Category: IT Security & Solutions

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OMB: GSA Tech Solutions Are “Best in Class,” Driving Smarter Government Buying

(Editorial note: This blog is written by Kay Ely, Acting Assistant Commissioner, Office of Information Technology Category)

For more than six decades, GSA has led the way in developing government-wide acquisition solutions, leveraging the power of government’s economies of scale and driving efficiencies across federal, state, local, and tribal governments.

We’re extremely proud that our Governmentwide Strategic Solution (GSS) Laptop/Desktop, along with Hardware and Software for IT Schedule 70, have been designated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as “Best-in-Class” (BIC) – part of the first group that OMB recognized in the IT Category.

BIC designations signal to the acquisition community that these solutions meet rigorous category management performance criteria and confirm that we offer the necessary solutions and processes to meet government’s current and future IT requirements. Great news…but we’re only getting started. What’s next?

Buying Smarter

These newly BIC-designated IT contracts represent preferred government-wide purchasing solutions and provide a unique opportunity to leverage the government’s buying power. The BIC designation allows acquisition experts to take advantage of pre-vetted, government-wide contract solutions and supports a government-wide migration to solutions that are mature and market-proven. They also help optimize spend within the government-wide category management framework and increase the transactional data available for agency level and government-wide analysis of buying behavior.

BIC designations are just the latest of several initiatives around customer-centric tools, templates, and best practices that government-wide category management is using to enable government IT to:

  • Improve requirements development, procurement and management
  • Partner strategically with industry
  • Reduce contract duplication
  • Foster cross-agency collaboration

Next Steps

But we’re not resting. We will continue to aim high and strive for higher quality and efficiency in order to provide value to government agencies. We will constantly review and improve our IT acquisition vehicles to maximize value for agencies’ mission requirements. And, we plan to offer other IT solutions for BIC designation review.

We believe a BIC designation is not the end state, but rather an important milestone on a journey to help agencies improve their buying strategies.

Another way we’re making it easier for government to buy smarter: we’ve updated the Acquisition Gateway and GSA.gov pages below to display the BIC designations

See which contracts are raising the bar:

Please follow us on Twitter @GSA_ITC and LinkedIn to join our ongoing conversations about government IT.

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My Q & A with the IT Industry – What’s Working and What Could be Improved in Federal Acquisition

(Byline: Mary Davie, Government-wide IT Category Manager)

I recently met with more than 50 representatives from the top IT services companies and talked about the good and the bad in federal acquisition. Some of the discussion was surprising … some not so much. The key takeaways include some changes that are fairly simple for government to implement, yet have big impacts.

1. Government acquisition and program personnel need to be more accessible and increase communications regarding requirements and procurement timelines. Industry told me government program/acquisition personnel rarely respond to requests to discuss programs, requirements, and agency priorities in order to develop proposals and solutions or offer alternatives.

GSA’s Information Technology Category has made extensive use of RFIs, draft RFPs, industry days, one-on-one meetings (over 100 individual meetings on Alliant 2 and EIS) and collaborative platforms such as interact.gsa.gov for collaboration and input. I’ve heard many times from government reps that they don’t have time or don’t know how to handle sharing with multiple companies since sharing has to be handled equitably.

I’m here to tell you we have to find time to meet with industry. There are many ways to share information equitably. GSA spends an extensive amount of time communicating and collaborating to develop all of our governmentwide contracts to ensure we get as much input and feedback as possible. The governmentwide IT category and sub-category teams (Mobile, Software, and Laptop/Desktop) are also spending lots of time conducting industry days, participating in technology demonstrations, and meeting individually with companies. And the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) encourages federal program and acquisition representatives to interact with industry as much as possible – they’ve issued three Mythbusting memos on the subject.

So my advice is to establish relationships and regular forums for communication with your industry partners and potential partners. The Alliant PMR and shared interest groups that have formed under the contract were called out as a best practice, and, unfortunately, are rare practice for government contracts.

Agencies should seize the opportunity inherent in active program management to help make the contract successful. GSA’s Alliant program and contracting staff are in constant communication with the industry – they share contract data, potential agency opportunities on the contract, outreach and training to agency customers, account management and agency buying trends; meet many client-facing GSA representatives; and provide a place for industry to resolve issues and challenges in a trusted environment.

Without spending time upfront to talk about what we need with industry, we aren’t going to get good competition or the innovative solutions we are looking for. I think open communications often comes from a feeling of safety and having top cover, and our government leaders need to provide that encouragement to our workforce.

2. e-Tools and Repository of Solicitations. Many agencies do an excellent job of using one system to post opportunities and retain statements of work and proposals in an historical repository. This is a great practice that reduces cost and provides clarity to industry about past requirements and incumbent contractors – things that are important to them as part of their bid/no-bid decision process. One participant said this about the Navy’s SeaPort-e system:

“You can see a changing dynamic in a scope of work and what solutions a customer is looking for. That transparency is robust enough to do a real analysis to understand that customer even better.”

