GSA closes in on market-share goal

The General Services Administration is closing in on Administrator Dan Tangherlini's goal of getting 17 percent of federal procurement spending by the end of the year.

The agency had a 15 percent share at the end of June, according to Tami Riggs, assistant commissioner at GSA's Customer Accounts and Research. In the next fiscal year, she expects the target will climb. "There is no final number for FY2014, but it's going to be another aggressive target," Riggs said at a July 31 Coalition for Government Procurement event in Tysons Corner, Va.

Since taking the helm at GSA, Tangherlini has pushed for strategic sourcing--lower-priced, centralized buying programs that capitalize on the government's vast pool of potential buyers--to help GSA gain market share and increase efficiencies across agencies. He has said he wants GSA to have 15 percent to 17 percent market share among government customers by the end of fiscal 2013, with an ultimate goal of 90 percent in 10 years.

The market share numbers, Riggs told the gathering of federal contractors, are important because they are a gauge of how well GSA is doing its job. "We're confident we bring value and help achieve savings," she said.

Riggs said the GSA research -- which used other agencies' self-reports -- also showed that its contract vehicles are faster than agencies' self-drawn contracts – an average of 20 percent to 25 percent faster.

GSA's "Interact" web site, which was redesigned in May and offers targeted forums for topics such as One Acquisition Solution for  Integrated Services (OASIS), Office Supply (OS3), Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI) and others, has drawn 55,000 registered members and has "several hundred thousand visiting users," she said.