OMB officials invent plan to streamline government software purchases

In an effort to help save taxpayers money, two Office of Management and Budget officials are making plans to consolidate and streamline the way the government buys software, according to FCW.

The plan focuses on acquisition consolidation and builds on new FITARA requirements and is open to public comments through Jan. 20, 2016.

The plan will have agencies centrally manage software buys to reduce underutilization and maximize the use of best-in-class solutions, FCW reported. It would also establish a multi-agency team to develop new enterprisewise software agreements as well as direct agency CIOs to appoint a software manager who reports to the CIO.

Agencies will also be required to keep annual inventories of software licenses and subscription spending.

To prepare for this, agencies would submit their own software management plan to OMB by May 31, 2016, as well as an inventory of software licenses and cloud agreements in August 2016, FCW reported.

Agencies will also be using their Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation tools to track software inventory and use by the end of September.