That’s what we strive to do for the governmentwide category management efforts: share data and information, conduct more robust market research, and provide a platform like the Acquisition Gateway so agencies and industry have one place to go to find information pertinent to all agencies and across categories.

3. Statements of Work vs. Statements of Objectives. Government, in general, is still prescribing the HOW we want work to get done and what kind of people we want on the job (i.e., prescribing labor categories), rather than describing what we need and what the outcome should be.

Industry reported that they still see voluminous, prescriptive RFPs instead of simpler statements of objectives. When government uses the prescriptive RFP, it makes it harder for industry to offer innovative solutions – yet the government regularly says that’s what it wants. We need to train our folks to write statements of objectives and then how to manage contracts for outcomes and performance. It’s harder to do, but it’s where we need to be.

The industry unanimously agreed that GSA’s FEDSIM does a great job of this. FEDSIM conducts IT and professional services procurements on behalf of other agencies using a true Integrated Project Team approach. They bring in program, technical, acquisition, and legal staff to work with customer agency staff on requirements development and drafting the solicitation. In addition, FEDSIM uses standard acquisition processes and templates, and works very closely with industry to provide opportunity pipeline information and conduct market research during presolicitation (Check out their new website and you’ll see what I mean.). They write in clear performance-based terms and employ trained project managers and CORs to manage the projects after award.

Industry also pointed out that the way government structures smaller requirements often requires the same level of effort from industry to bid. So the tendency is for industry not to bid those requirements and instead spend their time bidding larger opportunities. This results in reduced competition and fewer innovative solutions for government on the smaller requirements.

4. STOP issuing Requests for Information asking for corporate capabilities! If an agency is going to use an existing contract, there is no need for capabilities RFIs. Agencies should be focused instead on asking for a few key pieces of information regarding the requirements themselves. Industry spends lots of time and money responding to general RFIs and then rarely ever get any information or response back from the government. This should be part of the market research and pre-solicitation process.

Another bad, costly, and confusing practice is for government to issue the same RFI against multiple contracts. Industry feels compelled to respond to all of them because of the uncertainty of where the requirement might end up. Unfortunately, this is a very costly and time-consuming practice.

With the Acquisition Gateway, agencies now have a single place they can find government-wide and agency-specific contracts for specific categories of spend. This should really help eliminate those general RFIs.

Using a tool like Interact provides a great way to share information online and let government and industry respond and ask questions – everyone has equal access. But government should still make time for those in-person discussions.

5. Things that drive up cost – Schedule slips and procurement delays. Industry budgets a certain amount of money each year for bid and proposal costs. As government delays the process, it extends the time industry must spend to pursue the work. It also comes with opportunity costs for not being able to bid on other work. This isn’t helpful if we want highly qualified partners who can bring us innovative solutions.

Requiring industry to provide references and agencies to fill out questionnaires on past performance. Industry questioned the value of government requiring past performance information as part of the evaluation process in the manner it typically uses. We all agree that both experience and past performance are critical factors. For the governmentwide contracts, the value is to offer qualified companies with strong program management and technical capabilities, so experience and past performance are both critical parts of the qualification process.

Systems like Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) and Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS) can be used for at least part of what the government needs in the evaluation process, but another alternative offered was reciprocity across government in sharing contract Quality Assurance Surveillance Plans.

Industry estimated that the process used by the OASIS and Alliant 2 teams (a combination of FPDS-NG reports, CPARS/PPIRS reports, and past performance surveys only if a CPARS/PPIRS report was not available) saved between 40-70% in offeror bid and proposal costs.

Guessing at the cost of the requirement. Industry shared that a best practice is to publish the range of estimated costs the government thinks (and is willing to spend) to do the job directly in the solicitation. Part of the rationale for this is that the government isn’t writing clear requirements and isn’t sharing enough information for industry to be able to “guess” what the government is asking. Another reason this makes sense is that the amount that the government is spending is already public. Rather than falling into the “Price to Win” trap, leveling the playing field allows the government to select what is truly the best value .

GSA’s FEDSIM organization has used this practice successfully for years (I did it when I worked at FEDSIM 20 years ago). When the range is provided, industry can determine the kind of solution they can bid for what the government can spend.

6. Protests. As you might imagine, this topic brought lots of energetic discussion. Wrapped up in the topic are industry-government communications, risk, quality, and company strategy.

Industry suggested that government should improve relationships and communication. This includes sharing more information and being accessible in the pre-solicitation phase, writing clearer requirements, and allowing for in-person debriefs. As a result of these activities protests may decrease.

Our government representatives didn’t quite buy it. They pointed to cases in which those things were taking place and yet we still received protests. There was clear agreement from both government and industry that protests are often used as a strategy by an incumbent company to buy more time and income.

The group then discussed using something like a protest bond or fee that a company would have to pay if they lost a protest, hoping to encourage only protests that were charging substantive deficiencies or issues.

