GSA #10078

April 9, 2004
Contact: Viki Reath (202) 501-1231
viki.reath@gsa.gov

WASHINGTON—The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced its intention to establish tiered pricing and quantity discounts with interested, GSA-approved software vendors, launching the second phase of the SmartBUY program.

SmartBUY is the governmentwide, federal software acquisition program, initiated in June by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and managed by GSA. SmartBUY contracts consolidate federal purchasing power to obtain optimal pricing.
 
SmartBUY has a five-phased acquisition strategy, beginning with changing federal buying practices and ultimately making enterprise-wide decisions on software titles that satisfy a defined architectural standard.  Phase I has been the use of GSA schedules as they are currently structured.  Phase II allows for restructuring of Federal Supply Service (FSS) Schedule contracts to enable agency buyers to receive the benefit of deeper discounts based on previous cumulative government-wide purchases following the competitive procedures of GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule Program (MAS).  Phase III consolidates agency requirements that have resulted from competitions for a single buy to achieve greater cost avoidance to the government.  Successively, Phase IV aggregates known requirements and forecasts refurbishment of those requirements in a single buy per software title.   Phase V competes requirements for government-wide solutions to satisfy a defined architectural standard. 

OMB initiated SmartBUY in a letter to federal agencies, designating GSA as the executive agent. Authority to establish SmartBUY originates in Section 5112 of the Clinger Cohen Act of 1996, which enables OMB to appoint executive agents and to enter into contracts that provide for multi-agency acquisitions of information technology. 

GSA was created by Congress to help agencies improve efficiency and better serve the public. On behalf of federal agencies, GSA acquires office space, equipment, telecommunications, information technology, supplies and services, and provides policy solutions for more than one million federal workers in more than 8,000 buildings in 2,000 U.S. communities.