14 FAM 250
CATEGORY MANAGEMENT
(CT:L0G-387; 01-18-2024)
(Office of Origin: A/OPE)
14 fam 251 Policy and Objectives For Category management
(CT:L0G-273; 08-09-2019)
The purpose of this policy is to:
(1) Provide guidance to ensure the successful implementation of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requirements concerning Category Management; and
(2) Ensure the consistent implementation of the Department’s Category Management policy and procedures to guarantee that Category Management initiatives are well coordinated across the Department.
14 FAM 251.1 Goals and Objectives
(CT:L0G-387; 01-18-2024)
a. Subchapter Purpose: Establish the policy vision, structure, and approach for the Department of State's Category Management program.
b. Program Purpose: Leverage analytics and category expertise to identify and implement strategic improvement opportunities across the Department’s procurement portfolio, in partnership with program offices.
c. The objectives of a successful and impactful Category Management program are:
(1) Enhance mission performance through improved demand management, reduced contracting complexity, and increased insight into procurement data;
(2) Increase procurement efficiency by optimizing existing contract vehicles (including replacement or elimination of duplicate or underperforming contracts);
(3) Improve data collection efforts and analysis to drive improvements in categories of spend to increase savings, improve outcomes, and reduce duplication;
(4) Achieve socio-economic goals through improved contracting management;
(5) Leverage industry/commercial intelligence and key partner relationships through improved supplier relationship management;
(6) Develop targets and demonstrate progress against OMB key performance indicators (KPI's) of increasing spend under management (SUM), increasing use of BIC solutions, increasing cost savings, increasing small business utilization, and increasing CM training events.
(7) Improve acquisition coordination and integration with the top contract users and organizations with the largest category spend across the Department of State.
14 FAM 251.2 Scope and Applicability
(CT:L0G-226; 07-12-2017)
This policy is applicable to all Department posts, bureaus, offices, and other elements that contract for supplies or services worldwide.
14 FAM 251.3 Authorities and Background
(CT:L0G-387; 01-18-2024)
a. OMB memorandum “Transforming the Marketplace: Simplifying Federal Procurement to Improve Performance, Drive Innovation, and Increase Savings.” This memorandum introduces the concept of Category Management and formed the Strategic Sourcing Leadership Council (SSLC).
b. OMB memorandum M-15-14: “Management and Oversight of Federal Information Technology.” The memorandum provided implementation guidance for the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA Public Law 113-291) and related information technology (IT) management practices.
c. OMB memorandum M-16-02: “Category Management Policy 15-1: Improving the Acquisition and Management of Common Information Technology: Laptops and Desktops.”
d. OMB memorandum M-16-12: “Category Management Policy 16-1: Improving the Acquisition and Management of Common Information Technology: Software Licensing”. The memorandum established the Enterprise Software Category Team (ESCT)which guides the development of Government-wide software license agreements for mandatory agency use.
e. OMB memorandum M-16-20: “Category Management Policy 16-3: Improving the Acquisition and Management of Common Information Technology: Mobile Devices and Services.”
f. Public Law 114-210: "Making Electronic Government Accountable by Yielding Tangible Efficiencies Act of 2016", also called the “MEGABYTE Act of 2016”. The law required the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue a directive to require the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of each executive agency to develop a comprehensive software licensing policy.
g. OMB Memorandum M-19-13: “Category Management: Making Smarter Use of Common Contract Solutions and Practices.” This Memorandum provides five key Category Management actions that Agencies shall undertake to better achieve mission goals to leverage common contract solutions and practices:
(1) Annually establish plans to reduce unaligned spend and increase the use of BIC solutions for common goods and services, consistent with small business and other statutory socio-economic responsibilities;
(2) Develop effective vendor management strategies to improve communications with contractors, especially those that support mission-critical functions;
(3) Implement demand management strategies to eliminate inefficient purchasing and consumption behaviors;
(4) Share data across the Federal Government to differentiate quality and value of products and services in making buying decisions; and
(5) Train and develop the workforce in category management principles and practices.
h. OMB memorandum M-22-03: “Advancing Equity in Federal Procurement”. This memo aims to increase federal spend to small and disadvantaged businesses as well as to additional socioeconomic small businesses. As it regards Category Management, the memorandum instructed agencies to review and adjust Category Management stewardship practices to boost contracting opportunities for SDBs and other socioeconomic small businesses.
i. OMB memorandum M-23-11: “Creating a More Diverse and Resilient Federal Marketplace through Increased Participation of New and Recent Entrants”. This memo builds on M-22-03 and establishes common definitions of “new entrant” and “recent entrant” for Federal acquisition, so agencies can baseline, track, and benchmark their progress in bringing entities into the Federal marketplace and how well they retain new entrants. The memo also provides guidance to agencies for using two tools: a supplier base dashboard to evaluate progress in achieving diversity and resilience in each agency’s supplier base, as well as a procurement equity tool to help agencies identify entities that may be interested in participating in agency procurement competitions.
14 FAM 252 RESPONSIBILITIES
14 FAM 252.1 Senior Accountable Official (SAO) for Category Management
(CT:L0G-387; 01-18-2024)
a. The Department's Senior Accountable Official (SAO) has the authority to coordinate the Department's internal Category Management activities and the participation in government-wide activities, including the interagency Category Management Leadership Council.
b. The Assistant Secretary for Administration is the Department’s SAO.
c. The Department's SAO appoints members to the Department's Category Management Council and assigns Category Managers.
d. The SAO designates Category Managers to oversee each of the 10 Common Government-Wide Spend Categories, as defined by OMB. These Categories include Facilities & Construction, Professional Services, Information Technology (IT), Medical, Transportation & Logistics, Industrial Products & Services, Travel, Security and Protection, Human Capital, and Office Management. More information on the roles and responsibilities of these Category Managers can be found in 14 FAM 252.3.
