category management | The Contracting Education Academy

December 9, 2016 By AMK

To make government great again, fix the procurement system

Category management is not just a new name for strategic sourcing. Rather, strategic sourcing is one of the tools used by category teams to manage procurement expenditure to achieve mission value.

Unfortunately, much of the writing about strategic sourcing conflates it with category management, creating some misunderstanding about how the two are related. Detangling the definitions can help; though doing so necessarily simplifies processes that in practice are highly nuanced and often overlapping.

category-management-strategic-sourcing

It’s worth the risk, however, in order to clarify what is strategic about strategic sourcing and how category management strategies are successfully executed.

Category management and strategic sourcing differ in scope, processes, data requirements, tools and outcomes.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2016/11/make-government-great-again-fix-procurement-system/133324

October 11, 2016 By AMK

Contract consolidation effort saves $2 billion and counting

Two years after the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) embraced the consolidation-of-contracts strategy known as category management, the White House recently announced that the effort to “transform the federal marketplace” has delivered $2 billion in savings.

OFPP Chief Acquisition Officer Anne Rung, in a blog post, said the Obama administration’s effort to modernize government and incorporate private-sector best practices through bulk purchasing is “on track” to save $3.5 billion by the end of next year. “We’ve seen prices drop by as much as 50 percent of personal computers since the release of the workstation policy,” Rung said. “By the end of 2016, 45 percent of the $1.1 billion spent in annual purchases for desktops and laptops will be consolidated into three governmentwide contracts.”

Small business goals were exceeded, Rung said, and 700 duplicative contracts were eliminated.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2016/10/contract-consolidation-effort-saves-2-billion-and-counting/132059

category-management-savings-as-of-oct-2016

More details on Anne Rung’s blog post entitled “Transforming the Federal Marketplace, Two Years In” at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/09/30/transforming-federal-marketplace-two-years

September 1, 2016 By AMK

GSA’s 4th quarter buying event turns category management talk into action

Over the last few years, there has been a lot of talk about the goals of the Obama administration’s category management initiative, particularly around getting agencies to buy as one entity.

The first real demonstration of that concept happened earlier this month when the General Services Administration (GSA) conducted a reverse auction to set up three blanket purchase agreements for five agencies to potentially buy more than 45,000 laptops and desktops. The customers for this fourth quarter buying event were GSA’s Chief Information Office, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Defense Health Agency, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Defense Logistics Agency.

“The discounts offered by industry from the GSA schedule price list was an average up to 18.97 percent from the initial eBuy submission,” said a GSA spokeswoman. “Participating agencies provided estimates of future purchases for the fourth quarter buying event. The breakdown of how many laptops versus desktops were purchased will be available once participating agencies place their actual orders against the BPAs that are awarded.”

Keep r eading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2016/08/gsas-4th-quarter-buying-event-turns-category-management-talk-action/

August 1, 2016 By AMK

IG: GSA wastes millions due to pricing problems in computer resale program

Despite years of efforts to streamline multiple award schedules used by information technology resellers, the General Services Administration (GSA) has been offering many identical items at varying prices, said an inspector general’s report released last week.

“GSA’s ability to obtain competitive, market-based prices may be impaired when IT schedule resellers have no/low commercial sales and when the Price Reductions clause is modified to exclude certain sales,” the report said, warning of “millions of dollars in unnecessary costs to the government.”

IT resellers typically buy computers and software in bulk and then add value through customization before selling the adopted product to agencies or commercial customers.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/management/2016/07/ig-gsa-wastes-millions-due-pricing-problems-computer-resale-program/130191

June 23, 2016 By AMK

OMB issues guidance applying ‘category management’ strategy to software purchasing

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued another in a series of information technology (IT) policies to make the acquisition and management of common IT goods and services more efficient and save taxpayer dollars.

omb OMB’s new policy is another step toward leveraging better pricing from the $8 billion government agencies spend annually on PCs, software licenses, and mobile devices. In the past eight months, OMB issued policies on federal contracting for on workstations and mobile services.

Through more efficient “category management” buying practices, OMB reports that nearly $2 billion in savings have been realized since 2009 and the prices for laptop computers have dropped by as much as 50 percent. In addition, 700 duplicative professional services contracts have been eliminated.

The latest policy policy calls for agencies to move to a more centralized and collaborative software management approach. Agencies are required to appoint a software manager to: 1) centrally manage software buys and reduce underutilization, 2) maintain a continual inventory of software licenses and better track usage, 3) consolidate redundant applications, and 4) maximize the use of best-in-class solutions.

Moreover, OMB’s latest policy directive charges the Enterprise Software Category Team (ESCT) — a cross-governmental, cross-functional team of senior IT and acquisition professionals — to lead an effort and help break down silos in government IT acquisition actions to foster centralization and greater transparency. Specifically, the ESCT is to drive and monitor the development of government-wide software strategies, such as increasing the number and use of government-wide software agreements and improving software license management practices.

Access the new OMB policy here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2016/m-16-12_1.pdf.

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Category management is not just a new name for strategic sourcing. Rather, strategic sourcing is one of the tools used by category teams to manage procurement expenditure to achieve mission value.

Two years after the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) embraced the consolidation-of-contracts strategy known as category management, the White House recently announced that the effort to “transform the federal marketplace” has delivered $2 billion in savings.

Over the last few years, there has been a lot of talk about the goals of the Obama administration’s category management initiative, particularly around getting agencies to buy as one entity.

Despite years of efforts to streamline multiple award schedules used by information technology resellers, the General Services Administration (GSA) has been offering many identical items at varying prices, said an inspector general’s report released last week.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued another in a series of information technology (IT) policies to make the acquisition and management of common IT goods and services more efficient and save taxpayer dollars.

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