BUYERS CLUB CONCEPT TO EXPAND GOVERNMENT-WIDE

No, not the Dallas Buyers Club.  The government’s senior acquisition official is directing the top 35 federal agencies to set up non-traditional contracting and acquisition processes for IT and professional services, commonly known as “Buyers Clubs”.  The Buyers Club concept, currently well under way at the Department of Health and Human Services, is intended to spur innovation in IT solutions and attract non-traditional companies to the government IT space.  The HHS model has proven to be so popular in and out of government that Anne Rung, Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, believes all large federal agencies should try it.  This is potentially good news for IT contractors because Buyers Clubs place an emphasis on the technological solution and then worry about how to get what they want.  One typical Buyers Club model is to have the agency ask for a short concept paper on a given issues and then go through a bake-off based on prototypes.  Rung’s directive is consistent with Administration beliefs that properly applied technology can solve a host of government operation and management woes.  This is a potentially exciting development for contractors.