Director's Corner

The federal buying season begins in August and runs through September. During this time,  many agency procurement officers will make their final selections to meet end-of-year spending requirements, as most government allocated funds are often “use-it-or-lose-it,' meaning they won't carry over until the next fiscal year.

Laptops and desktops continue to be among the most purchased items year-over-year during the federal buying season. In fact, every year the federal government spends more than $1 billion on laptops and desktops.

In 1996, Congress passed what is now known as the Clinger-Cohen Act (CCA), which eliminated the General Services Administration (GSA) as the sole source for acquiring information technology (IT) and allowed other federal agencies to assume a lead contracting role.

Many federal agencies lack an understanding of the various types of cloud services available on Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs).  As a result, agencies are still purchasing cloud services as an add-on to other contracts, something that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) worries could lead to security challenges. What’s more, many federal workers lack the skillsets to effectively transition to a cloud-first environment.

According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), small businesses are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. In fact, small businesses create two-thirds of net new jobs and drive U.S. innovation and competitiveness. The contributions of small businesses are so great that federal legislation has been enacted to ensure that small businesses have fair and equitable access to federal spending.

The 2019 Federal Cloud Computing Strategy — Cloud Smart — is a long-term, high-level strategy to drive cloud adoption in Federal agencies. This is the first cloud policy update in seven years, offering a path forward for agencies to migrate to a safe and secure cloud infrastructure. This new strategy will support agencies to achieve additional savings, greater security and faster services.

In the update, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is looking to accomplish a few key things:

According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Office of Management Budget’s (OMB) 2019 budget document, over 80 percent of all information technology (IT) spending is on the Operations and Maintenance of "aging legacy systems, which pose efficiency, cybersecurity, and mission risk issues, such as ever-rising costs to maintain them and an inability to meet current or expected mission requirements."

A 2019 memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget directs agencies to increase their use of Best in Class (BIC) contracts. But the case for BIC solutions goes well beyond any mandate.

As Congress continues to deliberate on the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), many small business contractors are wondering if the reforms started in 2018 will continue. The FY 2018 and 2019 NDAA both contained positive provisions for small businesses.