The government's top IT manager and acquisition official released new mandates to pull back on the number of contracts from agencies for laptops and desktops and streamline procurement for the most common hardware purchases.
"From the start, this administration has optimized IT spending to save taxpayers' money by driving value and cost savings in federal IT investments and by delivering better services to American citizens," Chief Acquisition Officer Anne Rung and Federal CIO Tony Scott wrote in an Oct. 16 blog post.
To further that goal, the Office of Management and Budget, working with technology and acquisition experts from NASA, issued three new directives to agencies intended to reduce the total number computer contracts and create a standard configuration for hardware across the federal government.
The most significant new mandate prohibits agencies from awarding any new contracts or issuing any new solicitations for laptops or desktops.
Instead, civilian agencies will be required to make their purchases off of one of three governmentwide acquisition vehicles: NASA's SEWP V, NIH's CIO-CS or GSA's IT Schedule 70.
"These vehicles were awarded according to category management principles, an approach to better buying and managing the federal government's vast goods and services more like a single enterprise," Rung and Scott said. "Moreover, annual evaluations of the performance of these solutions will ensure they continue to result in greater efficiency, effectiveness and savings for the civilian agencies."
Along with the restriction to using approved contracts, OMB is directing agencies to follow NASA's lead for setting standard configurations, which will be updated every six months. Those updates — including contract terms, pricing and approved tools — will be posted on GSA's Acquisition Gateway.
"The actions described above will reduce duplication, improve pricing and better leverage the government's vast buying power," according to Rung and Scott.
Aaron Boyd is an awarding-winning journalist currently serving as editor of Federal Times — a Washington, D.C. institution covering federal workforce and contracting for more than 50 years — and Fifth Domain — a news and information hub focused on cybersecurity and cyberwar from a civilian, military and international perspective.
