Consolidation | The Contracting Education Academy

April 26, 2017 By cs

Changes coming to SAM.gov

The General Services Administration (GSA) is planning to test a new version of the System for Award Management (SAM.gov).

This means that plans GSA made as far back as 2001 may be realized sometime in 2018.

At present, SAM.gov is the federal database where vendors register to do business with the government. When it went live in mid-2012, SAM was introduced as portal where, over time, several different government databases would be consolidated. Federal Agency Registration (FedReg), the Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA), and the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS) were among the systems to be first consolidated under the SAM umbrella.

The 2012 introduction of SAM initially was delayed and, once launched, many problems were encountered by vendors and government agencies alike. Since then, SAM experienced a data breach in 2013, cost overruns, accessibility issues, and periodic interface difficulties with SBA’s small business database.

GSA now plans to resume work on the original vision for SAM: the consolidation of as many as 10 websites.

A new test site, at beta.sam.gov, reportedly is to launch between July 1 and Sept. 30, 2017.

The objective of the consolidated web site is to reduce the federal contracting burden on contractors and government officials alike by creating a single place to access a range of data, including contractor registration information, contract award data on prime contractors and subcontractors, and information about companies excluded from pursuing government work.

Eventually, the functions of 10 existing sites — including SAM.gov, the Federal Procurement Data System (fpds.gov); Federal Business Opportunities (fbo.gov), the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act Subaward Reporting System (fsrs.gov), and the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (fapiis.gov) — will become a part of the SAM beta site. Once testing is completed, all of the added functionality will become a part of a new SAM.gov site. The sites that are merged into SAM.gov then will be retired.

Improvements, such as search features, will continue to be made to existing sites as the new site is being tested, GSA says.

February 2, 2017 By cs

Number of new U.S. government vendors drops to 10-year low

An 8 percent bounce in fiscal 2016 contract spending couldn’t keep the number of first-time federal vendors from falling to a 10-year low.

Despite a $34 billion, year-over-year spending jump to $475 billion in fiscal 2016, agencies signed contracts with only 15,925 first-time sellers in 2016, according to Bloomberg data. This was just 13 percent of the government’s 124,000-vendor pool, and the second-lowest new vendor share in at least a decade.

The dramatic decline in new vendors since fiscal 2007 raises concerns about the health of the federal government’s industrial base and its ability to fulfill critical national security, scientific, health and environmental missions that depend on a steady flow of private-sector innovation and competitiveness.

Keep reading this article at: https://about.bgov.com/blog/number-new-u-s-government-vendors-drops-10-year-low/

June 23, 2016 By cs

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.

October 19, 2015 By cs

OMB and GSA tout progress in federal agencies ‘buying as one’

In the 10 months since the White House procurement policy chief announced a new push to consolidate contracts, the government as a whole has taken seven key steps in pursuit of category management, officials said on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2016.

“The more we work together to leverage our buying power, drive more consistent practices across our agencies, share information, and reduce duplication, the better the results for the American taxpayers,” wrote U.S. Chief Acquisition Officer Anne Rung and Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Tom Sharpe in a blogpost for the Office of Management and Budget.

Category management, an enterprise-wide approach to acquiring goods and services used in private industry and by other governments, has been developed by the General Services Administration. A December 2014 directive “Transforming the Federal Marketplace” broadened the interagency Strategic Sourcing Leadership Council’s charge to encompass category management, or “buying as one.” Officials renamed it the Category Management Leadership Council and divided the federal marketplace into 10 super categories of common items that include information technology, professional services and human capital. The goal is to make all categories functional by early 2016.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2015/10/omb-and-gsa-tout-progress-federal-agencies-buying-one/122850

October 8, 2015 By cs

Defense industry pushes back against Pentagon’s consolidation concerns

The Aerospace Industries Association last week pushed back against comments made by the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, who in unusually strong language raised concerns about consolidation in the defense industry.

Frank Kendall, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics.

Frank Kendall, the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, said this week that continued consolidation of major defense firms could limit competition, stifle innovation and eventually result “in higher prices to be paid by the American taxpayer in order to support our warfighters.”

And Kendall said he feared a future where the Pentagon “has at most two or three very large suppliers for all the major weapons systems that we acquire.”

But in its statement, David F. Melcher, the chief executive officer of the AIA, said that as defense spending tightens and there is continued budget uncertainty, “it’s no surprise that industry is looking to become leaner and more efficient.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/defense-industry-pushes-back-against-pentagons-consolidation-concerns/2015/10/01/66feb6d2-6880-11e5-9ef3-fde182507eac_story.html

An 8 percent bounce in fiscal 2016 contract spending couldn’t keep the number of first-time federal vendors from falling to a 10-year low.

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.

In the 10 months since the White House procurement policy chief announced a new push to consolidate contracts, the government as a whole has taken seven key steps in pursuit of category management, officials said on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2016.

The Aerospace Industries Association last week pushed back against comments made by the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, who in unusually strong language raised concerns about consolidation in the defense industry.

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