Contract Management: Restructuring GSA's Federal Supply Service and Federal Technology Service
Highlights
The General Services Administration's (GSA) Federal Supply Service (FSS) and Federal Technology Service (FTS) play an important role in assisting agencies procure a wide range of products and services. Over the past several years, FSS and FTS purchases have significantly increased, with IT products and services being the primary source of this growth. In April 2002, we identified overlap in FSS' and FTS' IT procurement programs. A management consultant similarly found overlaps in FTS' and FSS' IT sales and marketing functions and contract offerings. To enhance FSS and FTS operational efficiency and effectiveness--in both its IT and non-IT business lines--GSA has undertaken a performance improvement initiative. This testimony focuses on GSA's actions to implement its initiative. It also discusses the importance of enhancing GSA's ability to help agencies strategically purchase products and services.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| General Services Administration | As it moves forward with its current performance initiative, GSA should develop the capability to provide its customer agencies with information and analyses they need to leverage their buying power to reduce procurement costs. |
Closed – Implemented
Consistent with our recommendation, the General Services Administration (GSA) has taken numerous actions to provide customer agencies with the information they need to leverage their buying power. For example, GSA Preferred is an enterprise-wide systems modernization effort that will provide consistent data collection on all orders and contracts executed by GSA for customer agencies. Also, GSA is reorganizing and consolidating the previously overlapping Federal Supply Service (FSS) and Federal Technology Service (FTS) into the new, more customer focused Federal Acquisition Service (FAS). Part of that reorganization includes implementing GSA's new customer relationship management efforts. As such, FAS is marketing its capability to provide customer agencies with information and spend analyses that will allow it to play a very strong role in understanding customer requirements for acquisition services and to become a strategic partner in helping them meet those requirements. FAS's customer relationship management efforts includes offering GSA customers data and developing analysis regarding their purchasing patterns in support of strategic sourcing initiatives.
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