The "seat management" wave moving through the federal computer market gained momentum last week as the General Services Administration awarded contracts potentially worth $9 billion to eight companies.
Under the contracts, agencies can lease their office computers from the companies, who will also provide software, maintenance, upgrades and network support. In essence, agencies can completely outsource their desktop computing.
GSA's awards come on the heels of NASA's multi-billion dollar Outsourcing Desktop Initiative for NASA (ODIN) contract awards last month, through which NASA centers will purchase seat management services. Other agencies can also buy into NASA's contracts. The National Institutes of Health's Electronic Computer Store II contract also offers agencies seat management services.
The eight companies awarded GSA's contracts are EER Systems, FedData, IBM, Litton PRC, Science Applications International Corp., TechServ (a DynCorp subsidiary), Wang Government Services and MultiMax. The latter firm is classified as a small disadvantaged business under the government's 8(a) contracting program.
Under the contracts, an agency must go through GSA to issue a task order to one of the eight companies. Because GSA has already qualified the contractors and competed the work, agencies can purchase seat management services more quickly than if they issued solicitations themselves.
Under seat management, contractors are paid to make sure federal employees' computers keep working, GSA says.
"The government is used to buying labor hours. It's not used to buying services," Wanda Smith, head of GSA's seat management office, said recently. When agencies buy computers from one source and maintenance services from another, "the contractor does not have a vested interest in the total solution," Smith said.
Advantages of the seat management approach include lower capital ownership costs and the ability to upgrade systems quickly, GSA argues.
"The government will definitely see a reduction in costs," Smith said. But agencies will need a fairly large base--at least 200 desktops--to realize cost savings, she said.
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