CHESS Product Lead Talks Category Management at Washington Technology Industry Day

On Feb. 16, 2016, Computer Hardware Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS) Product Lead (PL) Doug Haskin spoke at the Washington Technology Industry Day in McLean, Virginia.

“With many in industry concerned about Category Management's financial impacts to their bottom line, I thought this event would be a great opportunity to highlight a few ways that the Army through CHESS has been able to successfully implement it, in a way that has been beneficial to the government and our vendors," said Mr. Haskin.

Washington Technology’s Industry Day theme was Category Management: A New Way of Doing Business. The events initiative was for the federal government to collaborate with industry. Executives from leading civilian and defense agencies offered insights into how category management is reshaping the federal IT market-and how suppliers can adapt and thrive. During the panel discussion, key members of GSA and Mr. Haskin discussed how government is addressing Category Management for IT hardware and software and provided feedback on challenges and lessons learned.

Mr. Haskin briefed IT industry on CHESS’ continuous efforts to support the Army’s goal for Category Management through the Consolidated Buy periods. Mr. Nick Wakeman, Editor-in-Chief for Washington Tech, concluded the discussion with a brief question and answer forum allowing the panelist to hear from industry.

“Although OMB's formal Category Management policies are only a couple years old, CHESS has been practicing key aspects of it for over a decade through our hardware Consolidated Buy events and our hardware, software, and services IDIQ contracts,” said Mr. Haskin.

Mr. Haskin’s appearance at the Washington Tech Industry Day is another example of CHESS’ ongoing vision to be the Army's center of excellence and provided IT acquisition through continuously competitive contracts that provide economical, value-added, Networthy IT products and superior, performance-based IT services for the Army.