WHY SHOULD CATEGORY MANAGEMENT GRAB YOUR ATTENTION? IT HAS THE WHITE HOUSE’S

Seldom does a procurement matter grab the attention of the White House.  When it does, it’s usually because something headline-worthy (read: bad) has happened.   It turns out that the White House, though, was interested enough to call GSA Federal Acquisition Service leaders to the Oval Office not once, but twice, to hear about GSA’s plans to streamline acquisition and save money.  Now you’re asking, “Remind me what Category Management (CM) is again?”  The easiest way to think about CM, for those around long enough to remember it, is the Brooks Act.  This Act, repealed in the 1990’s, made GSA the conduit through which all federal IT spending had to go.  If GSA didn’t manage it, specially trained agency “Trail Bosses” did.  CM is a cousin to this idea.  Specific agencies would become the “lead” agencies for buying certain types of services and products.  GSA, for example, could become the leading service buyer, NASA the head IT buyer.  Other agencies would have to use these agencies for whatever solution they were seeking or justify why they didn’t.   While it is good to keep in mind that the current Administration has less than 22 months to go, and, as such, full implementation of CM is far from a sure thing, contractors would do well to become more familiar with an acquisition method that has garnered attention at the very highest level of government.