How technology is influencing cooperative purchasing

Governments continue to face challenges to keep their IT systems secure and up to date. GPN reached out to Brian Strosser, Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing at DLT Solutions to learn about some of those challenges. The company is a Herndon, Va.-based government technology provider. The firm offers a portfolio of software and cloud solutions.

GPN: What are some trends affecting cooperative purchasing in government operations?

Brian Strosser: Here are some of the developments we have been seeing:
·        Leveraging the buying power of a “common” group of buyers helps offset economic challenges and financial pressures.
·        Purchasing requirements are becoming more complicated with limited acquisition resources, at times, requiring additional training.
·        With the above challenges, we see the creation of an increasing number of Cooperative Purchasing Agreements. Through buying cooperatives, governments can achieve operational and cost-savings.

GPN: Regarding cooperative purchasing, what do you see on the horizon?

BS: Here are some examples of new technology, legislation, regulations, consortiums, processes or practices that will affect cooperative purchasing in the next few years:
·        Within the Federal Government, agencies’ implementation of OMB’s guidance for the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), will increase the use of cooperative purchasing
·        As Government agencies adopt technologies in different modes, such as cloud computing, more and more cooperative purchasing agreements will contain requirements for this capability
·         In addition, technology offerings like the DLT Software Program Center, a secure web-based tool, help government customers consolidate, centralize and streamline their IT acquisition processes. The system helps deliver visibility into asset management, reporting, trend analysis and metrics used to quantify return on investment (ROI).  The system can also help to prevent or reduce duplicative spending.

GPN: Do governments at all levels face similar problems? What are those problems?

BS: The challenges that DLT encounters on the federal side are equally as pervasive with state and local governments:
•            Shrinking IT budgets are forcing agencies to consolidate, centralize and streamline IT acquisition
•            Component organizations are charged with improving visibility into asset management, reporting and trend analysis
•            Agencies face pressure from CIOs to provide metrics and quantify ROI for cooperative purchasing agreements
•            Limited funding or resources to accomplish the agency’s objectives

DLT offers a guide called “Procuring Cloud Services for the Public Sector.”  Go here to learn more.

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