The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is looking for vendors to help the agency scale up its robotics process automation (RPA) capabilities to a target level of 35 to 50 automations annually, according to a new request for information (RFI) from the agency.
The agency’s existing RPA program – which operates within IRS’s IT branch – is asking companies for proposals by Jan. 2, 2024, that could help enhance the program’s capabilities and scale its current abilities.
The contract opportunity asks that vendors have “significant experience in Robotic Process Automation.” Additionally, vendors will need to be able to “participate in activities such as, but not limited to, evaluating, designing, prototyping, piloting, developing, and implementing RPA automations and extensions towards pre-existing systems, that can be used both on-premises and on the cloud.”
“The RPA program is within the IT branch in the IRS and therefore we address a lot of IT challenges not related to RPA,” said the agency.
“Some of these areas include FISMA, Authority to Operate, Application Program Interfaces, data input/scraping with mainframes, digitizing paper forms, automating daily tasks and generally providing solutions to complex IT challenges in the government,” IRS said.
Key questions for potential vendors include:
- What software, and experience level, does your company support within RPA?
- How many automations does your company deploy per year?
- Will all your employees be eligible for security clearance, or government building access?
- Does your company have any experience with the IRS or GAAP and other tax laws applicable to the business of the IRS?
- What is your typical timeline to perform intake, analysis, development, and deployment of one automation in each of the High, Medium, Low complexity categories?
The IRS’s move to modernize its technological capabilities comes as the agency moves away from traditional, paper-based means to file for taxes to an online system that delivers better customer experience.
“The RPA program is also increasing the footprint in Optical/Intelligent Character Recognition to reduce the backlog of paper-based forms and significantly reduce the manual labor required to read these forms and input data into IRS systems,” stated the agency.
