OMB has released a "federal IT shared services strategy" to guide agency CIOs and other stakeholders in carrying out a White House goal of consolidating buying power for similar IT needs and getting lower prices and improved service leverage in the process.
The strategy is part of OMB’s 25-point IT management improvement plan and covers the entire spectrum of IT shared service opportunities throughout the federal government and promotes the use of existing and new strategic sourcing methods, OMB said.
Another document, a Common Approach to Federal Enterprise Architecture accompanies the strategy to provide "agile, standardized methods and tools for designing the next generation of IT resources and shared services that agencies will need to successfully accomplish their missions in the face of tight resources and rising customer needs," according to OMB.
It said the shared-first strategy would support agencies in carrying out their IT portfolio reviews through the "PortfolioStat" process – modeled on the smaller scale TechStat review process used for individual IT programs – which is required under OMB memo M-12-10.
