GSA unveils prices-paid tool for Alliant

The General Services Administration is banking on a new tool to sharpen federal IT buyers' shopping skills when they're using the agency's $50 billion Alliant governmentwide acquisition contract.

GSA released the "prices paid" tool on Jan. 26 for Alliant and Alliant Small Business, the agency's customizable enterprise IT contracting vehicle for agencies' long-term planning of large-scale program requirements.

Developed by GSA's Center for GWAC Programs, the tool is based on pricing and task-order information gleaned from agencies' past spending and provides a variety of research and analysis capabilities for agency CIOs, chief financial officers and chief acquisition officers.

Mary Davie, assistant commissioner of the Office of Integrated Technology Services in GSA's Federal Acquisition Service, wrote in a blog post that the tool taps into the data from almost 1,000 task orders issued by IT procurement officials using Alliant.

"The information derived from this usage will help the CIO, CFO and CAO community as well as support contracting officers and the 1,218 Delegation of Procurement Authority holders," Davie wrote.

The tool includes dashboards and reports that can help agencies conduct market research, develop better cost estimates, analyze price data and see total IT dollars spent under Alliant.

"This tool provides users with a breakdown of pricing data by federal agency, company, contract family, labor categories and contract type," Davie said.

GSA officials have said that sharing such detailed data across government is essential to reducing costs and increasing efficiencies.

"The prices-paid data is a tool and one data point that buyers can use along with gathering additional context on a negotiated requirement and associated terms and conditions to fully understand how prices were reached," Davie wrote. "This data point can be invaluable in assisting contracting professionals to develop acquisition strategies and evaluating acquisition options."