An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

CON-IT drives efficiency, effectiveness

  • Published
  • By Mr. George Sarmiento and Mr. Jonathon Owen

Today’s world brings new challenges for the safety of our nation and its citizens. Innovate, Accelerate, and Thrive are not simply words for a campaign, but values guiding the United States Air Force’s essential role in contributing to our nation’s security. Efficiency elevates effectiveness for the Air Force and that efficiency is proven more each day with Contracting-Information Technology (CON-IT).

Established in 2018, CON-IT is a low-code software built from the ground up on the Appian Plat-form and is currently designated by the Air Force to be the single contract writing solution. CON-IT standardizes acquisition contract writing, reduces costs, creates efficiency on both ends of the contract, and provides flexibility for ongoing success.

By implementing Agile methodology, this low-code software creates many advantages. First, the end-user experience is much easier. This ease of use, along with the sunsetting of legacy systems, such as Standard Procurement System and O’Contrax, means significant reduction in training costs. Second, the cybersecurity requirements from the Office of the Secretary of Defense are met in ways legacy systems (twenty-plus years old) could not provide. As technology evolves, CON-IT stands ready to meet challenges and easily create process changes to meet future demands.

In addition to the two legacy systems that CON-IT has already sunset, the program is currently adding capabilities to replace two more legacy systems ConWrite and Automated Contract Preparation Systems.

Additional benefits of CON-IT are that it provides financial audit transparency and enables Pro-cure-to-Pay (P2P) processing for contracts from inception to closeout. This allows all pertinent information to be automated which aids in clear transparency and Audit Readiness. Additionally, as a single source of contracting data, it makes decision-making easier for Air Force leadership.

The clear success of CON-IT for the Air Force has created interest and energy by other agencies and is currently undergoing evaluation by the Army, Navy, and the DLA (Defense Logistics Agency). As the number of CON-IT users continues to grow, the program is migrating to a larger Cloud to take advantage of the capabilities and savings for hosting costs.

In November 2022, CON-IT will have 5,000 users, more than half of the current 8,000 contracting personnel, and will continue to deploy to additional weapon system program offices.

While supporting over 140 sites this year, CON-IT has set records for the number of active users using CON-IT, Contract Actions (67,909), and amount obligated ($20.4B versus last year FY21 at $15.6B).

CON-IT is a scalable application set to make the future stronger by streamlining support for mission-critical actions by cutting costs and maximizing user experience with less training all while providing the flexibility and security needed for success in today’s Air Force.