Category management: change is coming!

General Services Administration (GSA) category management initiatives are posing real risks to the federal contracting community, yet many companies are uneducated and unprepared for imminent change.

Bloomberg Government estimates that $1.2 trillion in contracts are at risk of being consolidated into new categories of Multiple Award Contracts (MACs). Led by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), GSA and other agencies will group products and services into 19 new categories, crossing both civilian and defense agencies. From the government perspective, category management will save time and money and help achieve best value.

Why should you care and prepare? Because contracts that are set to expire in the next few years will most likely be procured under new categories. That means that your current siloed, duplicative incumbent contracts will disappear, and your company must therefore bid and win new consolidated MACs in order to survive and thrive.

What can you do to prepare?

1. Educate yourself about category management. Read the June 2, 2016 memo on software category management and prepare for mobility category management as a starting point.
2. If you currently hold a favored IT product or services MAC such as NASA SEWP, CIO-SP3, or GSA Schedule 70 or Alliant, identify expiring contracts that may become task orders under these vehicles. Get ahead of the task order RFPs to position your company.
3. Prepare for big win MAC procurements such as Alliant 2. Carefully gather all of the required supporting documentation to submit a compliant bid.
4. If you have questions, ask Lesley Anne Field, Deputy Administrator, Federal Procurement Policy, Office of Management and Budget (OMB); Laura Stanton, Assistant Commissioner, Office of Strategy Management, GSA; and Kenneth M. Brennan, Deputy Director, Services Acquisition, Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy at the APMP-NCA breakfast on July 20.

Category management will bring real change. Take it seriously.