IT Trends in Government Contracting

<p>We have discussed contracting trends in the past but not industry-specific trends.  That is what we are doing today.  We are looking at the Information Technology industry trends for government contractors.</p> <p>The federal government will continue its IT consolidation and “as a service” throughout the next few years.  A report released by Bloomberg Government (Jan 7, 2020) broke down the areas likely to impact the information technology industry.</p> <h2>IT Consolidation</h2> <p>Consolidation is not something new.  It has been gaining momentum over the last five years.  The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) found this the preferred solution and accounted for $40 billion in spending in 2019 alone.  The government is referring to these consolidations as the best in class or BIC for short.  OMB is pressuring agencies to move from stand-alone contracts to designated BIC as part of its category management strategy.  GSA has already made changes to its Multiple Award Schedules based on OMB guidance.</p> <h2>GSA Multiple Award Schedules</h2> <p>GSA has already revamped its Multiple Award Schedules by consolidating 24 categories into just one category.  GSA, however, is still modifying the terms and conditions on the contracts.  It will take a while as there are over 18,000 contract holders.  Hopefully, GSA was able to organize the one category so that government employees can easily find the service that they need. Next, we will look at “as a service.”</p> <h2>Government buying “as a service’.</h2> <p>These, as a service contracts, refer to cloud computing.  These contracts are platform, software, or infrastructure and will likely increase over the coming years.  We can expect an increase in security operations centers as a service and mobile backend as a service.  Why?  The government is moving to a more flexible model that allows it to buy as many services as it wants, instead of a set number of licenses.  Thus, allowing the government to expenditure operating costs instead of purchasing capital assets.  Als