The administration has designated leaders to be in charge of its Category Management procurement program across agencies in the 10 largest areas of federal procurement that together account for about $270 billion in spending annually.
The categories are IT, medical, transportation, travel and lodging, human capital, professional services, security and protection, facilities and construction, industrial products and services, and office management.
The designated officials, from OMB, GSA, DoD, VA and OPM, will oversee a “Category Management Center of Excellence” in conjunction with GSA, according to a Chief Acquisition Officer Anne Rung.
Their areas of expertise include “conducting spend analysis, market research, financial and supply chain risk analysis, and using this information to develop strategic plans specific to their category with clear metrics and outcomes. Each team will also work towards a shared set of government-wide metrics and outcomes described in the Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) goal for Category Management, including reducing duplication, meeting small business goals, and driving greater savings,” she said in a blog posting.
She also cited other activities under the Category Management initiative, including eliminating duplicate professional service contracts, improvements to the GSA Acquisition Gateway online tool for information sharing among acquisition professionals, and the recent issuance of government-wide software agreements for application development services and geospatial software licensing.