The General Services Administration and the Department of Homeland Security sign a Strategic Sourcing Partnership Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

GSA #  10242  

May 17, 2006            

GSA Contact:  Katharine Uhre 202-501-9139
katharine.uhre@gsa.gov

DHS Contact:  Larry Orluskie, 202- 282-8783

WASHINGTON – The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today the signing of a
memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a strategic sourcing pilot program for GSA Schedules Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) for DHS.  The pilot program will result in the development of corporate-level BPAs under the GSA Schedule—developed using strategic sourcing principles—for four key DHS commodity areas: office supplies, program management services, financial services and facilities security.

The pilot program between GSA and DHS is a collaborative effort to provide a clear demonstration of the value of strategic sourcing in rapidly establishing BPAs, based
on GSA Schedules.  The strategic sourcing approach incorporates significant and detailed spend analysis of DHS’s current and historical use of GSA Schedules that provided insight into buying patterns, pricing, suppliers, and performance data to answer the question who buys what, from whom, and at what price.  Using this information, backed by GSA market research and contracting support, the new BPAs developed will deliver cost savings with services tailored to DHS customers.

“With the success of this initiative, the DHS customer will reap the benefits of leveraged prices developed from what they are currently purchasing from GSA Schedules,” states Al Sligh, DHS Director, Strategic Sourcing and Acquisition Systems. “In the future, the ease and convenience of ordering through a GSA furnished portal will have the look and feel of a commercial website.”

“GSA is excited about working with DHS,” states Marty Wagner, Acting Commissioner, Federal Acquisition Service (FAS). “Not only can we support DHS in achieving their strategic sourcing goals, but we continue to work to provide best value for every dollar spent.”

Utilizing the approach described above, DHS expects to maximize the value of each dollar spent through the GSA DHS strategic sourcing pilot program to the fullest extent possible.  It is expected the process will help both agencies optimize performance, minimize cost, increase achievement of socio-economic acquisition goals, evaluate total life cycle management costs, and improve vendor access to business opportunities. The pilot program is also entirely consistent with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requirements and goals outlined in the OMB memorandum of May 20, 2005, on strategic sourcing.

A successful GSA-DHS partnership is the beginning of cooperative investment that is designed to maximize performance and minimize cost thereby creating a best value initiative.

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GSA is a centralized, federal procurement, property management, policy development and information provision agency, created by Congress to improve government efficiency and help federal agencies better serve the public.  In this role, GSA acquires products and services on behalf of federal agencies; plays a key role in developing and implementing governmentwide policies; provides services and solutions for the office operations of more than one million federal workers; and encourages a citizen-centric relationship with government by providing a single "point of entry" to the information and services citizens need in a timeframe they can appreciate.  This allows citizens to receive accurate, timely and consistent answers and information, and helps Federal agencies better respond to citizen inquiries.