The General Services Administration (GSA) announced a revamp of how agencies can acquire mobility solutions through IT Schedule 70 with a single Special Item Number (SIN) replacing expiring blanket purchase agreements (BPAs) under the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative.
The enhanced SIN 132-53 will cover a wide variety of mobility needs, including wireless carrier services, the Internet of Things, enterprise mobility management, mobile threat protection, and mobile identity management among other services.
The announcement previewed a larger Federal mobile strategy still to come.
“A key component of the federal mobile strategy is to provide our agency customers with an integrated acquisition approach that simplifies the purchase of mobility solutions and better addresses ever-changing and expanding mobility requirements,” said Alan Thomas, commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service.
“Through the mobile services category team, GSA has been collaborating with a cross-government group of agency mobility experts led by the Office of Management and Budget, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to develop a mobile strategy for the federal government,” GSA noted in the release.
For industry partners, the move from the BPAs to an IT Schedule 70 SIN is intended to encourage competition.
“By using IT Schedule 70, we have the great benefit of an open season for onboarding service providers. This allows for greater choice and flexibility for agencies,” said Bill Zielinski, acting assistant commissioner of GSA’s Office of Information Technology Category.
The full list of service categories under the enhanced SIN includes:
- Wireless Carrier Services;
- Other Mobility End-Point Infrastructure – Mobility infrastructure;
- Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS);
- Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM);
- Mobile Backend-as-a-Service (MBaaS);
- Telecom Expense Management (TEM);
- Mobile Application Vetting;
- Mobile Threat Protection (MTP);
- Mobile Identity Management;
- Internet of Things (IoT); and
- Other/Mobile Services.