It’s been a great year for GSA’s Office of Professional Services and Human Capital Categories (PSHC). In no particular order, here are highlights of our team’s work:

The Category Management (CM) Program Management Office, part of a government-wide initiative sponsored by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has announced that GSA’s Identity Protection Service Blanket Purchase Agreement (IPS BPA) has earned a "Best-in-Class" (BIC) designation.

Both GSA SmartPay 2 and the upcoming GSA SmartPay 3 government-wide charge card and related payment services contracts have been named "Best-in-Class" (BIC).

In May 2016, the federal Category Management Leadership Council (CMLC), a governing body that sets the direction of the government's category management initiative, reviewed and approved the FY 2016 governmentwide Professional Services Category Strategic Plan.

With the federal acquisition community’s shift to category management, an approach to buying smarter and more like a single enterprise, the question occasionally arises how did Category Management Leadership Council (CMLC) map out the government-wide category structure, and how does this align with or compare to the Department of Defense’s Taxonomy for Acquisition of Services and Supplies & Equipment.

The phrase “Category Management” is popping up all over, but what does it really mean when it comes to business?