Category Management

Earlier this month, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) released a proposed Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular, Implementing Category Management for Common Goods and Services, which “institutionalizes” category management as the government-wide model for the acquisition of common goods and services.  Contractors should be aware of this trend, as it could impact both the number of opportunities to secure government contract awards, and the relative size of those opportunities.

If this new initiative sounds familiar, that’s because it is.  In the past, the government has attempted to take advantage of its buying power through centralizing purchasing.  Examples of this include the Brooks Act, which required most agency IT acquisitions to be conducted by GSA, and the mandatory use of the GSA Schedules.  It remains to be seen if OFPP’s new effort will meet with greater success than these past ones.  And it also remains unclear how this new effort will impact the existing GSA Schedules program which, although it is not mandatory, has been the Government’s principal centralized method of procuring commercial items.
Continue Reading What Goes Around Comes Around: OFPP Makes Efforts to Institutionalize Category Management