5: Asset Management and Procurement

Shift to an Enterprise-Wide Asset Management and Procurement Model

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Traditionally, agencies have purchased technology products and services in a fragmented manner at the bureau, regional, team, and even individual levels. This approach has prevented the Federal Government from effectively leveraging its buying power with vendors and service providers. In the mobile space alone, the opportunity to increase efficiencies and cut costs is too great to overlook. The Federal Government currently spends approximately $1.2 billion annually for mobile and wireless services and devices with an inventory of approximately 1.5 million active accounts. These figures will only increase as agencies accelerate their adoption of new mobile technologies. By moving to an enterprise-wide model, we can leverage economies of scale and streamline purchasing, invoicing, and asset management processes. We can also explore different pricing models, such as usage-based pricing (e.g. metered), first at the agency-wide level and eventually at the government-wide level. Adopting a shared services approach and consolidating mobile device and wireless service contracts will not only reduce costs but also improve our ability to track usage, analyze pricing, secure devices, and deliver mobile applications. This is in line with the Administration’s overall effort to consolidate the acquisition and management of commodity IT services through mechanisms such as the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative, the PortfolioStat process, and the Administrative Efficiency Initiative. To jumpstart this shift, GSA will establish a government-wide contract vehicle for mobile devices and wireless service and offer agencies the option of accessing central portal services for placing orders, reporting inventory, and managing expenses to optimize their mobile usage. GSA will also set up a government-wide mobile device management platform to support enhanced monitoring, management, security, and device synchronization. The Federal CIO Council will work with the Digital Services Advisory Group (see Section 3) to develop models for the secure, yet rapid, delivery of commercial mobile applications into the federal environment to support the consistent application of security and interoperability requirements. For example, an enterprise mobile application environment could provide central hosting, distribution, certification, and management services for mobile applications. For their part, agencies will be required to develop and maintain an enterprise-wide inventory of their mobile devices and wireless service contracts, and include an evaluation of government-wide contract vehicles in their alternatives analysis for all new mobile-related procurements.

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