The Office of Management and Budget expanded its category management strategy to include mobile device acquisition in a new policy released on Aug. 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new policy would shift the federal government’s $1 billion-spend on mobile devices and services into a single category in an effort to save more and simplify procurement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The policy released today joins the growing list of modern technology solutions aimed at streamlining and modernizing the federal acquisition space,” Federal CIO Tony Scott and U.S. Chief Acquisition Officer Anne Rung said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It uses an enterprise-wide model that leverages economies of scale and builds on already existing practices within the federal government to maximize efficiencies and realize greater savings.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
OMB officials said the new policy looks to whittle down the fragmentation and duplication of 1,200 mobile agreements and more than 200 unique service plans in the current government mobile spend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The move reflects the federal government’s further investments in category management as a well to get more efficiency out of acquisition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GSA officials already released a strategic plan for managing the professional services category for industry comment on Aug. 2, which aims to modernize the way it provides $63 billion a year in services to agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So far, OMB officials said that federal agencies have saved $14 million this year on mobile acquisition by purchasing through a government-wide mobile strategic sourcing solution managed by GSA, with prices dropping 30 percent on average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new policy will also look to streamline inventory backlogs by having agencies report all mobile data use and pricing data to a central hub, which will then determine if an agency-wide application presents a more effective acquisition solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rung and Scott said in the release that plans were developing with the aim to deliver the same kind of procurement success for mobile devices that was seen with IT consolidation, which is projected to have saved $2.1 billion since 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“As these efforts get underway, the Mobile Services Category Team \u2013 comprised of federal agency representatives \u2013 is developing the next generation mobile strategic plan that incorporates the various requirements of federal agencies domestic and abroad, and drives continuous competitive pricing to further reduce the total cost of ownership,” they said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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