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Why is GSA launching the Acquisition Gateway?

The mission of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) is to make it easier, faster and less costly to do government acquisition.

The Acquisition Gateway is an online workplace that will help deliver the benefits of category management and, in the future, make it easier and faster for government buyers to get through every step of the full acquisition process.
A view of all the existing contract vehicles from across government, current market trends and expertise, transactional data, and good practices will help buyers navigate the cluttered acquisition landscape and drive the government to Act as One. This will lead to improved requirements, stronger negotiations, less redundancy, and data-driven purchasing decisions.

What is the Acquisition Gateway?

The Acquisition Gateway is a workplace for the federal acquisition community. Through the Acquisition Gateway, we'll empower the federal government to Act as One-- working smarter, faster, and better.

The Gateway is one common portal that provides online access to the Category Hallways- a single location and online workspace for government procurement professionals with resources like a matrix of existing contracts from across government, data and prices paid information, market trends and analysis, and best practices.

The Gateway will help buyers navigate the cluttered acquisition landscape, leading to improved requirements, stronger negotiations, less redundancy, and data-driven purchasing decisions.

To date, GSA has launched 19 category hallways. They include: Administrative Support, Card Services, Cleaning Supplies & Chemicals, Employee Relocation, Facilities Maintenance Services, Freight, Human Capital, IT Hardware, IT Security, IT Services, IT Software, Motor Vehicles, Professional Services, Security & Protection, Small Package Delivery, Telecommunications, Tools & Hardware, Travel, and Workplace Environment.

Why should I register as a user of the Acquisition Gateway?

GSA is building the Acquisition Gateway to be the hub of an acquisition professional’s daily activities. The tools, expertise and content in the hallways comes from agencies all across government to form an agnostic, bias-free place for contracting professionals to do their work.

The Acquisition Gateway will guide federal procurement professionals through data-driven procurement actions that help agencies comply with regulations, meet socio-economic acquisition goals, and support program teams delivering on the agency mission.

The Gateway will help buyers navigate the cluttered acquisition landscape, leading to improved requirements, stronger negotiations, less redundancy, and data-driven purchasing decisions.
GSA wants government contracting professionals to help us build the Acquisition Gateway. We want this to be their tool filled with their best practices. If you’re an acquisition professional, we need your thoughts and feedback. Tell us what you need to make this tool work great for you, and we will make it happen.

The Acquisition Gateway will eventually evolve into a community of practice for procurement. In order to make this tool the best it can be for everyone, we need the collective wisdom and expertise of government acquisition professionals from across every federal agency.

Is this just another website?

The Acquisition Gateway and the category hallways are more than just another website. They were developed as a resource and a shared service that provides decision support to acquisition professionals by integrating both content and digital services.

A community feature has been added to allow contracting professionals and government buyers to talk to other members of the acquisition community.

The Acquisition Gateway is the first step in building a community of expertise, based on transparency, that shares the collective knowledge everyone needs to conduct smarter acquisitions.

Is this tool for GSA only?

The Acquisition Gateway and the hallways are being developed for use by all acquisition professionals in the federal government.

GSA is leading the development of the platform in collaboration with the OMB Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) and the Category Management Leadership Council (CMLC) which is made up of representatives from agencies across government. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) built a Human Capital hallway and Department of Defense (DoD) built a Small Package Delivery hallway in partnership with GSA, using the Acquisition Gateway platform. However, GSA does not intend to exert ownership or bias related to the content and expertise in the hallways.

The site’s content has been developed in partnership with category experts across the government to ensure we are collecting and providing the expertise and data that contracting professionals need, regardless of the agency in which the expertise resides.

How is GSA working with other agencies?

Because expertise resides across the government, GSA’s partner agency relationships are critical to the success of the Acquisition Gateway and hallways.

Collaboration and sharing of data, contracts and expertise between agencies is the foundation of the Gateway and category hallways.
We're working with the category managers and teams at DoD (Small Package Delivery hallway) and OPM (Human Capital hallway) to identify contract vehicles, data, trends, content and expertise in those categories.

Category managers and content experts from across government are curating the resources and tools available through the hallways, constantly updating the information to ensure it’s both relevant and valuable to the acquisition workforce.

Why is GSA developing this tool?

Federal procurement is complicated and challenging. GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service is the only civilian agency in the federal government whose mission is acquisition and we want to work with all of our stakeholders to make it easier.

We know what contracting professionals need to do their job and to make tough decisions and we have insight into the needs and priorities of the federal buyer.

We're building tools, resources, and communities that truly help acquisition professionals achieve better outcomes for the American people.

What is Category Management?

Category Management groups similar goods and services as business units, or categories, in order to manage spending and leverage the government’s buying power.

Category Management is all about leveraging data, best practices, subject matter expertise and existing contract vehicles, leading to smarter decisions, better purchasing options, and lower costs.

How do the Acquisition Gateway and Category Management work together?

Category Management is a fundamental transformation of the way the GSA and the government buys goods and services.

The Acquisition Gateway will help us transform our buying behaviors by pulling all of the purchasing data, buying activity, best practices and contracts available into one place.

The Acquisition Gateway will assist acquisition professionals by providing all of the curated category expertise and data that is available governmentwide in one single tool.

How can members of the workforce make this tool work better for them?

The Acquisition Gateway provides a single workspace where contracting professionals become informed, connect with colleagues and experts, and then complete acquisition.

We’ve taken the first step with the launch of the 19 category hallways, which include Administrative Support, Card Services, Cleaning Supplies & Chemicals, Employee Relocation, Facilities Maintenance Services, Freight, Human Capital, IT Hardware, IT Security, IT Services, IT Software, Motor Vehicles, Professional Services, Security & Protection, Small Package Delivery, Telecommunications, Tools & Hardware, Travel, and Workplace Environment. Now, the Acquisition Gateway Team needs the wisdom of the crowd, and the expertise hidden across the acquisition community, to make the Gateway and the hallways the best they can be.

We want contracting professionals to explore, comment, critique, and share their ideas and tools. This is just the beginning, and working together we can build a site that fits the needs of contracting professionals and that helps the government act as one. We would like them to join us and contribute their knowledge and expertise to make the hallways better.

When will the Acquisition Gateway and the hallways be completed?

What users see in the Acquisition Gateway today is only the beginning. GSA is moving forward on building more functionality into the Gateway.

The Acquisition Gateway and the hallways are being built through an agile and iterative process. What users see in the Gateway today is the foundation from which we have started, what they will see next week or six months from now will be different, perhaps easier to navigate and more robust.

How this tool evolves will depend on what the federal workforce tells GSA what we need to do to make it a better tool to support them and their work.

ACQUISITION GATEWAY

Act as One for smarter acquisition

ACQUISITION GATEWAY

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ACQUISITION GATEWAY

Act as One for smarter acquisition

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Contribute & Share