In FY 2014, agencies awarded more than 10,000 contracts and delivery orders for common laptops and desktops, totaling about $1.1 billion.
On Oct 16th the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) issued a directive to agencies to take the following immediate steps:
- Reduce the number of contracts for laptops and desktops, by prohibiting new awards and limiting purchasing to a small number of high-performing contracts
- Standardize laptop and desktop configurations for common requirements
- Develop business practices to optimize price and performance.
Effective immediately, all agencies are prohibited from issuing any new solicitations for laptops and desktops. All civilian agencies will use one of three existing government-wide acquisition vehicles to purchase any desktops or laptops:
- NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP)
- General Services Administration (GSA) IT Schedule 70
- Dept. Health & Human Services, National Institutes Health, NITAAC Chief Information Officer-Commodities and Solutions (CIO-CS)
A task force led by NASA will refresh the standard configurations every six months, and also evaluate “emerging technologies,” such as tablets.