Category Management

Category Management is the practice of buying common goods and services as an organized enterprise in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of acquisition activities.

Category Management helps organizations, such as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), buy smarter for common goods and services such as office supplies, travel and lodging, housekeeping services, and more. For DOJ, we look for ways to buy like an enterprise to get more value and savings by identifying core areas (i.e., categories of spend), using available data to consolidate and reduce duplicative contracts, when possible, better managing suppliers and demand, and reducing the total cost of ownership. While we are committed to buying smarter, we are equally as committed to increasing the percentage of dollars going to small businesses and increasing opportunities for disadvantaged small businesses that have been historically underserved in the American economy.  Make sure to check out the Doing Business with the Department of Justice section of DOJ’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization webpage.

The Office of Management and Budget issued the following guidance on Category Management:

• M-19-13: Category Management: Making Smarter Use of Common Contract Solutions and Practices, issued Mar 20, 2019. This memo establishes Category Management as a practice across the entire federal government.

Acquisition Gateway

To learn more about Category Management, please visit the U.S. General Services Administration’s (GSA) Acquisition Gateway portal. Please use the Solution Finder on the Acquisition Gateway to search for DOJ-managed solutions.

Additional Resources

For additional resources, please visit the Vendor Engagement and Vendor Communication Plan sections available on DOJ’s Office of Acquisition Management’s public website.

Contact

Questions regarding our Department-wide Category Management strategies, or current and in-process Department-wide contract vehicles, please email: DOJCategoryManagement@usdoj.gov.