Last October, I wrote a blog post called “Go Big or Go Home.”

In that post, I described one of the most significant modernization opportunities in the federal government: replacing a patchwork of more than 100 separate HR systems with a single governmentwide platform.

At the time, it was a vision. Today, it is becoming a reality.

This week, OPM awarded the contract for the federal government’s first governmentwide HR platform, a major milestone in our effort to modernize how agencies manage the federal workforce.

For most Americans, “HR technology” probably doesn’t sound very exciting. Fair enough.

But behind the scenes, the federal government’s current approach to HR technology is remarkably inefficient.

As I noted in my earlier post, the government operates more than 100 separate core HR systems across agencies. Many of these systems do not communicate effectively with one another. They require separate contracts, separate maintenance, separate upgrades, and separate support structures. The result is a fragmented landscape that costs taxpayer dollars and makes it harder for agencies to access accurate, real-time workforce data.

Imagine if every department of a large company used a different payroll system, different employee database, and different method for tracking personnel information. It would be expensive, difficult to manage, and nearly impossible to generate reliable data across the organization.

That is effectively how the federal government has been operating for decades.

The new governmentwide platform is designed to change that.

By bringing agencies onto a shared system, we will leverage the scale and purchasing power of the federal government to dramatically reduce costs while improving service and functionality. We expect that this approach will reduce overall spend by more than 90 percent compared to the fragmented model that exists today, close to $20 billion over ten years.

Equally important, it will help create a single source of truth for workforce information across government.

That means agencies will have better data. Leaders will have better visibility into workforce trends. HR professionals will spend less time navigating duplicative systems and more time focusing on strategic workforce management. And employees will benefit from a more modern and consistent experience.

This effort is also about stewardship.

Taxpayers should expect the federal government to take advantage of its size when purchasing technology. In the private sector, large organizations routinely consolidate systems to reduce costs, improve security, and eliminate unnecessary duplication. The federal government should do the same – and we have done so here. We are not talking about saving a few pennies here and there, but billions of dollars that can now be re-directed toward better serving the needs of the American people. This is what being stewards of taxpayer dollars means!

Of course, projects of this scale do not happen overnight.

The transition will occur in phases and will require close collaboration between OPM, agencies, HR professionals, and technology partners. We are committed to ensuring the process is thoughtful, deliberate, and focused on delivering results.

But make no mistake: this is a transformational step.

Last year, we asked a simple question: Why should the federal government operate more than 100 separate HR systems when modern technology makes a governmentwide solution possible?

Today, we are taking action on the answer.

Modernizing government is not always about creating something new. Sometimes it is about replacing outdated ways of doing business with solutions that are more efficient, more effective, and more accountable to taxpayers.

That is what this effort is about.

And it is why I am so excited to see the vision we outlined last year move from concept to implementation.