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A quick search of the headlines of major newspapers reveals a treasure trove of technology procurement gone wrong. While the private sector seems to adopt and implement new technology seamlessly and quickly to deliver for customers, the government struggles to accomplish technology purchases and integrations with the same ease. As governments in the United States are looking to retain their current workforce and attract the next generation of workers, the technological capabilities and ethos of governments will be paramount. With nearly every industry being transformed by technology and Generation T being the first generation to have an ingrained “technology first” mindset, the ability of governments to attract these workers depends, in large part, on the ability to transform their government technology culture, policies, and practices.

In this chapter, the authors examine the administrative branch and observe two key components at the root of most technology failures: poor organizational structure in the bureaucracy and the lack of an empowered Chief Information/Technology Officer. Building upon case studies from Massachusetts and California, this chapter looks at the factors related to failure or success to understand the technology procurement culture. The chapter concludes by presenting four key “best practice” principles of public policy and administration that can be implemented by almost any governmental entity to improve their acquisition and implementation of technology.

Government’s e-procurement system has not caught on as rapidly as has e-Bay! This article examines the slow implementation rate of public e-procurement systems. It challenges the notion that efficiency gains alone can entice governments to leave traditional procurement systems and principles behind. Four traditional procurement principles are reexamined to see whether they are deterrents to e-commerce: (1) low bid wins and that’s a must; (2) separation between the vendor and user is desirable to avoid claims of favoritism; (3) fixed price and fixed term contracts are best for government; and (4) open access is absolutely imperative in all situations. The jury is still out as to whether the new commerce is contingent upon a reformulation of these principles.

State governments have begun to introduce various eprocurement tools to improve inefficient and ineffective procurement management; however, few empirical studies have documented the diffusion of e-procurement. This study uses data collected from state procurement agencies to examine which e-procurement tools state governments are using as well as to explore what factors affect the adoption of these tools. This study confirms that simple innovations are more rapidly diffused than those that are technically or legally complex. State governments that are more likely to adopt e-procurement tools tend to be larger, managerially innovative, and to have a strong centralized procurement office. Overall, e-procurement is promising technology, but managerial and technical challenges still remain.

This article examines the development of the Internet and electronic procurement or e-procurement in American state governments. I am interested in discerning the extent of adoption of e-procurement, especially as it relates to the use of the Internet in the procurement function. Specifically, eprocurement is examined with data from a national survey of state procurement officers. The first part of this article demonstrates an e-government growth model as a way of modeling the development of e-procurement. The second part examines the existing literature on e-procurement development and challenges associated with its implementation. The third part constructs an eprocurement index, which measures the adoption rate of electronic procurement in each of the states. This e-procurement index is tested against management, organizational, and economic predictor variables. The results of the eprocurement model indicated positive support for electronic procurement on state management capacity and IT management capacity, indicating that high performing management is a critical catalyst for e-procurement development.

Delineating where stability occurs in a contract provides the window of opportunity for procurement officials to positively affect cost and schedule outcomes. While the concept of a Cost Performance Index (CPI) "stability rule" has been routinely cited by Earned Value Management (EVM) authors since the early 1990's, more recent research questions the veracity of this stability rule. This paper resolves the controversy by demonstrating that the definition of stability matters. We find a morphing of the stability definition over time, with three separate definitions permeating the literature. Next, an analysis of Department of Defense contracts for both cost and schedule stability properties finds that the veracity of the stability rule is intricately tied to the definition used.

Many countries worldwide have identified e‐procurement as a priority of e‐government agenda and have implemented, or are in the process of implementing, e‐procurement systems. The purpose of this paper is to understand the challenges of e‐procurement implementation in the government sector and efforts taken to overcome the challenges, using a Malaysia government case.

This study adopts a qualitative case study approach of an e‐procurement project, which is one of Malaysia's e‐government initiatives. Data were collected using a triangulation approach that involved semi‐structured interviews, document reviews and observation.

The theoretical framework draws on Croom and Brandon‐Jones and was further developed during data analysis. Findings show that challenges of e‐procurement implementation in government sector are not only related to software integration, data management and roll‐out strategy, but also to legal and administration procedures, information technology (IT) infrastructure, outsourcing contract and IT skills. Findings show the importance of creating an IT facilities centre in rural areas and working closely with a third‐party vendor for users' training and skills development.

The findings extend key issues of e‐procurement implementation using a case study in the Malaysia government. The paper highlights the need to understand challenges and limitations faced by a developing countries such as Malaysia in implementing e‐government projects. The paper provides a basis for further thought and analysis on important issues such as lack of IT infrastructure and skills, as well as high dependency on third‐party developers that needs to be overcome in order to gain the impact of an e‐procurement system.

This paper has explored implementation issues of e‐procurement in government sectors, particularly in developing countries, and hence provides guidelines for future implementation strategy for system developers, government officials and ministry.

Only limited studies examine the implementation issues of e‐procurement in the government sector, especially in developing countries. While current studies focus more on the readiness of implementing e‐procurement, this study posits to understand the challenges faced by a developing country in e‐procurement implementation.

In this chapter, a general introduction on artificial intelligence (AI) is given as well as an overview of the advances of AI in different engineering disciplines, including its effectiveness in driving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). This chapter begins with some fundamental definitions and concepts on AI and machine learning (ML) followed by a classification of the different categories of ML algorithms. After that, a general overview of the impact which different engineering disciplines such as Civil, Chemical, Mechanical, Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering have on the UN SDGs is given. The application of AI and ML to enhance the processes in these different engineering disciplines is also briefly explained. This chapter concludes with a brief description of the UN SDGs and how AI can positively impact the attainment of these goals by the target year of 2030.