I don’t think much of what came up in our discussion was a surprise to anyone; however, I truly appreciated industry’s candor and how they gave us an opportunity to share and learn from this feedback. Both government and industry have responsibilities in federal acquisition,both parties can make improvements. Small changes can have big impact.

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IT Security: Increasing and Enhancing Government-Wide Solutions To Address Cybersecurity Needs

This blog post is part of a seven-part series reviewing the Acquisition Gateway and IT Category data, trends, expertise, and advocacy that GSA’s Office of Information Technology Category (ITC) organization offers to support other agencies’ missions.

(Note: This blog is authored by Shon Lyublanovits, IT Security Subcategory Manager and Director of the Security Services Division for ITC, in GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service. In this capacity, she oversees activities and challenges of infusing Ccbersecurity into contract acquisitions.)

In October 2016, we announced that we were able to complete the first phase of the oral technical evaluations and expedite the modification/award processes to get 15 vendors on the new IT Schedule 70’s “Highly Adaptive Cybersecurity Services (HACS)” Special Item Numbers (SINs).

I am happy to report that we have launched the four new HACS SINs that feature high-quality cybersecurity vendors offering federal, state, and local governments the following services:

  • 132-45A: Penetration Testing – security testing in which assessors mimic real-world attacks to identify methods for circumventing the security features of an application, system, or network.
  • 132-45B: Incident Response – services help organizations impacted by a cybersecurity compromise determine the extent of the incident, remove the adversary from their systems, and restore their networks to a more secure state.
  • 132-45C: Cyber Hunt – responds to crisis or urgent situations within the pertinent domain to mitigate immediate and potential threats. Cyber Hunt activities start with the premise that threat actors known to target some organizations in a specific industry, or specific systems, are likely to also target other organizations in the same industry or with the same systems.
  • 132-45D: Risk and Vulnerability Assessment – conduct assessments of threats and vulnerabilities; determines deviations from acceptable configurations, enterprise, or local policy; assesses the level of risk; and develops and/or recommends appropriate mitigation countermeasures in operational and non-operational situations.

While the HACS SINs will allow agencies quicker and more reliable access to key pre-vetted support services that will expand agencies’ capacity to test their high-priority IT systems, rapidly address potential vulnerabilities, and stop adversaries before they impact our networks, we will continually look for more options to enhance these services and integrate with the national security community to ensure we have top-notch expertise in cybersecurity.

Ongoing Enhancement to HACS SINs

When we established the SINs in September 2016, we focused on providing the necessary tools to strengthen government agencies’ network and digital defenses against cyber attacks. Likewise, we’ll continue to evaluate and add more vendors to make these offerings even more robust. Altogether, we have evaluated and added 34 vendors to these SINs.

And eventually, all current IT Schedule 70 vendors that offer cybersecurity services will be required to migrate to the new HACS SINs. This, of course, will also provide a way for our industry partners to more easily differentiate these specific cybersecurity services from other IT offerings.

Strength through Inter-Agency Partnerships

We realize that in order to maximize success to guard against cyber attacks, we must create trusted partnerships with the national security community to ensure the rapid delivery of emerging technology to meet government cybersecurity needs.

  • First, we have increased communications and collaboration with Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, and the intelligence community (e.g., National Security Agency, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, etc.), in order to better structure, develop, and implement cybersecurity-related policy and guidance.
  • Second, we continually provide information regarding cybersecurity and feedback through the IT Security Hallway on Acquisition Gateway, and on other web-based platforms – both secure and open domain.
  • Lastly, on an ongoing basis, we proactively engage government agencies and industry partners to expand the utilization of the new HACS SINs.

For more information, please contact the following:

We look forward to hearing from you!

Please follow us on Twitter @GSA_ITC and LinkedIn to join our ongoing conversations about government IT.

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Acquisition Gateway – Act as One for Smarter Acquisition

This blog post is Part II of a seven-part series reviewing the Acquisition Gateway and IT Category data, trends, expertise, and advocacy that GSA’s ITC organization offers to support other agencies’ missions.
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2016 was a landmark year for the Acquisition Gateway. To start, we reached 10,000 users, and counting! Even more important, acquisition professionals across the federal government contributed to the Gateway’s success. From sharing sample templates to participating in usability testing and design workshops, agency experts brought insight from every corner of the acquisition lifecycle. Together, we built an online workspace packed with category-specific tools, expertise, data, and content.

We’re excited to celebrate this achievement as one acquisition community, and I want to personally thank those of you who either contributed to the IT Hallway or logged in to explore. As I wrote in a previous post, the Acquisition Gateway supports category management by expanding the use of high-quality, high-value strategic sourcing solutions to improve the government’s buying power and reduce contract duplication.

