Category Management

      Thomas Sharpe, commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, outlined a new “category management” strategy he says will take strategic sourcing to the next level.

      “Category management takes the lessons we learned from (the) Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative and uses them to provide a coordinated, strategic approach to government-wide purchasing,” he wrote in a recent blog entry.

      Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners, said the new approach looks at how the government can standardize around not just a set of solutions, but also around a lead acquisition agency for those solutions. He wrote in a blog entry that it sounded like a familiar role for GSA, which decades ago was essentially a category manager for IT purchasing under the Brooks Act.

More information: Sharpe’s blog entry: http://goo.gl/QX73jj
Allen blog entry: http://www.allenfederal.com/wk-ahead/4-28-2014.php

$2B for energy efficiency

      President Obama announced an additional $2 billion goal in energy efficiency upgrades to federal buildings over the next three years. Energy savings will pay for the improvements. About $2.7 billion in projects are underway.

More information: http://goo.gl/hF5FMj

GSA ombudsman

      The National Institutes of Health released a solicitation for its $20 billion “CIO-CS” for IT services and support. A significant portion of the revenues are expected to go to small businesses.

More information: http://goo.gl/5i5j09