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End of Fiscal Year Spending Made Easy With NITAAC

September 30 marks the end of the federal fiscal year and the beginning of what has become a phenomenon in federal acquisitions known as the end of fiscal year buying season. In a nutshell, at the end of the fiscal year, unspent funds expire, and agencies make plans to spend their allocated dollars to exhaust the “use or lose” funds in their budgets.

In 2021, 28% of all total federal fiscal year spending obligations were spent in the fourth quarter. According to Pulse.com, for the most part, federal agencies use 69% of their discretionary funding before the start of Q4 which leaves an average of 31% of all fiscal year funds available for the Q4 sprint.

During the buying season frenzy, time is of the essence and it is essential that agencies have a way to make awards fast and in an efficient, simple, and easy manner.  Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) like CIO-SP3, CIO-SP3 Small Business and CIO-CS are an excellent way for agencies to obligate any last-minute funds.

Designed for Efficiency and Speed

GWACs were established by the Clinger Cohen Act as a mechanism to streamline the information technology (IT) procurement process. In a nutshell, contracting officers found it was taking a long time to award IT procurement contracts⁠—so long that by the time the award was made, the technology being awarded, was obsolete. GWACs were created as a mechanism to reduce the timeframe to meet an agency’s mission-critical IT needs.

The NITAAC GWACs can be used by any agency to acquire information technology services, solutions, and commodities from pre-qualified vendors at lower than open-market prices in less time than going the traditional full and open route.

For federal agencies looking to award task orders quickly during this year’s buying season, CIO-SP3 and CIO-SP3 Small Business orders can be awarded in as little as 45 days. CIO-CS orders can be awarded in only two days, depending upon the complexity of the procurement.

Everything IT

What’s more, with the NITAAC family of GWACs, agencies are not limited in what they can purchase.  The CIO-SP3 and CIO-SP3 Small Business GWACs offer everything IT with IT services and solutions across ten Task Areas, ranging from biomedical research to software development.  CIO-CS also features everything IT across nine categories, ranging from hardware to managed services. You aren’t limited by categories or catalogs, either, because NITAAC can easily add products and services to the contracts as they emerge, taking advantage of innovations as soon as they are viable.

Direct orders can be made through NITAAC’s secure, online ordering and competition management system known as e-GOS (the Electronic Government Ordering System.) And, you have up until close-of-business on September 30th to make your awards. As you may have heard, the CIO-SP3 GWACs have both been extended through November 1 so you can order through the end of the year. NITAAC is also committed to making sure there is no break in coverage and will extend again if necessary while CIO-SP4 is awarded and onboarded.

Laptops and Desktops, Too

NITAAC Government-Wide Strategic Services (GSS), now in Version 8, offers agencies five standard configurations of laptops, desktops and more than 3,483 EPEAT certified products to choose from. NITAAC GSS is available under the CIO-CS IT Commodities and Solutions Contract, part of the Category Management Initiative of preferred contracts of the White House Office of Management and Budget. As agencies look toward the end of the fiscal year and find themselves purchasing commodities, NITAAC can help. We are committed to providing EPEAT certified laptops, desktops, printers, monitors and servers to meet all our agency partner IT needs. If your needs are more complex, like Cloud-in-a-box, managed services or Everything-as-a-Service (XaaS), the CIO-CS GWAC is for your agency, too. Dozens of commercially available commodities and commodity-enabling solutions can be found on CIO-CS or added in a 24-hour turnaround technology refresh process (TRP). Direct awards are always quick and easy using NITAAC’s e-GOS.

NITAAC is Your Single Source for End of Year Buying Needs

From IT modernization to cyber to software to Health IT, NITAAC is your one-stop source for all your end of year spending needs. And nobody makes getting IT quite as easy as NITAAC.  You can find it and order it (with little or no training) through our easy-to-understand e-GOS. If your agency has “use or lose’ funding, maybe it’s time you lose yourself learning about NITAAC.

For twenty-six years, NITAAC has been a trusted source for federal IT procurement. If you are interested in partnering with us on a requirement, or simply want more information, contact NITAAC Customer Support at 888-773-6542 to speak with an intake specialist or visit our homepage.