OMB has called attention to several ongoing or planned steps to carry out the “category management” purchasing initiative, which is designed to consolidate the government’s purchases of the most common types of acquisitions–such as IT, security and protection, facilities and construction, transportation, travel and lodging, office management, and professional services–which collectively account for two-thirds of the $270 billion the government annually spends on goods and services.
In a blog posting, OMB noted a recent directive from its Office of Federal Procurement Policy as well as the Common Application Platform, an online tool with a “category hallways” feature at https://hallways.cap.gsa.gov. In addition, GSA will coordinate with the Strategic Sourcing Leadership Council (SSLC), comprised of the seven largest and highest-spending agencies, and other key players in the federal acquisition community to create guidelines for executing category management, OMB said.
“Far too often, our acquisition professionals are making these purchases with very little insight into what their counterparts across the government are buying, who they are buying it from, what they are paying, and how they are buying it. In general, there is very little coordination and sharing of information and best practices across government. In fact, there is no single place a government contracting officer can go to find out important details regarding existing contract vehicles for any particular commodity area,” the posting said.
“Category management will empower agencies with spending data and contract intelligence so they can make more informed purchases that better respond to an agency’s needs, leverage budget resources, and benefit taxpayers.,” it said.