GSA will develop new strategy for Advantage site

By Vanessa Jo Roberts

Connecting state and local government leaders

| March 25, 2003

At the behest of the General Accounting Office, the General Services Administration will make the business case for its online schedule buying system. <br>

Although the most growth in General Services Administration schedule sales has been in IT services, the agency's online GSA Advantage buying system fails to provide the type of information agencies need to weigh offerings against one another, the General Accounting Office has reported.

'An inherent limitation in using Advantage is that the system was not designed for making complex purchases, such as procurements of IT services,' said GAO's new report, Electronic Procurement: Business Strategy Needed for GSA's Advantage System.

The site, at www.gsaadvantage.gov, provides brief basic information such as general descriptions of labor categories, GAO auditors found. 'This information alone is not sufficient to enable agencies using GSA's schedules to select the best-value provider of IT services,' the report said.

GAO suggested that GSA develop a business strategy so the agency can revisit its objectives for online purchasing, conduct a cost-benefits analysis and determine changes for making the site a smart tool for market research and procurement.

'GSA has spent about $84 million on Advantage [over seven years], but it has not developed a comprehensive business strategy that would justify that level of investment,' the report said.

GSA's Federal Supply Service will do as GAO recommended, including the work as part of the agency's development of an enterprise architecture, GSA administrator Stephen A. Perry said.

In a letter to GAO, Perry said, 'GSA recognizes that it is time to perform a rigorous analysis that will document the business case for our future decisions, and in fact, we are in the process of developing a strategic business plan for GSA Advantage as part of that effort.'

Click here to link to a PDF of the report

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