GSA unveils new unified procurement strategy

The General Services Administration launched its latest effort to overhaul the federal government technology acquisition process Tuesday with the announcement of its new OneGov Strategy.

As part of the agency’s updated mission to modernize federal agency purchasing, the OneGov Strategy is a multi-phase plan, the first iteration of which intends to provide agencies with access to IT tools with standardized terms and pricing. According to a GSA press release, the agency aims to foster a direct relationship between government procurers and original equipment manufacturers, rather than how agencies “historically purchased software through resellers.”

“The OneGov Strategy is a bold step forward for President Trump’s GSA and our mission to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars,” GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian said in the press release. “It’s about acting as one — aligning to our scale, standards, and security to meet the needs of today’s government while preparing for the future.”

Later phases of OneGov Strategy are expected to assist with the purchasing of goods like hardware machinery, cybersecurity services and other categories. GSA said it will continue collaborating with agency and industry stakeholders to help guide strategy implementation. 

“This is a big win for both government and industry,” Josh Gruenbaum, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service said. “We’re creating a more consistent, scalable, and efficient way to buy technology — one that benefits agencies, OEMs, and taxpayers alike. We expect this approach to have similar success and benefits across other categories.”

In the press release, GSA also touted the agreement it came to with Google earlier this month to offer the entire federal government reduced pricing on the company’s Workspace software suite. That release did not provide detail on how, specifically, the OneGov Strategy would be executed.

GSA is one of the many agencies to undergo changes to its internal organization and mission under the second Trump administration. Following a March executive order, GSA was assigned more control over federal procurement as a means to reduce government spending on multiple procurement processes. In the announcement, officials said that these steps intend to make GSA “the governmentwide hub for shared IT services.”

The agency also made major changes to its Multiple Award Schedules program last month, intended to “rightsize” the program.

Despite the intent to centralize much of the government’s procurement within the agency, hundreds of staff at GSA have been terminated across its IT, finance and public buildings offices in recent months through reduction-in-force measures.

Nextgov/FCW Staff Reporter Natalie Alms contributed to this report.