“Easy to Find, Easy to Buy” – Envisioning the Next Step for Cloud Computing on IT Schedule 70

This month’s blog posting is from Mary Davie, you may remember her as one of the speakers on our June 19th panel for Government Leaders at the Helm. Please see her bio after the blog post.

“Easy to Find, Easy to Buy” – Envisioning the Next Step for Cloud Computing on IT Schedule 70

Excerpted from Mary Davie’s “Great Government through Technology” GSA Blog

GSA has led efforts to create a 21st century government, including introducing cloud to federal agencies. We offer a variety of contract vehicles that help agencies streamline acquisition of cloud technologies, including IT Schedule 70, the Email as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs), and Government wide Acquisition Contracts (GWAC) like Alliant and Alliant Small Business.

As the cloud marketplace is maturing, we are seeing an increased focus on IT Schedule 70 as one of the main acquisition vehicles for agencies.

IT Schedule 70 is already the largest, most widely used IT acquisition vehicle in the federal government, and we are continuously looking to improve what it offers. One area we are exploring is looking for ways to help customers find and buy cloud services.

For example, we are considering the creation of a single Special Item Number (SIN) for all cloud services that would provide clear cloud technology differentiation for customers and improve ease of access to acquire cloud services. We recently released a request for information, seeking industry input on this idea.

IT Schedule 70 already offers cloud services, and our industry partners have cloud offerings in several SINs, so why create a new SIN?

Through customer dialogue and market research, an integrated team of acquisition, technology, and program experts across the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) has identified that there would be benefits to creating a Cloud SIN to all parties involved:

  • GSA Customers – Clear differentiation of cloud services vs. non-cloud IT products and services, and empowered cloud buying through better data
  • Industry Partners – Opportunity to market distinctive solutions and offerings on IT Schedule 70
  • Internal GSA Operations – Enable more granular reporting on cloud sales to enable decision making, and help our customers buy better through data

The goal of this new SIN would be to provide clear cloud technology differentiation and ease of customer access through systems such as eBuy and GSA Advantage!

Since SINs create logical categories of services within a Schedule, we envision the creation of a Cloud Computing Services SIN will provide a level of differentiation for customers that would more easily and clearly identify cloud services.  Additionally, GSA could establish a set of qualifying requirements that would help customers in identifying cloud services that meet acceptable standards around security, data, and other characteristics.

We are always looking for ways to make sure that doing business with us is as easy and reliable as possible. We believe that adding a Cloud Computing Services SIN would realign IT Schedule 70 cloud technology offerings to better reflect the current cloud computing market and satisfy customer needs.

The cloud market is sufficiently mature to offer differentiated and vetted cloud services through a single SIN, and this makes sense for both GSA customer agencies and industry partners. We are looking for feedback to make sure we get it right and look forward to the conversation. Read the RFI.

Mary Davie’s Biography

Mary Davie is the Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Integrated Technology Services (ITS) in GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS). The Federal Acquisition Service provides buying platforms and acquisition services to federal, state and local governments for everything from office supplies to motor vehicles to information technology and telecommunications products and services.

As the ITS Assistant Commissioner, Mary is responsible for the largest fee-for-service information technology (IT) procurement and services operation in the U.S. government. Mary leads a highly skilled and diverse workforce that manages more than 7,000 contracts, providing access to relevant and timely IT and telecommunications products, services, and solutions to defense and civilian agencies, as well as to state, local, and tribal governments.

Before her current position, Mary served as Assistant Commissioner for Assisted Acquisition Services, responsible for managing the acquisition of $3.5B in information technology and professional services products, services and solutions to federal agencies worldwide.

Mary has also served as the Acting Assistant Commissioner for marketing and business development in FAS. Mary led business development and marketing efforts intended to increase agency awareness and satisfaction with GSA products, services and solutions. She was responsible for developing strategy, planning for new business, and leading teams to develop customer-focused, integrated solutions.

Mary is an active advocate of the use of Web 2.0 and social media tools to improve government acquisition. She was a founding member of the Better Buy Project and has contributed to the Better Buy Blog.

Mary began her career with GSA in 1989. She has two Bachelor of Science degrees in business finance and business management from Virginia Tech, and a Master’s of Business Administration with a focus in technology management from the University of Phoenix.

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