Acquisition professionals visit the Gateway to:

  • Find advice, market intelligence, and acquisition sources in the IT Hallways,
  • Gather and download samples and templates in the document library,
  • Search and compare government-wide contracts in the solutions finder, and
  • Access various tools and price indexes in eBuy Open and the Prices Paid Portal.

Whatever your need, the Acquisition Gateway has all the helpful information and search tools to help you navigate the process and the universe of purchasing options.

IT Hallways

Two years ago when the Acquisition Gateway launched, IT Hardware and IT Software were two of the three category hallways that went live. Today, you can find 19 hallways aligned with the 10 common federal government nondefense spend categories.

The IT category now houses six hallways:

  • IT Hardware
  • IT Software
  • IT Security
  • IT Outsourcing
  • IT Consulting and
  • Telecommunications

The IT Hallway welcomed over 3,000 visits last year. Each visit provided an opportunity for an acquisition professional to experience a neutral, unbiased repository and community of practice. We packed content and expert advice into more than 150 articles in collaboration with acquisition experts across government. There were more than 2,800 views of IT-specific articles, covering topics from Governmentwide Strategic Solutions (GSS) for Desktops and Laptops Initiative to Negotiating Cloud-Based Contracts.

Document Library

The Gateway continues to evolve thanks to acquisition expert feedback and contributions. For example, what started out as a Statement of Work (SOW) library has now expanded to an ever-growing document library with 50 new document types to choose from across all phases of the acquisition process. Since its expansion this past summer, the document library has been viewed more than 3,500 times. Today, you can find 100 IT category-specific documents alone and can contribute new documents of your own directly into the library with a few simple clicks.

Solutions Finder

The solutions finder, which began as a spreadsheet covering a handful of governmentwide contracts, is now a robust search tool. It allows you to find and compare 100 IT solutions out of more than 200 governmentwide contracts, purchase agreements, and shared services. For example, a quick search for “IT Software” with the selected agency as “Navy” provides 25 governmentwide contracts to choose from. Users can filter and compare multiple contracts to include the description, solution type, fee information, expiration date, points of contact, available offerings, and prices paid information, just to name a few.

Monique Davis, a Human Resources Specialist with the Office of Personnel Management, visits the Acquisition Gateway daily. “I am currently working to place human capital project management support; I use the Gateway to research potential solutions,” she said. Davis has more than 15 years of acquisition experience and finds that the solutions finder is the feature she uses most to support her day-to-day activity. “The acquisition gateway allows me to research and compare different contracts / solutions, decreasing the amount of time I spend on market research for a particular requirement.”

eBuy Open and Prices Paid Portal

While the Acquisition Gateway has added more IT category hallways and more information articles in the document library, and has given users a more robust search tool, the Gateway also empowers agencies by giving them access to acquisition information, data, methodologies, and tools so they can make good decisions.

“Being able to access eBuy Open through the Acquisition Gateway is invaluable to me and my program. It allows me to research and analyze open, closed, and cancelled Requests for Quotes (RFQs) submitted through GSA’s eBuy system. From a review standpoint, it’s a great way to support my staff and apply checks and balances,” said Jeffrey Hale, a small business officer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Acquisition and Grants Office. (Hale gathers information and resources to advise management on small business procurement policies and regulations).

Since March 2016, users visited the Prices Paid Portal more than 9,000 times. It enables agencies to use taxpayer dollars more efficiently because they show contract intelligence and spending data so agencies can make informed purchases.

Lynda Potters, a program manager for the U.S. Navy, and her team, negotiates agreements for Enterprise Software Licensing (ESL) and Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI). The Gateway allows them to identify potential cost savings and help ensure the federal government uses its purchasing power to get the best prices possible.

“With the Prices Paid Portal, we can access different views than our web sites,” Potter said. “Without it, we can only access [U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force] data. It allows us to see agency data across the federal government, which gives us a much broader picture when gathering market research or assisting customers.”

When a customer wants a particular product that isn’t Navy-specific, the Gateway allows Potters’ team to gather the information they need to find a product they can use.

“We visit the Gateway to see what types of agreements exist, where spend exists,” Potters said, and added “We have access to pricing data, but find the way the data is analyzed and displayed on the Gateway very helpful. The display features and filters make it easy to use when conducting market research.”

Next Steps

Success requires constant collaboration and a continuous process of incorporating user feedback, including customer-contributed expertise and content. Our approach means we can keep improving the site without taking it down for repairs. Among some of the anticipated changes in the next release, users can expect:

  • Expanded development options to integrate new apps
  • New tutorials for the Gateway and its tools
  • Robust document library content and expanded filtering capabilities
  • Enhanced milestone management within the project center and
  • Improved search capability in the hallways.

Learn and Earn CLPs with Acquisition Gateway U

Beginning January 23, we are hosting Acquisition Gateway U, a two-week series of webinars designed to help you get the most from Acquisition Gateway. Offered through GSA and the Federal Acquisition Institute, Gateway U is open exclusively to federal agency personnel. Also, webinar attendees can earn one Continuous Learning Point (CLP) for each session fully attended.

