The government is tired of paying too much for IT and a series of directives from the Office of Management and Budget is looking to change that.
The latest — Category Management Policy 16-1 — will standardize software licensing across the federal government, leveraging the vast buying power to ensure feds get the best possible deal on software being used at multiple agencies.
Draft Document: Category Management Policy 16-1
The directive follows up on another issued in October that requires all agencies to purchase their laptops and desktop computers off of one of three existing contracts and prohibits issuing any new contracts without OMB approval.
Rung and Scott noted the laptop and desktop directive had an immediate effect on acquisition, with vendors dropping prices on standard configurations by up to 50 percent within the first month. Federal acquisition and IT leadership are hoping the new directive will help do the same for software.
“Agencies can potentially save between 50 and 80 percent on application development costs by reusing code that the government has already paid for,” they wrote. “For example, if an application costs $500,000 to build from scratch, agencies could save between $250,000 and $400,000 by leveraging existing applications.”
Agencies will have to:
- Appoint a software manager to report directly to the CIO;
- Maintain a “comprehensive annual inventory” of software licenses and spending; and
- Pool agency software needs and funding to streamline acquisition and spending.
- Identify the best software licenses and agreements currently being used and endorse them for governmentwide use; and
- Development new licensing agreements to reduce redundancies and ensure lower costs.
The analysis of existing agreements and research into new ones will be done by the Enterprise Software Category Team (ESCT) made up of representatives from multiple agencies and led by OMB, the Defense Department and General Services Administration.
