Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) Greg Barbaccia is tasking all Federal agency CIOs with compiling by April 2 a list of their existing software licenses with nine of the largest government software providers, and delivering by April 30 a comprehensive list of all of their software licenses and contracts.
In a March 24 email viewed by MeriTalk, Barbaccia told agency CIOs that the inventories will help in the Trump administration’s larger push to “stop wasteful spending” while still accomplishing the government’s mission for taxpayers.
“Federal agencies are currently neglecting cost savings, making duplicative purchases, and failing to take advantage of economies of scale for software purchases,” Barbaccia said, adding that the software inventories will be the “first step to resolving this issue.”
Due back to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the General Services Administration (GSA) by April 2 are the inventories of agency software licenses with Microsoft, Adobe, Salesforce, Oracle, and ServiceNow, plus licenses with security logging and monitoring providers Datadog, Elastic SAAS, Splunk, and Sumo Logic.
Due by April 30 are spreadsheets identifying agencies’ “full inventory of all software licenses and associated contracts,” Barbaccia said.
“We have the opportunity under this administration to reduce Federal spending on IT by working smarter across the enterprise,” the Federal CIO said. “I want us to transform how we approach software licensing in the Federal government so we stop wasteful spending and still accomplish our mission for the taxpayer.”
Barbaccia said his instructions are being issued in concert with Stephen Ehikian, acting administrator at GSA, and Kevin Rhodes, who is special assistant at OMB’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy.
“IT and acquisition offices will likely need to work together to provide the software data, the actual utilization, and the contractual details,” Barbaccia said. He added that “software license data collected must include bureau and program management office level information to ensure a complete inventory of licenses.”
The Federal CIO noted that GSA has piloted a process to collect the necessary data and is available to help agency CIOs in compiling their software inventories.
The broader aims of the Federal CIO’s efforts to save money by tightening up on how the government buys software fall in line with the aims of the Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets (SAMOSA) Act that was reintroduced today in Congress by a bipartisan group of House members.
The bill – with sponsors including Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C. – would require Federal agencies to create a comprehensive software inventory and undergo an independent assessment of software license management practices and contracts.
Agency CIOs would then be required to develop a plan to adopt enterprise licensing agreements, with the goal of improving negotiating power with software vendors and reducing costs.
The legislation passed the House late last year but stalled in the Senate.
A knowledgeable source with extensive government tech experience told MeriTalk today that Barbaccia’s software inventory instructions to Federal CIOs – and in particular those related to some of the largest vendors – should not necessarily be viewed in a negative light for any of those companies. Rather, the source opined that the Federal CIO’s instructions marked a good start to a necessary process, along with imparting urgency to the effort.