Review the sessions being offered, and register today!

Please follow us on Twitter @GSA_ITC and LinkedIn to join our ongoing conversations about government IT.

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Hello ITC, Goodbye ITS!

By Mary Davie, Assistant Commissioner, Office of Information Technology Category

This blog post is part of a seven-part series reviewing the Acquisition Gateway and IT Category data, trends, expertise, and advocacy that GSA’s ITC organization offers to support other agencies’ missions.

“I thought GSA’s team was ITS. Is ITC a typo?”

No … it’s not a typo. Within GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, we are now officially the Office of Information Technology Category (ITC). This isn’t just a name change from the Integrated Technology Service. We also realigned internally to better serve our customers and to align with agencies and industry partners so we deliver flexible solutions, support agency missions, and drive innovative and agile improvements through IT Category Management (CM).

Yet with any new change, there are bound to be questions. The questions I’ve heard range from simple ones like “What does the acronym ITC mean?” to “Where does ITC fit into the big picture of Category Management?”

Agency Advocacy is Priority One

We changed from ITS to ITC to better support and serve other agencies.

Our top priority is to be a mission enabler for agencies by:

  • Helping agencies find the best solutions using our technological and acquisition expertise regardless of where they reside, rather than advocating for any specific GSA contract solution. (Yes, you read this correctly. Our ITC experts will recommend a non-GSA contract if it’s the best-fit solution for an agency);
  • Working with agencies to define better requirements, reduce procurement action lead time, boost innovation, and improve data transparency;
  • Using more qualitative and quantitative data analytics, including market research, to help you make better informed decisions;
  • Supporting CM and foster best practices and shared solutions. (We can deliver better services to fellow agencies and taxpayers by making it easier to do business with our suppliers, thereby enhancing agency missions and reducing total cost of IT ownership to agencies); and
  • Continuing to work with agencies and suppliers to make emerging technology available government-wide.

New Name, New Capabilities, Maximum Impact

As mentioned earlier, we’ve realigned the organization so we can provide:

  • Acquisition subject-matter experts,
  • Category experts, and
  • Solutions support experts.

And we’ve also added new divisions within ITC to give agencies and suppliers more focused support:

  • Customer (i.e., Agency) Engagement Division,
  • Supplier Management and Compliance Division,
  • Innovation Division, and
  • Acquisition and Category Management Support Divisions.

These organizations will coordinate activities and functions, improve collaboration and innovation, and help us gain operational efficiencies. As the Assistant Commissioner for ITC, I’ve already seen positive outcomes from our technology and acquisition subject-matter experts working together to generate great value for the government and taxpayers:

  • Our Commercial Satellite Communications program is in partnership with the Department of Defense to help civilian and defense agencies support our nation’s military men and women in uniform, as well as humanitarian relief, disaster-response, counter-terrorism efforts, and more.
  • We developed Health IT expertise to better partner with the Defense Health Agency, so they could have access to innovative and emerging health IT services (The SIN was recently awarded to 65 highly qualified industry partners).
  • Our software expertise has produced better agreements with vendors to provide geospatial services, Salesforce-related services, and security and electronic signature solutions…all while saving time and money.

ITC Role in Government-Wide Category Management

I’ve also been asked where ITC fits into the big picture of CM and if ITC is the same thing as the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) government-wide Category Management initiative.

In early 2015, OMB announced the government-wide CM initiative with goals to increase savings, reduce the number of new contracts, and increase spending under government-wide management. Soon after this announcement, OMB created the Category Management Leadership Council, which approved dividing the federal marketplace into 10 super categories (PDF).

Our realignment into ITC directly supports the IT category, which gives us purview over the IT marketplace. As well as being the ITC Assistant Commissioner, I also serve as the government-wide Category Manager for IT. My position, coupled with ITC’s great team, enables us to drive change in IT procurement across the government.

A Closer Look at IT Subcategories

With ITC’s expanded focus, 2017 is the perfect time to update you on what’s going on with the Acquisition Gateway and the IT Category. Our next blog post will focus on the Acquisition Gateway updates. Then, in the coming weeks, we’ll post more blogs in this space to look back at IT category insights over the past year and what’s ahead for each of the following IT subcategories:

  • IT Hardware,
  • IT Security,
  • IT Services,
  • IT Software, and
  • Telecommunications (Telecom).

Together these subcategories and their IT solutions emphasize what we can do as a nation to deliver many critical services to the American people. These include using satellite systems to enhance weather alerts…strengthening counter-terrorism and global security efforts…and leveraging geospatial software for USDA to increase crop yields and helping CDC to track down Zika outbreaks.

Select Get email updates when this page changes and choose “Great Government Through Technology” to sign up to receive email alerts when we publish new blog posts.

Please follow ITC on Twitter @GSA_ITC and LinkedIn to join our ongoing conversations about government IT. Visit the IT Hallways on the Acquisition Gateway for more information on the IT category and subcategories.

