Published on July 18th, 2014 | by Roger Chu
Will Cloud Computing Save Schedule 70?
Mary Davie, assistant commissioner of GSA’s Office of Integrated Technology Services, wrote in a blog post last week that agency leaders are thinking about creating a single special item number (SIN) for cloud
services on its IT Schedule 70 governmentwide acquisition contract — the largest, most widely used IT acquisition vehicle in the federal government.
GSA’s request for information issued in early July said commercial cloud computing services were currently being sold through several SINs on Schedule 70.
SINs create logical categories of services within a schedule.
Designating one SIN for cloud computing services would more easily and clearly identify those services for customers and would also facilitate their purchase through GSA’s eBuy and GSA Advantage portals, Davie said.
Procurement experts said the single SIN could offer GSA a more targeted way to compete with an expanding array of cloud options.
Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel at the Professional Services Council, said a single cloud SIN could help GSA re-establish the primacy of Schedule 70 in the face of proliferating sources for cloud services.
“GSA is nervous because a lot of IT is leaking out of Schedule 70,” he said. The single SIN could provide an added level of clarity and confidence for agencies looking for cloud services from an assured provider, and it would offer consistency and transparency while yielding pricing and other data that agencies could use.
Full article by Mark Rockwell, Washington Technology Daily