The General Services Administration, NASA and the National Institutes of Health will each hold buying events from June to September in an effort to increase participation of federal agencies in the Government-wide Strategic Solution for Desktops and Laptops initiative.
Mary Davie, assistant commissioner of the integrated technology service office at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, wrote in a blog entry posted Thursday the three agencies will conduct the events to comply with an Office of Management and Budget-issued memorandum that calls for interagency collaboration and industry feedback to increase efficiency in government IT hardware acquisitions.
She said research showed that agencies awarded over 10,000 individual contracts and delivery orders to procure desktop and laptop computers during fiscal year 2014 and the cost of those products varied by nearly 300 percent.
An OMB-formed team of IT and procurement professionals from NASA, GSA and NIH collaborated with other several other federal and industry partners to establish the GSS program in efforts to drive pricing transparency and address challenges agencies face when they buy computers.
“GSS currently gives agencies a choice of three desktop and three laptop configurations that meet the federal government’s requirements for more than 80 percent of systems purchased,” Davie noted.
“In addition to the six standard configurations, GSS for Desktops and Laptops has pre-negotiated policies and terms and conditions, and includes significant small business participation–over 85 percent, ensuring that agencies save time and meet socioeconomic goals.”