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GSA and Adobe Deliver Streamlined Data Security and Electronic Signature Solutions for Government

In my last blog post about geospatial software solutions, I described the great benefits associated with agencies leveraging our special Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) software enterprise licenses agreements (ELAs).

Today, I want to expand on our recent GSA press release announcing a government-wide enterprise software acquisition for Adobe’s data-centric security and electronic signature solutions. We completed this award in close coordination with a number of federal agencies, Adobe, and their reseller, Carahsoft. The agreement continues our support of FITARA through enabling greater efficiencies, significant cost savings, and additional data security.

The agreement comes in the form of an enhancement to Carahsoft’s Adobe GSA IT Schedule 70 contract, supports the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Category Management Policy 16 – 1, Improving the Acquisition and Management of Common Information Technology: Software Licensing (M-16-12), by reducing duplication of enterprise software agreements, improving pricing and better leveraging the government’s buying power.

In addition to helping agencies meet FITARA, this agreement will also help agencies address Making Electronic Government Accountable By Yielding Tangible Efficiencies (MEGABYTE) Act guidelines around leveraging government-wide software license agreements for mission-critical federal agency solutions.

This will also help agencies comply with current information security and electronic government policy recommendations and requirements, including the revised OMB Circular A-130, Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP), Cybersecurity Strategy & Implementation Plan (CSIP), Cybersecurity Act of 2015, the Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA) and the E-Sign Act of 2000.

This is a significant step forward in protecting high-value assets while supporting the faster transition to an electronic government. We applaud Adobe’s willingness to work with GSA to make this opportunity a reality.

Here’s what Increased Acquisition Efficiency for Data Security and Electronic Signatures looks like:

  • Developed by a tiger team led by GSA and made up of key government Adobe users, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as Adobe and Carahsoft
  • More than $350 million in potential cost savings for the federal government
  • Tiered discounts by leveraging the buying power of the federal government
  • Reduces contract duplication and administrative cost with clear Terms & Conditions
  • Securing Government Data: Adobe AEM products support Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to enforce granular access to sensitive content, matching data access rights to the properly authorized person and their need to know. This additional layer of protection allows organizations to secure high-value assets.
  • Transitioning to Electronic Government: The offering provides solutions like Adobe Sign that enable users to replace paper processes with fully automated electronic signature workflows. Users can easily send, sign, track, and manage signature processes using a browser or mobile device.

This is another great example of federal acquisition excellence and category management principles using cross-agency collaboration to streamline acquisition, create greater transparency, and save taxpayer dollars. This new software offering is available to all federal, state, local and tribal government agencies eligible to order from the GSA IT Schedule 70 program. You can access IT Schedule 70 here on the Acquisition Gateway.

Also, please follow us on Twitter @GSA_ITC and LinkedIn to join our ongoing conversations about government IT.

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New Cybersecurity SINs Open for Business

Last month we announced that we had established four new Highly Adaptive Cybersecurity Services (HACS) Special Item Numbers (SINs) through IT Schedule 70, in support of the Cybersecurity Strategy and Implementation Plan (CSIP) and Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP).

Since then, our team has been working hard with our industry partners to ensure the SINs are sufficiently populated with rigorously vetted suppliers.

Mission Accomplished

I’m proud to say that, against tight deadlines, we have achieved that mission. The first phase of the oral technical evaluations have been completed and we were able to expedite the modification/award processes to get the initial 15 vendors included on the SINs.

Remember, these new SINs are important because they provide agencies with quicker and more reliable access to key, pre-vetted support services that will expand agencies’ capacity to test their high-priority IT systems, rapidly address potential vulnerabilities, and stop adversaries before they impact our networks.

Further, we have taken steps to make sure that the SINs feature high-quality cybersecurity vendors offering federal, state, local, and tribal agencies the following services:

  • Penetration Testing,
  • Incident Response,
  • Cyber Hunt, and
  • Risk and Vulnerability Assessment

Throughout this process, we have partnered closely with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to ensure the vendors will provide a high level of service to agencies and we will continue to work with such agencies to ensure the government’s cybersecurity needs are being met.

Additionally, we will continue to evaluate and add more vendors to make these SINs even more robust. In fact, all current IT Schedule 70 vendors that offer these services will be required to migrate those services to the new SINs. This, of course, will also provide a way for our industry partners to more easily differentiate these specific cybersecurity services from other IT offerings.

Moving forward, with agency support

Tony Scott, the Federal Chief Information Officer, has applauded our push to centralize the federal government’s buying experience for cybersecurity products and services. As we partner with OMB to provide new capabilities, they are encouraging agencies to buy Cybersecurity Services through IT Schedule 70. With 15 vetted vendors now awarded under the HACS SINs, agencies can begin to establish Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) and/or place task orders in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 8.4 procedures.

To learn more, please visit www.gsa.gov/cybersecurity.

