GSA’s new procurement strategy challenges the reseller ecosystem

Skepticism about OneGov is emerging as the government pushes for more direct relationships with original equipment manufacturers.

The General Services Administration is taking direct aim at valued-added resellers through its OneGov Strategy, which aims for government buyers to engage more directly with original equipment manufacturers.

The Trump administration’s belief is that “direct relationships” will deliver better outcomes.

Many of the reactions we are getting from industry range from the extreme of “this will be the end of resellers,” which we highly doubt, to “Do OEMs even want to sell directly to the government?" That question is a good point.

Several executives at resellers we spoke to said it will be a challenge for GSA to pull this off on a larger scale. We might see more one-off deals like the one GSA has done with Google, but some are skeptical about how broader this initiative could be.

“GSA does ...