How to Deal

The Energy Department is flexing its purchasing muscle in a deal with one of the country's biggest software makers.

The department worked with the Center for Internet Security, a business and government consortium chaired by former Office of Management and Budget official Franklin Reeder, to create a set of security specifications for Oracle Corp. products. Then Energy required Oracle to meet those standards as part of a new contract.

Energy will deliver Oracle software electronically to its sites from a central location, so that all users get the latest-and presumably most secure-version at the same time. OMB has been hounding agencies to use their massive buying power to force companies to make safer products. Oracle counts the federal government as its single largest customer.