Also, please follow us on Twitter @GSA_ITS and LinkedIn to join our ongoing conversations about government IT.

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IT Solutions Navigator Gets a New Look

Our team here at GSA’s Integrated Technology Services (ITS) continuously strives to provide world-class value for government agencies. One of the ways we do this is by providing electronic tools (e-tools) to help agencies improve management of procurement transactions, place orders, or learn more about business services and products. Moreover, our e-tools make it easier for government — federal, state, local, tribal and other eligible purchasers — to buy IT and telecommunications products, services, and solutions online.

We just made it a whole lot easier for agencies to select the best acquisition solution to meet their unique requirements from GSA’s broad array of IT offerings by launching our new IT Solutions Navigator.

The IT Solutions Navigator, first released in August 2013, has been redesigned to help acquisition professionals find and evaluate GSA’s IT and telecommunications solutions. In fact, we improved the overall functionality so it’s easier for potential buyers and program managers to choose the IT solutions and services that best fit their acquisition requirements.

Our original user base gave a thumbs up

Over the summer we conducted usability testing. We wanted to learn from our current users about the site’s overall functionality and level of usefulness when it comes to meeting their specific needs. Based on the initial feedback, our current users gave a thumbs up! on the IT Solutions Navigator’s new look and feel:

  • “I like how [IT Solutions Navigator] matches the best GSA contracts with my needs and simplifies what would otherwise be a very complex task to perform.”
  • “I like the contract comparison matrix. It makes it much easier to compare multiple contracts.”
  • “It was easy to navigate throughout the site. I really like the print [and] save view — it has a lot of useful information laid out nicely.”
  • “The system is also very fast and responsive. Overall this tool simplifies the market research process in a very straight forward simplistic way.”
  • “You’ve covered a lot of areas and somehow made a tool that is easy to use and very useful.”
  • “The new [IT Solutions Navigator] looks like a major improvement from the previous site.”

Aside from the fact the IT Solutions Navigator makes it easier for acquisition professionals to select the best solutions from GSA’s broad array of IT offerings, we also:

  1. Improved the review and selection experience;
  2. Optimized the search results to tailor IT and telecommunications solutions; and
  3. Increased best option identification.

Improved acquisition professionals’ ability to review and selection experience. The new IT Solutions Navigator gives agency acquisition professionals the ability to identify and evaluate appropriate acquisition vehicles to meet IT requirements. For instance, on the new site users can access ordering guidelines and other online resources for assistance, as well as easily compare multiple GSA IT contract vehicles in order to select which solution will best meet their needs. It’s also easier to register and to use Navigator on mobile.

Optimized the search results to tailor IT and telecommunications solutions. It gives agencies expanded acquisition decision support capabilities for all levels of government: federal, state, local, and tribal government. For instance, the site presents users with a refined set of GSA IT contract vehicles based on their acquisition requirements and priorities, and even will rank the available contracts in order to easily determine which GSA IT Solution will best meet the customer needs.

Increased best-option identification. Finally, it gives users more resources and real-time one-on-one support online via the National Customer Support Center Live Chat.

Other enhancements

Users can use the IT Solutions Navigator tool to:

  • Reduce acquisition lead time through streamlined access to GSA’s IT product, service, and solution offerings;
  • Search for IT solutions based on keyword: Product Service Code, Federal Supply Code, Special Item Number, or North American Industry Classification System code;
  • Identify Green IT product/service categories available to help agencies meet their sustainability goals;
  • Save and view previous contract match searches upon future visits to the system; and
  • Link to information about contract vehicles and assisted services, as well as other resources, to include ordering guidelines, eTools, and Section 508 assistance.

Acquisition Gateway

Both the IT Solutions Navigator and Acquisition Gateway are tools we offer government to help find the best IT solutions and services online. The IT Solutions Navigator solves an immediate need for an automated decision support tool to help agencies narrow down the choices of acquisition solutions available through GSA IT contracts based on their own unique criteria. The Acquisition Gateway is rapidly developing new capabilities to offer agencies state-of-the art tools for conducting research across all government enterprise contracts. Together, they support our government’s IT acquisition requirements.

You can send your questions or feedback to:

Information Technology Customer Service Center (ITCSC)
Phone: (855)ITaid4U (482-4348)
Email: ITCSC@gsa.gov
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Please follow us on Twitter @GSA_ITS and LinkedIn to join our ongoing conversations about government IT.
Learn more about GSA’s e-Tools here.

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Director of IT Schedule 70 Programs Job Posting (Revised)

As many of you know, GSA has been fortunate to have Kay Ely serve as the Director of IT Schedule 70 for the last 4.5 years. Schedule 70 is one of GSA’s largest programs, supporting $15B in agency IT procurements annually. In addition, Schedule 70 serves as the backbone for many government wide initiatives such as FSSI WIreless, the Satellite program, our software program DHS’ Continuous Diagnostic and Mitigation (CDM) program, National Information Technology Commodity Program (NITCP) BPAs, and the Government-wide Strategic Solutions for Laptops and Desktops, just to name a few.

