Credit: Dreamstime
IT hardware suppliers have a fresh chance to join the federal government’s Hardware Marketplace, while existing suppliers are being given the opportunity to get into categories to which they have not yet been admitted.
The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has issued an approach to market (ATM) to provide potential new suppliers the opportunity to apply for admission to its Hardware Marketplace, while giving existing suppliers the opportunity to apply for admission to categories they are not already in.
The DTA, which is tasked with much of the government’s IT procurement remit, first flagged the creation of the Hardware Marketplace in late 2017, issuing an ATM to establish the new procurement arrangement in June 2018.
The Hardware Marketplace was intended to replace a number of expired IT procurement panels, including the government's expiring ICT hardware panel and the mobile panel, among others.
It is aimed at allowing government entities to buy IT hardware to support internal business processes. It includes hardware categories such as storage, network equipment, data cabling and technical services, and is available for all federal, state and local governments to use.
At the time of the initial ATM to establish the Marketplace, the DTA said it intended to regularly re-open each category to allow existing sellers to apply for admission to additional categories and to allow submissions of new applications in order to become a seller.
In September last year, the DTA unveiled 36 suppliers for the first category of the Marketplace procurement panel, enterprise storage, with admittees including original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), resellers and services integrators,
Now, the DTA has thrown the door open for suppliers not yet selling on the marketplace and for those wanting to broaden their offering into other hardware areas.
However, new suppliers will likely have some competition, with the likes of Data#3, Dimension Data, OPC IT and Thomas Duryea Logicalis already holding court on the marketplace.
Regardless, Anthony Vlasic, chief strategy officer at the DTA, has previously suggested that, as new categories are added, the Marketplace will be the place to go for suppliers wanting to sell to government.
“New sellers can join regularly, and its flexibility means government can keep up with new technologies as they develop. As we add more categories, the Marketplace will become a go-to platform for both government buyers and businesses selling hardware to government,” Vlasic said in September last year.
It should be noted that this latest refresh of the Marketplace is limited to enterprise storage, network equipment and data cabling.
Suppliers have until 18 November to apply for admission.
