DATE: August 10, 2016
TO: Procurement Directors (PDs)/Heads of Contracting
Activities (HCAs)/Contracting Officers/Contract Specialists
FROM: Chief
Contract and Financial Assistance Policy Division
Office of Policy
Office of Acquisition Management
SUBJECT: OMB Category Management Policy 16-1: Improving the Acquisition and
Management of Common Information Technology: Software Licensing
SUMMARY: On June 2, 2016, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a
policy memorandum which directs agencies to buy and manage common
commodities - commercial and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)
software - in a more coordinated way. Of immediate concern to
contracting professionals is the requirement that agencies not agree
to terms and conditions that prohibit the sharing of all prices,
terms, and conditions for commercial and COTS software licenses
with other Government entities, including posting said information
to the Acquisition Gateway.
The OMB Category Management Policy 16-1 memorandum includes more
details and is found here. DOE’s Office of the Chief Information
Officer and the Office of Acquisition Management will follow up with
implementing instructions.
As a reminder, DOE currently has a number of agreements in place for
use by both our Federal and M&O/FMC Procurement Offices under the
Enterprise Wide Agreements (EWA) program. The EWA Program uses
Department-wide agreements for widely used commercial software that
provides discounts averaging over 50% from retail and 15% from GSA
pricing. The link from the Energy.gov page is here.
Questions concerning this policy flash should be directed to
the Office of Acquisition Management at
doe_oapmpolicy@hq.doe.gov.