Kay has recently been named as the Deputy Assistant Commissioner of ITS, and we are now seeking a new Director of IT Schedule 70 Programs, a Senior Executive Service (SES) position, to lead our team of highly engaged and dedicated professionals as we drive our organization forward during a period of tremendous change and incredible possibility. The Director is responsible for leading a workforce of 150 acquisition professionals and for developing, managing and executing the IT Schedule Program, which provides access to private sector solutions for a wide variety of IT products, services, and solutions for federal, state, local and the tribal governments.

To give you a better understanding of this opportunity and what we are looking for, we decided to ask Kay to describe her experience, the expectations of the position,and what we seek in the next leader.

As you know, Schedule 70 is the largest, most comprehensive, and most widely used IT acquisition vehicle in the federal government, providing direct access to products, services, and solutions from more than 4,700 qualified industry partners to the tune of $15 billion in business volume. The program plays a significant role across all IT Categories.

At times, leading Schedule 70 has been the most challenging job I have ever had, but it has also been the most rewarding. I have grown personally in this job in more ways than I can name. I have also had the pleasure to lead one of the most innovative and hard-working groups of acquisition professionals in all of the federal government.

Schedule 70 has evolved over recent years and is on an upward trajectory of business growth. We expect to reach $15.2 Billion in FY2016!

How will we do that? Focusing on our core mission–to provide the best acquisition solutions–and we do that by working closely with other federal agencies and with industry. This is evident in the governmentwide teams we lead to create new common solutions for IT products and services. The Director of Schedule 70 must be able to forge partnerships with other federal agencies and with industry. We are working hard to make significant changes to the program to make it easier for our suppliers to do business with us. And we are putting new programs in place for our government buyers to help them find the very best solution possible. The job entails a lot of communication, both internally and externally, and lots of listening, considering our stakeholders’ diverse views, and ultimately finding a way to to negotiate solutions that serve many. The Director interacts at the most senior levels across government and with OMB to implement many acquisition- and IT-related initiatives.

In addition, as ITS undergoes an organizational transformation to support category management, the Director will be a leader and partner with our category teams, helping to ensure that Schedule 70 and the other acquisition solutions in ITS meet the needs of the agencies and understand the changes in the technology field that ultimately impact what agencies our buying across the IT categories. Schedule 70 will grow in this respect and needs a forward-thinking, innovative leader to shape the future of the organization.

Schedule 70 is on the horizon for the next big evolution of superior customer service. It is a great opportunity to shape the future of a program that is core to the success of government as a whole, including state, local, and tribal government.

I’ve heard government described as an oil tanker compared to a speed boat. A speed boat can zip around the water quickly, and an oil tanker has to adjust course methodically, but when it does, the wake and ripples it creates are much greater.

In the world of IT, Schedule 70 is that oil tanker, but with how quickly IT changes and shifts, we have to become a speedboat. We have done some great work to make that transition and I’m so proud of what we have accomplished, but our work isn’t done yet. The next person will have a great opportunity. The demands are high and so are our standards. Are you up to the challenge?

Our mission is to help other federal agencies get the job done; if you think you’re up for the challenge go to USAJOBS.gov and apply. Use job announcement #16110081. It closes on Thursday, March 31, 2016.

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Government IT Buying New Year’s Resolutions

(This blog post is part of a multi-week series reviewing data and trends from GSA’s IT acquisition vehicles for FY15. Read previous posts at http://gsablogs.gsa.gov/technology/)

Time to make our New Year’s resolutions for 2016!

In my last 13 blog posts, we looked at government IT trends for FY15 and what might be ahead in FY16 technology acquisitions for telecommunications, cloud, cybersecurity, mobility/wireless, hardware, software, and small business. We’ve got a good sense of the technology trends.

But how we go about buying the technology is equally important. I recommend these New Year’s resolutions:

  • Use existing government-wide contracts, like those from GSA and other agencies, instead of new and open market contracts.
  • Each time you need IT or telecommunications products, services, or solutions, check out the latest GSA offerings, which we continuously enhance.
  • Use the Acquisition Gateway for market research, to link to existing contracts that offer the IT solution you’re looking for, and to stay informed on best practices.
  • Collaborate across agencies every step of the way.

We can save lots of taxpayer dollars and achieve better acquisition and operational efficiencies with this resolution.

For more information about who we are and what we do, check out the slide presentation posted below.

And be sure to follow and engage us on Twitter @GSA_ITS and on the ITS LinkedIn page we launched last year.

This presentation covers ways to improve the acquisition process for customer agencies, by leveraging existing contracts, using category management and the acquisition gateway, and reducing IT acquisition duplication and costs.
Government IT Buying New Years Resolutions: To Improve What and How You Buy (PDF, 125 KB)