACWS will eventually replace the Standard Procurement System/Procurement Desktop-Defense and the Procurement Automated Data and Document System.

“The partnership, collaboration and integration between ACWS and GFEBS have been designed to ensure that contract-related financial data flows seamlessly between the contract management system and the financial management system,” said Carlton White, product director for GFEBS. “This new integration will help maintain data consistency, accuracy and compliance across both systems.”

ACWS will function as the new standardized and streamlined platform for Army procurement processes, serving as the single source for contract execution spanning from contract award to closure. Since ACWS’ initial rollout in July 2023, the Army contracting workforce has issued 1,281 contract awards through the system, with total obligations of $81 million. 

"By enabling the Army's largest financial management system to integrate with our new contract writing system, we are able to reach a significant moment that this program has long talked about, in providing our users the capabilities they need and deserve," said Maria Dunton, ACWS lead for the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Procurement).

Looking ahead, ACWS will continue to leverage cross-service collaboration to share incremental updates and develop future capabilities that deliver business excellence at the speed of relevance.