14 FAM 252.2 Category Management Council
(CT:L0G-387; 01-18-2024)
a. The Category Management Council is established and is the organization with ultimate responsibility and decision authority for the Department of State Category Management program:
(1) The Council must select Category Management initiatives, based on program recommendations that benefit from the pursuit of a Category Management solution; and
(2) The Council approves goals and monitors metrics to track progress, performance, and accountability for all Category Management initiatives.
b. The Category Management Council is chaired by the Senior Procurement Executive in the Bureau of Administration, Office of the Procurement Executive (A/OPE).
c. The Category Management Council consists of members appointed by the SAO. Council membership consists of representation from:
(1) Management/Office of Strategy and Solutions (M/SS);
(2) Chief Acquisition Officer (CAO);
(3) Chief Financial Officer;
(4) Budget and Planning (BP);
(5) Comptroller and Global Financial Services (CGFS);
(6) Chief Information Officer;
(7) Information Resource Management (IRM);
(8) Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Unit (OSDBU);
(9) Bureau of Administration, Office of Logistics Management (A/LM);
(10) Functional and regional bureaus that represent the most contract spend will be invited to join the Council; and
(11) Advisor to the Council: Category Management Director in the Bureau of Administration, Office of the Procurement Executive, Office of Acquisition Management (A/OPE/AQM).
d. The Category Management Council provides overall governance for the Category Management program.
e. The Council reviews spend analysis conducted by the Category Management Director and identifies appropriate Category Management initiatives that benefit the Department.
f. Implementation Teams are established and execute the identified initiatives and report progress to the Council.
g. The Category Management Council annually selects candidates to guide Category Management initiatives.
h. The Category Management Council:
(1) Reviews and recommends initiatives for Department-wide Category Management;
(2) Approves the establishment of Implementation teams;
(3) Approves agency-wide roll-out of Implementation initiatives;
(4) Monitors overall program progress; and
(5) Reviews the Department’s performance against overall Government-wide CM metrics.
i. Key bureau-level executives support the council by championing Category Management activities within their respective bureaus.
14 FAM 252.3 Category Managers
(CT:L0G-387; 01-18-2024)
a. Department of State Category Management follows a portfolio model organized around each of the ten OMB-defined “common spend” Categories. Each Category is to have a Category Manager which is a senior-level functional domain owner assigned authority and responsibility for the strategic cost management of all Department of State spend aligned with their assigned category.
b. Each Category Manager will:
(1) Be assigned authority and responsibility for strategic cost management of all spending within the assigned Category;
(2) Set overarching performance capabilities goals/metrics, ensure alignment with DOS-wide priorities and document specific goals/metrics;
(3) Set/monitor Category execution priorities and ensure timely execution of strategies and solutions that improve mission performance and reduce costs;
(4) Develop Category Strategic Execution Plans, inform Category Management Council on contents on an annual basis;
(5) Inform the Category Management Council on Category progress and performance using established Category Management and functional performance capability metrics;
(6) Approve/issue and ensure compliance with mandatory use memorandums for all approved and fielded Category strategies/solutions.
14 FAM 252.4 Category Management Director
(CT:L0G-387; 01-18-2024)
a. The Category Management Director, located in the Bureau of Administration, Office of the Procurement Executive, Center for Acquisition Experience (A/OPE/CAE), has primary responsibility for recommending, implementing and overseeing guidance associated with Category Management, in coordination with program, procurement, budget and planning offices and Category Managers. The Category Management Director provides supplemental guidance in the implementation of Category Management initiatives.
c. The Category Management Director serves as the designated Category Management Data Analyst.
14 FAM 252.5 Category Management Functional Support Teams
(CT:L0G-387; 01-18-2024)
The Council creates functional support teams to assist the Director, Council, and Implementation teams. The functional support teams provide expertise with data analysis, contracting, budgeting, and planning activities in support of Category Management activities.
14 FAM 252.6 Category Management Implementation Teams
(CT:L0G-387; 01-18-2024)
a. The Category Management Council creates Implementation teams as needed to implement Category Management initiatives within identified areas of opportunity.
b. The Council approves Implementation team leads and members selected for each major initiative, with these positions ideally populated from the bureaus and programs with the greatest spend or mission impact.
c. These teams conduct Department outreach, develop detailed profiles, create and obtain approval for acquisition strategies, develop implementation plans, and define metrics for tracking progress and success of initiatives.
d. Implementation teams are responsible for implementing each approved initiative.
14 FAM 253 CATEGORY MANAGEMENT GOVERNANCE
(CT:L0G-387; 01-18-2024)
a. Governance for the Department of State Category Management program is structured to ensure that key internal and external stakeholders from appropriate levels of the organization are involved in relevant stages of analysis, decision-making, and implementation.
b. The key tiers of internal and external involvement are:
(1) Internal Decision Makers – Category Management Council;
(2) Internal Program Advisors – Category Management Council;
(3) External Category Management Authority – Office of Management and Budget; and
(4) External Market Stakeholders – Suppliers.
14 FAM 254 THROUGH 259 UNASSIGNED